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Protest on gender identity in schools in Toronto, across Canada

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Demonstrations protesting LGBTQ2S+ inclusive education took place at least 80 cities across the country on Wednesday, with thousands of people participating in a counter-protest(opens in a new tab) in Toronto.

The demonstrations, under the banner “1 Million March 4 Children,” advocated for the elimination of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) curriculums in Canada.

Gender identity in the education sector has frequented headlines in recent months, since Saskatchewan and New Brunswick adopted gender and pronoun policies that require parental consent for students under the age of 16 who want to change their given names and/or pronouns at school.

Megan Poole, manager of community relations and communications for the 519, an agency in downtown Toronto that supports members of the LGBTQ2S+ community, said Ontario Premier Doug Ford has accused school boards of indoctrinating students and insisting parents should be informed of their child’s gender identity. Poole called this a dangerous discourse that forcibly outs children.

“Unfortunately not all of us come from deeply supportive families,” Poole said.

The 519 is planning a counter protest, with 600 participants registered to congregate at Barbara Hall Park on Wednesday before marching to Queen’s Park, to make it clear that “hate has no home in Ontario.”

“If you showed up for Pride this year, it’s really time to show up for the community the rest of the year as well. Pride is every day,” Poole said.

WHO IS PROTESTING?

There are two “brands” that promoted protests across Canada on Wednesday, Hands Off Our Kids and Family Freedom, Canadian Anti-Hate Network Executive Director Evan Balgord explained. The groups did not respond to requests for comment.

Balgord said one of the groups is religious and openly intolerant of the LGBTQ2S+ community while the other is more secular and appears to be more inclusive. Fundamentally, both are advocating for SOGI to be stripped from the curriculum by hiding behind the illusion that they are just trying to protect children, Balgord noted.

“The concern is that when you let these people organize unopposed, they gain more power,” Balgord said.

To support LGBTQ2S+ communities, counter-protests were planned in every province across the country. Several took place in Toronto, with more spanning Ontario in Kingston, Kitchener, London, Ottawa, Peterborough, Sarnia, Sudbury and Windsor

“I think from the teacher’s side, it’s fair to say there is some frustration and anger about how what we do to support students in schools is being twisted and misconstrued to be something it isn’t,” Jamie Mitchell, an Ontario high school math teacher, said.

“To see initiatives that would take us backwards, good teachers know that would be harmful for students and families.”

WHAT’S THE RESPONSE?

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said she has stood shoulder-to-shoulder in support of LGBTQ2S+ communities, and against discrimination, hatred and bigotry for decades.

“From the earliest Pride parades, through the AIDS crisis, winning same-sex marriage, and much more. I continue to stand with you today in the face of hate,” Chow said on Wednesday.

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) said it “unequivocally” stands with trans, Two-Spirit and non-binary students, staff and families. “We support everyone’s human rights and expression of gender,” the TDSB said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.

The education minister released a message on Wednesday morning stating the government’s commitment to the safety and well-being of all children in Ontario schools, “irrespective of your faith, heritage, sexual orientation, or color of skin.”

Toronto, Durham and Burlington police forces monitored the demonstrations on Wednesday, keeping the peace and enforcing applicable laws.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) condemned the protests and said it is “alarming” that several politicians have contributed to this “disturbing” discourse.

“Instead of spewing rhetoric they know is harmful and dangerous and that pits parents against educators, they should be ensuring safe and inclusive spaces for every student in the province,” the ETFO said in a statement on Tuesday.

To visibly show support, the Pride flag will be raised all week at TDSB and Durham District School Board institutions.

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Frozen waffles from Whole Foods join Canadian recall list over listeria concerns

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OTTAWA – Whole Foods Market is joining the growing list of brands whose frozen waffles have been recalled in Canada this week because of possible listeria contamination.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says the newest recall spans the Amazon-owned grocer’s organic homestyle and blueberry waffles sold under the 365 Whole Foods Market label.

