The West Block – Episode 16, Season 12 – National | 24CA News
THE WEST BLOCK
Episode 16, Season 12
Sunday, January 8, 2023
Host: Mercedes Stephenson
Guests:
Cassidy Caron, Métis National Council President
Fae Johnstone, Wisdom2Action
Kyne Santos, Drag Queen
Location:
Ottawa, ON
Mercedes Stephenson: New 12 months, standard politics? We’ll check out the tales that we expect needs to be on Ottawa’s agenda in 2023.
I’m Mercedes Stephenson. Welcome to The West Block.
The highway to reconciliation: What are the subsequent steps in Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples?
And what’s behind the alarming rise in anti-trans and anti-gay hate in Canada?
As the brand new 12 months will get beneath means, we’re specializing in tales right here in Canada that always fly beneath the radar till one thing massive occurs that grabs our consideration, however then typically we lose sight of them simply as shortly.
Last 12 months, we noticed a historic apology from the Pope for the Catholic Church’s function within the abuse suffered by Indigenous individuals at residential faculties, and we additionally noticed a rising consciousness amongst Canadians about that painful legacy. But in relation to housing for Indigenous Canadians well being care, and murdered and lacking Indigenous ladies and ladies, it’s clear that there’s nonetheless a whole lot of work to do.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: “Pervasive and systemic issues generated by our colonial past cannot be overturned overnight. The full benefits will be felt over years to come, but only if we don’t let up on our work. We need to continue to push together through this with even more urgency.”
Mercedes Stephenson: Cassidy Caron is the president of the Métis National Council and he or she says making progress on a few of these points will likely be a precedence for 2023. President Caron joins me now. Thank you a lot for becoming a member of us, Cassidy. How are you?
Cassidy Caron, Métis National Council President: I’m doing effectively, thanks.
Mercedes Stephenson: We simply listed a bunch of points there and actually, Indigenous tales had been within the news in 2022, final 12 months, in a means we hadn’t seen. But there’s an inclination, particularly for these of us within the media, to give attention to one thing when it pops up and it doesn’t essentially handle the systemic points. What’s your feeling on the place reconciliation is now at the start of 2023 versus final 12 months? Are we making progress?
Cassidy Caron, Métis National Council President: Bit by bit, I might say we’re making progress. And, you realize, in 2022, there was a whole lot of dialog that was persevering with on from 2021, when the 215 unmarked graves had been uncovered in Kamloops. That was a watershed second for Canada, the place Canadians, you realize, they actually began to concentrate. Citizens from all over the world began to concentrate. They wished to find out about Canada’s true historical past they usually wished to know concerning the points that proceed as we speak and the way we will create change. The dialog piece, that power that has been constructing during the last couple of years, is so essential to proceed. We have to proceed having these conversations if we’re going to crate the systemic adjustments that have to happen with a view to change the lives of Indigenous individuals to make sure that, you realize, for us particularly, the Métis nation, strikes ahead in a extremely robust and affluent means, however we will’t lose sight of the work that should proceed with a view to create these adjustments.
Mercedes Stephenson: Cassidy, I used to be actually struck watching the tragedy unfolding in Winnipeg of the state that we nonetheless face for Indigenous ladies on this nation and the eye that their relations and daughters had been in a position to carry by being so robust and so articulate might make the distinction there, however there are numerous, many extra ladies who’re vanishing, and who’ve died and have been murdered and it simply type of goes as a blip on the radar. As lengthy as I’ve been in Ottawa, individuals have been speaking about this challenge. Why do you assume it’s that it seems like we’re on a treadmill with it and there may be dedication after dedication at varied ranges of presidency, however then we proceed to see or not it’s this unimaginable tragedy for Indigenous Canadians and for all Canadians that that is taking place?
Cassidy Caron, Métis National Council President: Such a large challenge that permeates each nook of our society and I believe that due to it’s such a large challenge, it paralyzes so many individuals they don’t know what to do. But you’re completely proper. People have been speaking about this disaster that we face in Canada for years now. And it’s so unfair to relations, to proceed to should go to the media and inform their tales, over and over, for it solely to select up steam for a few weeks, possibly a month after which for it to drop off till once more, it turns into a giant news story. We’ve seen this occur time and time once more in Canada, the place Indigenous individuals are telling their tales. They’re telling their truths, you realize, with the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and even most lately as a Senate report on the pressured sterilization of Indigenous ladies and ladies. People are telling their tales and it’s time for Canadians, it’s time for politicians in any respect ranges, to pay attention and to essentially dedicate the time, the sources and simply the care, to create the change in order that we will transfer ahead in a great way. There’s a lot work that must be completed. I perceive that it’s paralyzing, that it’s difficult to know the place to start, however these tales have been informed. There are actions which have documented in all of those stories and it’s time that we determine the place to go subsequent.
