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Treanor Mahood-Greer, a Native Human Services Social Worker in North Bay, Ontario, has graciously informed us of a week-long CBC radio series called TransNorth, which explores the lives of transgender individuals (and their communities) in northeastern Ontario: http://www.cbc.ca/sudbury/features/transnorth (Treanor is one of the featured individuals).
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We encourage you to follow along and to show your support for such educational and consciousness-raising CBC programming — and, of course, to write to the CBC if you feel there is any kind of oversight or misrepresentation whatsoever: http://www.cbc.ca/contact
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Wishing you all the best this week,
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The Queer Ontario Steering Committee
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Greetings,
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Queer Ontario recently supported Ophea’s report (released below), and its call to action to have the updated 2010 version of the Ontario health and physical curriculum implemented once again.
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This new curriculum would have included progressive LGBT-inclusive amendments to the sex ed curriculum, which was part of the ‘controversy’ that led to the Liberal government’s rescinding of the amendments soon after they were made public. As such, Ontario students are still being taught the outdated 1998 curriculum. An overview of the controversy can be read here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2010/04/22/sex-ed.html
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Indeed, we encourage you to read the report and sign Ophea’s petition, here: http://www.ophea.net/timetomove
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In sol,
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Casey Oraa
Vice-Chair
Queer Ontario
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Original message from Chris Markham, Executive Director & CEO of Ophea (originally the Ontario Physical and Health Education Association)
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Hello everyone,
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As you are aware, Ophea has been working on advocacy related to finalization, release and implementation of the health and physical education (H&PE) curriculum for a few years now. Recently, our efforts have focused on the development of a report highlighting the state of child and youth health in Ontario, and the potential for H&PE to have a positive impact on the alarming trends.
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Today, that report was officially released and will be accompanied by a grassroots advocacy campaign encouraging members of the general public to read the report, sign an online petition in support of release and implementation of the curriculum, and send letters advocating for the release to their MPP and local newspaper. All of this can be found online at www.ophea.net/timetomove or www.ophea.net/fr/passezalaction. We encourage you to share this information with your networks, both professional and personal.
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I recognize that there are many competing priorities in the health and education sectors, but we firmly believe that H&PE has the potential to be the most significant health promotion intervention ever, impacting 2.1 million children and youth and their families. It is time for an updated H&PE curriculum.  If you have any questions or need further information, please do not hesitate to contact me at chris@ophea.org or 416-426-7126.
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Additionally, an exclusive article was published today (on page 10 in the front section) in the Toronto Star, titled ‘Ontario slammed for outdated sex ed and mental health curriculum’. You can find the article here (http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1272563–ontario-slammed-for-outdated-sex-ed-and-mental-health-curriculum), as well as on the Toronto Star homepage.
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Thank you,
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Chris Markham
Executive Director & CEO
e: chris@ophea.org
p: 416-426-7126
f: 416-426-7373
www.ophea.net

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This morning, the Supreme Court of Canada issued two rulings on the criminalizability of individuals living with HIV if they do not disclose their HIV-positive status to a sexual partner before engaging with them, sexually.  The rulings are in response to a case in Manitoba, where a man was charged with nine counts of aggravated sexual assault based on his failure to disclose his HIV‑positive status to nine complainants (none of the complainants contracted HIV); and a case in Quebec, where a woman with HIV was charged with sexual assault and aggravated assault for failing to disclose her HIV-positve status to a partner.
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The Supreme Court of Canada has effectively ruled that laying such charges on an individual who is HIV-positive, with an undetectable viral load, and who made proper use of a condom, is unreasonable because the “realistic possibility of transmission of HIV is negated” in such a context.
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The Manitoba case ruling can be found here:
http://scc.lexum.org/en/2012/2012scc47/2012scc47.html

The Quebec case ruling can be found here:
http://scc.lexum.org/en/2012/2012scc48/2012scc48.html

The CBC’s report on the ruling an be found here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/10/05/supreme-court-hiv-ruling.html

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