The agency says the waffles recalled by Horizon Distributors Ltd. were sold in British Columbia, but may have also made their way to other provinces and territories.

It adds there have been no reported illnesses associated with the waffles, but the agency is conducting a food safety investigation, which it says may lead to the recall of other products.

Dozens of frozen waffles from brands like Compliments, Great Value, Duncan Hines and No Name were recalled earlier in the week over similar listeria concerns.

Food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes may not look or smell spoiled but can cause vomiting, nausea, persistent fever, muscle aches, severe headache and neck stiffness.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 26, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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People with disabilities ask feds to restore ‘hope’ and raise benefit amount

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TORONTO – Heather Thompson would love to work.

The 26-year-old dreams of going back to university to study politics and environmental science, and ultimately pursue a career to “try and make things better” in society.

“I’m not the person I want to be yet and I want to be able to achieve certain goals and be a well-rounded, well developed person. But I’m prevented from doing that because I live in legislated poverty,” they said.

Thompson is one of 600,000 working-age Canadians with disabilities that the federal government said it would help lift out of poverty with the Canada Disability Benefit, which takes effect next July. The program is meant as a top-up to existing provincial and territorial income supports.

“We had huge expectations and we had all this hope, like finally we can escape poverty,” Thompson said.

But after last spring’s federal budget revealed that the maximum people will receive per month is $200, the hopes of people like Thompson were dashed. Now, advocates are asking the federal government to reconsider the amount in the months before the benefit rolls out.

Thompson, who uses they/them pronouns, has worked at Tim Horton’s, Staples and a call centre, but said their physical and mental disabilities — including osteoarthritis, which “heavily impacts” their mobility, along with clinical depression and generalized anxiety disorder — have forced them to leave.

They look for jobs, but many require the ability to lift or stand for long periods, which they can’t do. So Thompson lives on $1,449 a month from the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and shares a house with three roommates in Kingston, Ont., along with Thompson’s 12-year-old emotional support cat, Captain Kirk.

Thompson went to university in 2017, but their mental health issues flared and they had to leave after a semester. Seven years later, they’re still trying to pay that student loan back.

When Bill C-22, which mandated the creation of a Canada Disability Benefit, was passed into law last year, Thompson was “so excited.”

A news release issued by the federal government on June 22, 2023 called the legislation “groundbreaking,” saying the disability benefit would “supplement existing federal and provincial/territorial disability supports, and will help lift working-age persons with disabilities out of poverty.”

It said the benefit would be part of the government’s “disability inclusion action plan” that would “address longstanding inequities that have led to the financial insecurity and exclusion” experienced by people with disabilities.

The government simply hasn’t lived up to its promise, said Amanda MacKenzie, national director of external affairs for March of Dimes Canada, one of the organizations that supported the creation of the benefit.

Now that a public consultation period on the benefit ended last month, she is hoping the government will reconsider and increase the benefit amount in its next budget.

”These are people that are living well under the $30,000 a year mark, for the most part,” MacKenzie said.

“These are the people that you hear about all the time that are saying, ‘I can only have two or one meal a day. I can only afford to take my medication every other day … I can’t support my kids. I can’t help my family. I can’t do anything because you know, I can barely pay my rent,'” she said.

March of Dimes Canada and many people with disabilities all participated in early government consultations about how the federal benefit could be effective in topping up provincial disability support programs to provide a livable income.

”Who were they listening to?” asked Thomas Cheesman, a 43-year-old in Grande Prairie, Alta., receiving provincial disability benefits due to a rare disorder that causes his bones to break down.

“Not one single disabled person would say that this is an adequate program,” he said.

Cheesman was born with Hajdu-Cheney Syndrome and knew he wouldn’t be able to work as long as most people, but managed to work as a chef until he was 39.

At that point, his physical symptoms became so debilitating he had to stop.

“It was just too dangerous between either taking medications to handle pain and being distracted from that, or not being able to function because of the pain,” he said.