Mercedes Stephenson: Cassidy, one other challenge we’ve talked about so much on the present has been the scenario for Indigenous youngsters. There are nonetheless so many First Nations in communities throughout this nation, the place youngsters have to depart their dad and mom and their properties to get an schooling. They should go to North Bay or to a different metropolis at a really younger age, 13, 14 years-old and what a option to should make. We’ve talked concerning the variety of Indigenous kids who find yourself in foster care, who’re taken at delivery from their moms in hospitals. This continues to be happening. Can you replace us on what the state of the system is there and the state and the way it’s treating Indigenous youngsters, and if that’s one thing you assume that we will make progress on in 2023?
Cassidy Caron, Métis National Council President: I believe so. Canada had a plan. That plan was Bill C-92, which is an Act Respecting First Nations, Métis and Inuit kids, primarily taking a look at give again jurisdiction over the kid welfare system to our communities. We know handle our kids. We know what our kids want. That invoice was going to maneuver in direction of that progress that we have to see. Unfortunately, it was challenged within the courts and is being seen via on the Supreme Court of Canada proper now. The Métis Nation is an intervener in that case and we hope to see it undergo. We have to see it undergo. Everything that we will do to maneuver again in direction of the respect of Indigenous rights goes to be progress in direction of constructing a brighter future for our communities.
Mercedes Stephenson: Cassidy, in 2022, we had the historic papal apology. For some, that was therapeutic. For others, it merely wasn’t what they wanted. Residential faculties proceed to be a legacy that haunts so many individuals in Canada. Where do you see that path going within the coming 12 months?
Cassidy Caron, Métis National Council President: You know we have now, like I stated, made progress on reconciliation because it pertains to residential faculties, however the apology wasn’t the top of that journey. We, because the Métis Nation, particularly have a lot extra work to do. There are many Métis residential college survivors who proceed to go unrecognized, unacknowledged for the harms that they endured throughout their time at a residential college, a day college, convents, all of which sought to do the identical issues that residential faculties did to many Indigenous kids throughout the nation. Ile-a-la-Crosse and Timber Bay are two faculties that proceed to go unrecognized by each the provincial authorities in Saskatchewan and the federal authorities as residential faculties which did hurt to Métis college students. We will proceed to advocate for that recognition this 12 months after which, you realize, transfer from there. But till that recognition is made and people college students and people kids, the survivors of these faculties, get the popularity that they deserve, we gained’t see the progress in direction of reconciliation that we have to on this nation.
Mercedes Stephenson: Cassidy, what would you prefer to see the federal authorities have as its primary precedence for this 12 months?
Cassidy Caron, Métis National Council President: That’s a giant query. I don’t know that I can particularly pinpoint one factor. But one of many massive items that we’ll be watching this 12 months is the implementation of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People. Bill C-15 is that act that’s shifting Canada in direction of harmonizing all of its legal guidelines with the popularity of Indigenous rights. We are within the strategy of co-developing the motion plan, the implementation plan of that invoice proper now with the federal authorities that’s due by June of this 12 months, and from there we’ll be seeking to see how we will proceed to create systemic change by utilizing that as a kind of mechanisms.
Mercedes Stephenson: Cassidy Caron, thanks a lot for becoming a member of us, president. We will likely be again with you all year long, I’m positive, to proceed to trace these tales.
Cassidy Caron, Métis National Council President: Thank you a lot.
Mercedes Stephenson: Up subsequent, as mainstream illustration will increase, the LGBTQ+ neighborhood is dealing with rising threats and violence.
Fae Johnstone, Wisdom2Action: “I don’t think we’re as bad as the U.S., but I think…I, I really worry in Canada that we imagine we’re so different, that there’s something uniquely Canadian that protects us against this hate. I have never been as worried as I am right now about the future of 2SLGBTQ rights and acceptance in this country. And I’ve been doing this work as a queer trans advocate for a decade; it’s never been as scary out there as it is right now.”
[Break]
Mercedes Stephenson: Canada was one of many leaders in legalizing similar intercourse marriages in 2005, with widespread help throughout the nation. But in as we speak’s very totally different political local weather, anti-trans and anti-gay hate has skyrocketed.
Ron DeSantis, Florida Governor: “They support sexualizing kids in kindergarten.”
Mercedes Stephenson: In the U.S., some politicians are attacking trans individuals by calling them pedophiles and groomers. Most Republicans voted in opposition to the identical intercourse marriage safety, which finally handed beneath President Biden.
