James Ramer, Interim Chief of Police Toronto Police Service 40 College Street Toronto, Ontario M5G 2J3 officeofthechief@torontopolice.on.ca November 9, 2020
Dear Mr. Ramer,
We write with shock and anger over the death of Coco, a 30-year-old Black trans woman who died in police custody on October 26, 2020. The lack of transparency around her death, along with her persistent misgendering by the Toronto Police Service (TPS) and the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is appalling and disgraceful; we at Queer Ontario condemn these actions in the strongest possible terms.
With inexcusable regularity, members of the LGBTQ2S community – particularly those who are Black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) – face disproportionate violence and discrimination at the hands of police. As the Ontario Human Rights Commission reported in August, TPS data collected from 2013 to 2017 more than confirms this long-standing claim.
Queer Ontario stands firmly against the silence and secrecy surrounding Coco’s death. We demand that TPS act in accordance with its core values of integrity and accountability and provide the public with more information. Indeed, justice requires that we end the sanctioning of violence perpetrated against racialized folx and those presumed by state agents to be struggling with mental illness.
Continued silence in the face of this tragedy serves only to advance greater harm, fostering police mistrust amongst our communities. As an organization, we express solidarity in joining the collective call for Justice for Coco, asking #TPSWHATHAPPENED? Black trans lives matter, and Coco’s community deserves answers!
Sincerely,
Leonard Halladay Member, Queer Ontario
CC: John Tory, Mayor of Toronto Mayor_tory@toronto.ca Joseph Martino, Director (SIU) Joseph.martino@ontario.ca
We write on behalf of Queer Ontario, a community based LGBTQ+ advocacy group to express deep concern with Bill 213. This Bill, which repeals the definition of “College” in section 1 of the Canada Christian College and School of Graduate Theological Studies Act, 1999, is an attempt to supersede the independent, arms-length, decision-making power of the Post-Secondary Education Quality Assessment Board, effectively transforming a private denominational college into a degree-granting university. We oppose extending this form of accreditation to the College, whose founder and President Charles McVety has been described as an extremist by members of his own faith.
Queer Ontario stands firmly against this cynical and opportunistic move by Ontario’s current Conservative government, which supports – through an Omnibus bill amidst a global pandemic – accrediting the College. We deplore these and other efforts to expand private education across Ontario, which work only to undercut the quality of our public postsecondary education system in our Province.
Charles McVety, who leads the College, has a long history of inflammatory public statements. He has consistently denigrated LGBTQ+ communities, seeking to undermine their social, political and legal rights, and has repeatedly claimed that the Islamic faith is inherently violent. Importantly, in 2006, Christian broadcaster CTS removed McVety’s television program from its airwaves after the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council found his remarks on sexual orientation, non-Christian religion, and persons with disabilities to be hateful and discriminatory. Similarly, In a 2011 statement sponsoring a Canadian talk by far-right Dutch politician, Geert Wilders, McVety referred to Islam as “demographic jihad” and to Muslim Immigration as part of a “hostile takeover” of Canada.
In addition, McVety has exacted considerable influence over school policy in his 27 years with the College. Most recently, in the 315-page application sent by the College to the independent and arms-length Postsecondary Education Quality Assessment Board, Canada Christian College forbids both its students and its faculty from engaging in any activity that is “biblically condemned.”
Extending University accreditation to McVety’s Canada Christian College is an affront to Ontario’s standards of scholarship, higher education, and evidence-based research, which respect the fundamental principles of intercultural dialogue, debate, and principled disagreement; we the undersigned condemn this action in the strongest possible terms. The Government of Ontario should grant neither university accreditation nor degree-granting privileges to institutions that fail to uphold
the anti-discrimination and anti-hate speech principles set out in the Ontario Human Rights Code. Canada Christian College simply does not meet these standards given the long and consistent history of hate-fueled statements – rooted in homophobia, transphobia, and islamophobia – made by its founder and President, Charles McVety. Given these issues, we urge the Government of Ontario to immediately reverse its decision to further accredit Canada Christian College.
Since mid-March the province of Ontario has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This included a state of emergency being declared for Ontario by Premier Ford. Although all Ontarians are being affected by the pandemic, we are experiencing the effects differently. The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, 2-Spirit, queer and intersex (LGBTQ) communities can be impacted in a number of ways.
