As gender-related policies in schools draw debate, some are calling for “safe zones” to be established around schools to allow students to remain focused on education.
Safe zones — also known as bubble zones — effectively create a perimeter around institutions by either limiting or prohibiting certain activities, like protests, in a defined area.
It comes after hundreds of protesters and counter-protesters swarmed the streets outside of three schools in Ottawa last month, rallying on opposite sides over how gender identity is taught. At least one school went under a lockdown for the day.
In response, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) trustee Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth has suggested that one way to combat such disruptions could be to criminalize protests that violate Ontario’s human rights code near schools.
“There should be a law against [protesting outside schools] because we protect students, staff and all members of the community from any form of hatred,” she said.
“There were people who were going to do a bigoted protest at the human rights monument in Ottawa and it was cancelled. Why? Because they couldn’t get a permit from the city.”
OCDSB trustee Nili Kaplan-Myrth is advocating for the establishment of safe zones around schools to criminalize protests that violate the Human Rights Code. It’s a response to the increasing number of gender protests near schools, including one in Ottawa on June 9. (Art Kaplan-Myrth)
For Kaplan-Myrth, legislation aimed at safety could prompt more efficient enforcement around schools.
Students peeking through school windows in Ottawa during the duelling protests on June 9 said they were witness to the violence and five police arrests. Counter-protestors have said some of the demonstrators hurled transphobic slogans, and images from the protests show some stomping on Pride flags.
One 16-year-old non-binary student from a nearby high school, who asked not to be named out of fear of being targeted, said they’re worried anti-LGBTQ protests have become the norm in Canada.
“I was scared, but it was not something new because, especially at my school, things like that happen almost every day.”
Children step on Pride flags during a protest in Ottawa on June 9. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
The student said the sight of anti-LGBTQ billboards and messages in front of a school has an impact on their education.
“In situations like that, I often find myself just going home and staying home, because I don’t feel comfortable being at school or being out of the house,” they said.
Across Canada, demonstrations and events seen as anti-LGBTQ are finding new ground, experts say.
Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, says demonstrations near schools have grown exponentially in the last five years.
“Adults were not holding demonstrations in front of schools where there are children and teenagers as often. So that’s a change and it’s not a good one,” he said.
Figures from Statistics Canada also show an uptick in reported hate crimes targeting people for their sexual orientation, from 176 police-reported incidents in 2016, to 423 in 2021.
However, these statistics are almost certainly underestimated due to instances of underreporting, says the LGBTQ advocacy group, Egale. It says there were over 6,400 instances of online hate and anti-LGBTQ protests between January and March of 2023.
Policy discussed during COVID-19
There is no real precedent in Canada for safe zones near schools, but recent legislation suggests it could potentially be done.
In September 2021, thousands joined in anti-vaccine protests outside hospitals and schools in B.C., prompting representatives of health-care workers and school principals to ask for protest-exclusion zones around key institutions.
Later, federal and provincial leaders condemned the protests, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to make it a criminal offence to block access to buildings that provide health care.
Federal Bill C-3, amended in 2021, now safeguards hospitals and clinics against harassment of health-care professionals. The law applies to protesters at any health-care facility, including those that provide abortion. It also applies to any health-care professional in any location where they are harassed, including their homes or online.
Cheshmak Farhoumand-Sims, a parent of four school-aged children in Ottawa, sees bubble zones as a way to safeguard all schools against potentially hateful and disruptive protests.
“Today, they’re going to be at that school. Tomorrow, they’ll be at another school. Three weeks later, it might be at my kids’ school,” she said.
Farhoumand-Sims says protesters use the rhetoric that it is their right to protest as a form of free speech and expression. But she argues her children have a right to education.
“My children have the right to have an ability to go at recess and not be under shelter in place. So whose rights here are more important than the others?”
Why some see ‘safe zones’ as not ideal
Some community groups are concerned such safe zones will only increase police presence near schools. Instead, they want authorities to listen to local LGBTQ groups and organize counter-protests as better options to warrant safer environments.
After the Ottawa protests, a community group of activists, organizers and local labour unions issued a statement talking about their experience on June 9. To them, more laws and enforcement is worrying.
“We remember the feeling of being tackled and crushed to the ground by officers with hands on their guns, of being bruised and bloodied and denied our rights. We already have laws in place that are supposed to protect us from the violent attacks we endured, but these were not used to protect us,” the statement reads.
A protester argues with members of the Ottawa Police Service during a demonstration in Ottawa on June 9. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)
Emily Quaile, a parent of a student at one of the schools targeted in Ottawa who helped organize the counter-protests, says it was the counter-protesters who kept the original group from reaching the school grounds. But, Quaile said, four of the five arrests were actually from their group.
“We kept them from schools using human blockade and peaceful manoeuvres. So that’s a huge win,” she said. “What we were fighting against wasn’t just those fascists, we were also fighting the police.”
Quaile says she believes existing laws should have been enough to stop the Ottawa protests. “The Human Rights Code is a charter of rights that has a thing about hate speech — and that’s rarely enforced,” she said.
Balgord shares similar concerns.