Cheesman and his wife, who works as a supervisor at Costco, have three children. Before the Canada Disability Benefit became law, he “did a lot of math” and calculated it would need to total almost $1,000 a month for his family “to have a life outside of poverty.”

In an emailed response to The Canadian Press, the office of Kamal Khera, minister of diversity, inclusion and persons with disabilities, said it was making a $6.1-billion investment “to improve the financial security of over 600,000 persons with disabilities.”

“This is a historic initial investment … and is intended to supplement, not replace, existing provincial and territorial income support measures,” said Khera’s press secretary, Waleed Saleem.

“We also aspire to see the combined amount of federal and provincial or territorial income supports for persons with disabilities grow to the level of Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS), to fundamentally address the rates of poverty experienced by persons with disabilities.”

That would mean people with disabilities would get a total monthly income equal to what low-income seniors get from the federal government.

MacKenzie said the lack of adequate financial support for people with disabilities is “not OK,” noting that the money they spend goes back into the economy.

“We tell people with disabilities that what they deserve and what we can afford to give them in society is an existence. It’s not a life,” she said.

For Thompson, that’s “a really hard pill for me to swallow.”

”A lot of people don’t see us as human. They see us as a drain on society,” they said.

”We’re worth investing in.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 26, 2024.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.



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Quebec Liberals call to investigate closures of French-language classes for newcomers

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MONTREAL – The Quebec Liberal Party has called for the French language commissioner to investigate the cancelling of some French-language training courses for newcomers to the province.

Citing an “ongoing series of closures of francization programs,” the Opposition party announced Saturday morning in a news release that its critics for the French language and French classes, André Albert Morin and Madwa-Nika Cadet, sent a letter to the Commissioner of the French Language.

The letter asks commissioner Benoît Dubreuil to “investigate to ensure that the right to French language learning services, included in the Charter of the French Language, is respected,” the release said.

The Liberals are blaming the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s budgetary decisions, which it says, “jeopardize the possibility for immigrants to become French speakers within a time frame that would facilitate their integration into the job market and into Quebec society.”

In several interviews this week, Quebec’s Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge blamed school service centres for the closures, saying his government has actually increased budgets for French-language courses.

However, media reports this week described education centres forced to cut back on programming because of budget constraints imposed on them by the province, which have also resulted in teachers losing their jobs.

“These cuts have led, in recent weeks, to the cancellation of French courses, particularly in the regions of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, the Capitale-Nationale, Estrie, Laval , the Laurentides, Mauricie and Montreal,” the release said.

Aside from cancellations, the Liberals say average wait times for full-time French study has recently doubled to four months while people who are enrolled are sometimes forced to travel hundreds of kilometres to attend class.

“There is an impression of disorder that suggests the government is unable to meet its obligations under the Charter of the French Language,” the letter sent to the Commissioner late Friday stated.

The closures come at a time of increased demand for the classes, with Quebec currently hosting around 600,000 temporary immigrants. Quebec has repeatedly asked the federal government for more power and funds to deal with the surge in newcomers, but the CAQ leadership has also come under fire from Ottawa.

Federal Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Friday that the $750 million the federal government is spending to help the province with newcomers is not being fully used.

“We absolutely must invest the necessary sums in francization,” said Duclos. “If we want new arrivals to be able to reach their full potential, we have to offer them appropriate services.”

Cadet told The Canadian Press in an interview the government is clearly struggling to provide the right to learn French.

“So in our opinion, the commissioner should have the mandate to investigate this, and that’s why we wrote him this letter,” Cadet said, but would not say whether her party would increase French-language budgets.

Last February, Dubreuil stated it would cost between $10.6 and $12.9 billion for all temporary immigrants to complete intermediate-level training in French.

Cadet responded by saying, “I don’t think we’re in that type of scenario. I think there’s a way to better deploy the offer and make sure there are no service breakdowns.”

–With files from La Presse Canadienne

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 26, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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