This information document addresses two approaches to living with COVID-19 as LGBTQ people. The first section outlines a number of challenges we may face as LGBTQ people during this crisis. The second section takes up the consideration of opportunities that can arise out of crises.
COVID-19 Crisis
Health Challenges:
Some face health challenges, such as being immuno-compromised, have had their transition process disrupted or have experienced their mental health supports being restricted. The effects of interrupted or deprioritized health and social services can worsen troubling conditions LGBTQs experience during a pandemic
Maintaining health protocols of physical distancing and hand washing may be difficult for the homeless and/or those without access to clean, safe water supply
Those infected by the COVID-19 virus may feel particularly vulnerable being out as an LGBTQ person, whether in quarantine or in a health care setting for fear of discrimination
LGBTQ elders:
LGBTQ elders may be particularly concerned regarding their health and wellness, because they fear discrimination and harassment within the healthcare system. The devastating impact of COVID-19 on older people can weigh heavily for elders in the LGBTQ communities
The disproportionate level of death in Ontario Long-Term Care (LTC) centres has highlighted the stark failure of care and support in Ontario Nursing Homes and LTC centres that are led by for-profit models. Deep structural and transformative change is necessary. (CBC, 24 April 2020)
Intersectionality:
Intersections with many other concerns can have compounding effects for LGBTQ people such as health and (dis)Abilities (immunocompromised, chronically ill, asthmatic), age (specifically the elderly), race and ethnicity (attempts to stigmatize COVID-19 as the “Chinese” or “Asian virus”) and Indigenous (ignoring of 2-Spirit approaches to wellbeing)
Living Conditions:
Having to live in shelter-in-place environments can be experienced as unsafe for those living with unsupportive family members or an abusive partner
Loneliness:
Feelings of loneliness can be intensified during a pandemic and particularly for LGBTQ people who are self-isolating and/or in quarantine, living in hostile environments including those in multi-household families, single-led families, and independent individuals resulting in increased stress and anxiety with limited or no access to social supports
Substance Use:
LGBTQs who use alcohol and drugs to relieve stress may experience difficulty in managing their use during the pandemic, either by turning to them more or lacking the resources to access them, including social supports to assist in substance use (Rainbow Health Victoria 2020)
Economic Challenges:
Reduced or lost livelihoods, particularly for those who were precariously employed, have been furloughed or laid off or do sex work due to physical distancing
LGBTQ community Supports:
LGBTQ community service organizations are either closed or operating with drastically reduced services compromising much needed support for vulnerable community members
Sex:
Sex is an important way in which many in the LGBTQ communities exercise our sense of core being with others through authentically expressing our desires. Physical distancing has curtailed this especially for those who seek casual, anonymous, non-monogamous or group sexual relations (Street 2020) or engage in sex work
There has been a marked disregard for community-led approaches to harm reduction and prevention practices during COVID-19 that is responsive to a range of unique and innovative approaches and needs in LGBTQ communities that the universal State-led top-down approaches to population regulation obscures
Stigmatization:
Members of the LGBTQ communities who lived through the early stages of the AIDS crisis will recall how the queer communities (along with drug users, sex workers, Haitians and other people of colour and transgender people) were deemed expendable by unsympathetic governments. The lasting effects of such discriminatory measures resulted in the continued stigmatization of the HIV virus to this day
Access to Information and the Internet:
Access to up-to-date information and supports through social media can be compromised, especially for those who are impoverished and may not have computing devices and WiFi, further complicated by the closure of libraries
LGBTQ Communities Blamed for COVID-19:
Once again, internationally the LGBTQ communities are being blamed for the coronavirus. Religious and political leaders have a long history of blaming us for natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes and floods to economic downturns. An Israel-based rabbi has stated that the coronavirus is retribution for Pride parades around the world (Kelleher 2020b) and a Ukrainian preacher is claiming the virus is ‘God’s punishment for same-sex marriage’ (Kelleher 2020a). In the US preachers and radio hosts have linked the virus to homosexuality (Greenhalgh 2020) as they have in Iran (Islamic Azad University News Agency 2020) and media news sources in Iraq (Al-Alam 2020). LGBTQs have also been targeted in South Korea via reporting and trace and testing methods linking the spread of the virus to those visiting gay districts with threats of being outed (Kim 2020). Also, 23 individuals were arrested at a youth shelter in Uganda on the pretext of COVID-19 (Human Rights Watch 2020). The spread of such misinformation and the targeting of LGBTQs not only furthers stigmatization but can make us vulnerable to violence due to heightened homophobic and transphobic rhetoric (OHCHR 2020).