“If a city or a province is going to enact laws like this, they need to be so careful with the wording, so the law enforcement cannot misinterpret the law and use it against the very people that it is supposed to protect,” he said.
Instead of funding the police, another option could be more funding for queer and trans organizations to help them take on the work on ground, said Gary Kinsman, a sociology professor and the author of The Regulation of Desire and co-author of The Canadian War on Queers.
“[The government] could give lots of money for popular education about the forms of oppression young trans people are facing or why trans people or drag performers are fully within their rights to be present within the high schools,” he said.
A small town divided over the Pride flag
As Pride celebrations take place across the country, the town of Norwich in southwestern Ontario has become a battleground over flying the Pride flag on municipal buildings.
As for the 16-year-old non-binary student, they believe the idea of safe zones will help curtail potentially transphobic protests, but are also concerned it could also be used as a blanket sledgehammer to curb dissent on “legitimate” protests, like asking for higher wages for teachers.
Ultimately, though, they said, the recent protests can make students from marginalized groups feel like they don’t belong in schools.
“No one should ever have to be scared when they wake up and go to school, because school should be somewhere where you learn, not where you fight.”
In a memo at the beginning of Pride month, Ontario’s Ministry of Education said it is incumbent on all school boards to ensure all students – especially LGBTQ students – feel supported, reflected in their schools and welcomed within communities.
In an email, OCDSB’s media relations team directed CBC News to two news releases that said schools should not be the target of political protests and extended thanks to parents and police for their support through the recent demonstrations.
“It’s clear there is more work to be done to promote human rights and to share information about the way these issues are managed in schools. We remain committed to working with the community and to engaging in dialogue on these issues,” it read.
GENEVA (AP) — Two former Olympic champions are in the race to be the next IOC president. So is a prince of a Middle East kingdom and the son of a former president. The global leaders of cycling, gymnastics and skiing also are in play.
The International Olympic Committee published a list Monday of seven would-be candidates who are set to run for election in March to succeed outgoing president Thomas Bach for the next eight years.
Just one woman, IOC executive board member Kirsty Coventry from Zimbabwe, entered the contest to lead an organization that has had only male presidents in its 130-year history. Eight of those presidents were from Europe and one from the United States.
Coventry and Sebastian Coe are two-time gold medalists in swimming and running, respectively. Prince Feisal al Hussein of Jordan is also on the IOC board.
Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. of Spain is one of the four IOC vice presidents, whose father was president for 21 years until 2001.
David Lappartient is the president of cycling’s governing body, Morinari Watanabe leads gymnastics, and Johan Eliasch is president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation. Coe is the president of track’s World Athletics.
All seven met a deadline of Sunday to send a letter of intent to Bach, who must leave the post next year after reaching the maximum 12 years in office. Bach declined at the Paris Olympics last month to seek to change IOC rules in order to stay in office longer.
A formal candidate list should be confirmed in January, three months before the March 18-21 election meeting in Greece, near the site of Ancient Olympia.
Only IOC members are eligible to stand as candidates, with votes cast by the rest of the 111-strong membership of the Olympic body.
The IOC is one of the most exclusive clubs in world sports. Its members are drawn from European and Middle East royalty, leaders of international sports bodies, former and current Olympic athletes, politicians and diplomats plus industrialists, including some billionaires like Eliasch.
It makes for one of the most discreet and quirky election campaigns in world sports, with members prevented from publicly endorsing their pick.
Campaign limits on the candidates include a block on publishing videos, organizing public meetings and taking part in public debates. The IOC will organize a closed-door meeting for candidates to address voters in January in its home city Lausanne, Switzerland.
The IOC top job ideally calls for deep knowledge of managing sports, understanding athletes’ needs and nimble skills in global politics.
The president oversees an organization that earns billions of dollars in revenue from broadcasting and sponsor deals for the Olympic Games and employs hundreds of staff in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Coe has been widely considered the most qualified candidate. A two-time Olympic champion in the 1,500-meters, he was later an elected lawmaker in Britain in the 1990s, led the 2012 London Olympics organizing committee and has presided at World Athletics for nine years.
However, he has potential legal hurdles regarding his ability to serve a full eight-year mandate. The IOC has an age limit of 70 for members, while Coe will be 68 on election day. The rules allow for a special exemption to remain for four more years, but that would mean a six-year presidency unless those limits are changed.
Coventry, who turned 41 Monday, also has government experience as the appointed sports minister in Zimbabwe.
The only woman ever to stand as an IOC presidential candidate was Anita DeFrantz, a former Olympic rower from the United States. She was eliminated in the first round of voting in a five-candidate election in 2001, which was won by Jacques Rogge.
Lappartient also is president of France’s national Olympic body and has carried strong momentum from the Paris Summer Games. He leads a French Alps project that was picked to host the 2030 Winter Games and was picked by Bach to oversee a long-term project sealed in Paris that will see Saudi Arabia hosting the Esports Olympic Games through 2035.
Eliasch is perhaps the most surprising candidate after being elected as an IOC member in Paris less than two months ago. The Swedish-British owner of the Head sportswear brand got 17 “no” votes, a notably high number in Olympic politics.
