With the recent passage of Bill C-389 through the House of Commons, it is now up to the Senate to pass the Bill to ensure that gender identity and gender expression are written into law as protected grouonds against discrimination.

Please find below a link to a website that has made it very easy to e-mail the Senate to let them know that you support the passage of Bill C-389. The website has a backgrounder on what this bill means as well as a template letter and the e-mail addresses for all the Senators.

Take a minute out of your day and write to the Senators to let them know that you support Bill C-389 and they should too!

http://passbillc389.wordpress.com/how-you-can-help/

Queer Ontario is fundamentally opposed to the regulatory changes to the bawdyhouse laws that were secretly passed by the Conservative government on July 13, 2010, and the undemocratic process that was used to pass them.

By designating bawdyhouses as ‘criminal organizations’ and by designating their operation as a ‘serious offence’ under the law, the Harper government has once again demonstrated that it is incapable of passing provisions that are publicly accountable. In advancing their tough-on-crime agenda above any nuanced understanding of organized crime in Canada; above any consideration for the lived realities of sex professionals; and above polls demonstrating the statistical drop in crime and the low priority crime-fighting has among Canadians, the Conservative government has made yet another unwarranted decision. Unfortunately, these measures are only exacerbated by the fact that the regulation was passed behind closed doors, without any opportunity for informed debate from either fellow MPs or the stakeholders who were to be affected by these amendments.
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The Harper government’s decision to eliminate the long-form census questionnaire to be replaced by a voluntary survey that will ultimately cost more than the current system is seen as short sighted by Queer Ontario. For years, queers have been lobbying and working with Statistics Canada to include the gender and sexually diverse in their census and surveys.

Not only will this decision (taken without consultation) abrogate the collection of important data that serves the development and growth of Canada in its business, charitable/nonprofit and public sectors, but seriously disrupt the continuation of ongoing data analysis in longitudinal studies Statistics Canada undertakes.
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