Crisis = Opportunity
Opportunity can be seen in different ways. Will the current crisis of this pandemic conflated with racism and classism be the opportunity for the long slow rise of fascism to make a giant leap forward, or will it be the opportunity for democracy to make a clear statement of “No. Never again”? Will society be measured by the power and opulence of the most advantaged or by the strength and wellbeing of the most disadvantaged? What can we learn from this crisis?
We need to be cognizant of the current state-led and top down authoritarian environment we are living in due to the pandemic. We also need to be vigilant about community informed approaches that will help us all through this crisis and thrive on new opportunities.
We are repeatedly being told, we will need to create a ‘new normal’ or that we can’t go back to life as it was. That need not necessarily be a bad thing. By having to endure this pandemic, an involuntary pause has been placed on all of us, an opportunity to stop and rethink how we lived pre COVID-19 and how we might do things differently upon our return post the pandemic. Of note, in the midst of this pandemic there has been an international groundswell of horrified reaction to police perpetrated anti-Black, anti-Indigenous and racist violence. A highly important social justice concern that necessitates contemplation.
Below is a list of opportunities for consideration that we believe will improve not only the lives of LGBTQ people but society in general:
Redressing Anti-Black, Anti-Indigenous and General Racism in Policing during the Pandemic:
We are currently witnessing and experiencing an explosion of outrage regarding longstanding anti-Black, Indigenous and general racism exercised by the police in the midst of this pandemic. Activists are advocating for various forms of defunding, disarming or outright abolishment of police services. These calls give rise to opportunities to redeploy police funds to other sectors or our society. Grassroots community-based Black, Indigenous, people of colour, (dis)Ability, ethnic, seniors, poverty, LGBTQ, and other groups would benefit greatly by receiving such funding and furthering our respective social justice issues.
Strengthening Sectors Outside of Law Enforcement:
Addressing the serious issue of Anti-Black and Indigenous and general racism is not limited to law enforcement. All societal sectors would benefit greatly from utilizing such funds to address their own internal systemic and structural racism and other social justices utilizing the input from community-based social justice groups
If funds were to be redeployed, the healthcare, social services and education sectors would benefit greatly with increased funding to strengthen our communities during future pandemics and in general
Personal Responsibility for Social Justice:
Personally, recommitting ourselves to a more caring, social justice-based approach of living with each other as community, in which we work towards the elimination of the isms and phobias that plague those of us who celebrate differences
Basic Income:
Further exploring the implementation of a basic income as a means to address poverty in this province. Such a system could also poise governments to react more quickly and efficiently to future economic challenges such as pandemics
Access to Water:
Ensuring access to clean and safe water in all areas of Ontario, with primary focus on implementing the promises of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee Report to supply clean water supplies and better housing for Indigenous Canadians who are vastly disproportionately affected by inadequate housing and lack of access to clean water (Canada 2015)
Internet as Human Right:
Designating the Internet as a human right and providing free access to WiFi for all, to ensure access to information regardless of ability to pay
Re-Imagine Pride:
Re-imagining Pride day/week/month celebrations as being for and about and determined by LGBTQ people inclusive of our diversity, our politics, our creativity, without police or corporations
Islamic Azad University News Agency (ND). Examples of the Coronavirus for 7 Contemporary Man from the Perspective of the Holy Quran/Modern Man must understand that the management of the universe is in the hands of God Almighty. Retrieved from https://ana.ir/fa/news/
The Pressing Issues Survey
We are still receiving feedback through our Pressing Issues Survey, to get a sense of the issues facing LGBTQ* Ontarians today. A link to the survey can be found here.
The Queer Ontario Think Tank
We are also accepting written and other multimedia works for our ideas space -- the Queer Ontario Think Tank. To read more about it, or to learn how to submit a work, follow the link here.
Queer Ontario is a not-for-profit organization operating on funds provided to us by our generous and capable supporters. Your donation will be channeled directly into our projects and operations, which will help us continue our educational and reformist work.
Unfortunately, because our mandate is deeply political, we cannot acquire charitable status and, as such, will be unable to issue you with a charitable tax receipt. We encourage your support in light of this systemic shortfall.
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We appreciate your ongoing generosity and support -- The Queer Ontario Steering Committee.