TORONTO – Ontario is proposing to further expand pharmacists’ scope of practice by adding to the list of minor ailments they can assess, allowing them to administer more vaccines and order some lab tests.
But while pharmacists see the proposal as an overdue solution to easing the burden on other aspects of the health-care system by leaning more on their professional expertise, doctors are raising concerns.
The government in early 2023 granted pharmacists the ability to assess and treat 13 minor ailments, including pink eye, hemorrhoids and urinary tract infections. In the fall of that year six more were added to the list, including acne, canker sores and yeast infections.
Now, the government is proposing to expand the list to include sore throat, calluses and corns, mild headaches, shingles, minor sleep disorders, fungal nail infections, swimmers’ ear, head lice, nasal congestion, dandruff, ringworm, jock itch, warts and dry eye.
As well, the Ministry of Health is looking for feedback on what lab tests and point-of-care tests might be required for pharmacists to order and perform as part of assessing and treating those conditions.
The government is also considering funding pharmacists to administer tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, pneumococcal, shingles and RSV vaccines for adults, in addition to COVID-19 and flu vaccines. The province is proposing to allow pharmacy technicians to administer the same vaccines as pharmacists.
“Our government is focused on improving access to care in communities across the province and we have seen the success of our minor ailment program, connecting over 1 million people to treatment for minor ailments,” Hannah Jensen, a spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones, wrote in a statement.
Justin Bates, CEO of the Ontario Pharmacists Association, said the minor ailments program has been going well so far, and further expanding pharmacists’ scope can help avoid visits to family doctors and emergency rooms.
“We want to build health-care capacity through looking at pharmacies as a health-care hub and the pharmacists’ trusted relationship with their patients and to leverage that, because they are underutilized when it comes to what scope they can do,” he said.
But doctors are pushing back on the scope expansions.
“The bottom line here is that pharmacists are not doctors,” said Dr. Dominik Nowak, president of the Ontario Medical Association. “Doctors are trained for years and thousands of hours to diagnose and treat conditions.”
Nowak said that sometimes the symptoms that would seem to suggest one of those minor ailments are really a sign of a more serious condition, and it takes a doctor to recognize that.
“When I look at a lot of the minor ailments list, I think to myself, there’s nothing minor about many of these,” Nowak said.
“Many of these ailments rely on the patient … one, knowing the diagnosis themselves, so the patient’s own opinion. And last I heard, most of my patients haven’t been to medical school. And then two: it also relies on the patient’s own opinion about whether this is something minor or something serious.”
Bates said he has been “disappointed” at some of the messaging from doctors, and added that any notion that there is an increased risk to patient safety is “misinformation.”
“I want to support OMA and primary care, and I do – in hiring more doctors, solving some of their issues – but it shouldn’t come at the expense of other health professions gaining their … appropriate scope of practice,” he said.
“So it’s not a zero sum game here. We want to have physicians be comfortable with this, but … the way that some of these doctors are responding, it’s almost like hysteria.”
The government’s proposal on its regulatory registry is open for comment until Oct. 20.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
VANCOUVER – The president of the Union of B.C. Municipalities says communities have billions of dollars worth of infrastructure that will need replacing in the next decade and the province needs to step in with new funding to help.
Trish Mandewo says a call for $650 million in additional infrastructure money each year is one of a series of requests the organization is making to provincial leaders days before B.C.’s provincial election will be called.
They’re also asking for a percentage of the provincial property transfer tax to support housing projects, and a share of the growth in the carbon tax to help pay for responding to extreme weather.
Local politicians are gathering for their annual convention in Vancouver this week and are expected to cover a range of topics including housing, the toxic drug crisis, growing financial pressures, and a host of other issues.
Mandewo, who is on Coquitlam City Council, says the municipalities are looking for a new, flexible revenue stream to help fund an estimated $24 billion in infrastructure replacement that’s expected to be needed in the next 10 years.
She says without the additional money, municipalities won’t be able to build “complete communities” without raising taxes.
“So it’s the individual taxpayers that are going to be paying for that, because local governments have no other way of raising funding,” she said.
Mandewo says municipalities are facing rising costs due to extreme weather events like fires, floods, droughts and heat domes and the scale of what’s required for mitigation and adaptation exceeds their tax base.
“We are asking for a new dedicated revenue source so that we can support emergency planning and risk assessments, which have been asked of us,” she said.
Municipal leaders are going to spend the week discussing more than 200 pages worth of resolutions at the conference. Mandewo says issues surrounding addiction and toxic drugs are front and centre in members’ minds.
Resolutions include calls for more overdose prevention sites, more complex care beds for people struggling with addiction, and more money directed at community safety.
“Local governments have been trying to deal with it as much as we can, because we are the ones that are closest to the communities,” she said.
“That issue is not selective, whether you’re a small community or a large community.”
Premier David Eby is scheduled to address the conference Thursday. B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad and Green Leader Sonia Furstenau will speak Friday.
A series of “cabinet town halls” are also scheduled where municipal leaders will get a chance to question cabinet ministers on housing, public service and emergency preparedness.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