Joe Biden, U.S. President: “Racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia, they’re all connected. But the antidote to hate is love.”
Mercedes Stephenson: Here at house in Canada, hate crimes focusing on queer Canadians are the very best they’ve been at in 5 years. Trans Canadians and drag queens are getting the brunt of it, dealing with threats of violence and weapons.
Joining me now to speak concerning the challenges the neighborhood is dealing with and the place to go from right here is Fae Johnstone, Wisdom2Action govt director, and drag queen Kyne, the maths whiz from RuPaul’s Drag Race Canada. Thank you each a lot for becoming a member of us for this dialogue.
Kyne Santos, Drag Queen: Thank you for having me.
Fae Johnstone: Thanks for having us.
Mercedes Stephenson: I wish to begin with you, Kyne, and to get your opinion as effectively, Fae. What has the 12 months 2022 been like in your neighborhood?
Kyne Santos, Drag Queen: I believe it’s been a bizarre 12 months with all of, you realize, this hate and these protests which have been happening. On a private stage, it’s been a 12 months that I’ve been in a position to thrive as a drag queen. Drag nowadays, is changing into increasingly more mainstream and it’s changing into an occasion that individuals are beginning to wish to carry their households to, as a result of we’re seeing drag in all places and we’re seeing queer individuals simply getting some extra visibility. And I believe with the added visibility, there comes with—it comes with some backlash.
Mercedes Stephenson: And you look completely unbelievable by the way in which. And I took my father, who handed away this 12 months…
Kyne Santos, Drag Queen: Thank you.
Mercedes Stephenson: …to his first drag present in his 90s and he cherished it, and it was a really totally different perspective as a result of a whole lot of Canadians haven’t skilled. They haven’t had contact with somebody who’s a trans individual or a drag queen they usually don’t actually have a perspective on who you’re.
And I do know that this has been a 12 months the place you’ve suffered from a lot hate directed, Fae, as a trans individual. When you have a look at this 12 months, what are the regarding elements for you and what do you’re feeling are type of the issues that carry hope?
Fae Johnstone, Wisdom2Action: You know, I believe the regarding elements are that we’ve seen an unprecedented elevate in anti-2SLGBTQ hate and related hate crimes all throughout this nation. For the primary time in my grownup reminiscence, I look and I see drag occasions which might be being protested. I see a tax on 2SLGBTQ neighborhood organizations which might be supporting our youngsters, which might be supporting our communities and so I believe this has been a extremely onerous 12 months for our neighborhood. You know we’re seeing some actually nice adjustments when it comes to acceptance in society, however most queer and trans individuals I do know are nonetheless apprehensive about their security. They’re apprehensive about experiences of each day discrimination and I really feel prefer it’s really getting worse now, at the same time as we think about it needs to be getting higher.
Mercedes Stephenson: Why do you assume that’s? What is type of fanning these flames of hate?
Fae Johnstone, Wisdom2Action: You know, I believe all internationally on a worldwide scale, we’re seeing a revival of the anti-gay hysteria from the Seventies. I believe, you realize, former president Trump, the far proper in North America, each the U.S. and right here at house, are surging in ways in which many people didn’t predict and I believe that’s a whole lot of what’s driving this. They’re recognizing that most individuals don’t know a trans individual. There are much less of us than there are homosexual people. And so it’s straightforward to color an image and simple to drive a wedge when on the finish of the day, trans people are simply different individuals in our neighborhood who possibly our lives look a bit of bit totally different than different individuals’s however we deserve the identical rights and security as everybody else.
Mercedes Stephenson: And I believe for lots of people watching as we speak, they’re questioning what’s the distinction? Kyne, what’s the distinction between a trans individual and a drag queen?
Kyne Santos, Drag Queen: A drag queen and a trans lady are undoubtedly not mutually unique. You could be trans and in addition carry out in drag and you’ll be trans with out being a drag queen. I’m a drag queen and, you realize, I current as a lady possibly on my reveals, however this all comes off and I determine as a boy in my day-to-day life.
Mercedes Stephenson: And Fae, what’s—how would you clarify the distinction to people at house?
Fae Johnstone, Wisdom2Action: Trans is an id, it’s part of who you’re. And drag is it’s a efficiency. And there’s a whole lot of worth in each, however there’s a distinction. However, in case you look again, one among my favorite issues to share is that earlier than we had language like trans, you probably did see extra overlap within the 70s and 80s. And so over these many years, we’ve seen an evolution as individuals perceive what trans means extra and we share a whole lot of the identical historical past, however there’s a basic distinction usually between a occupation and an id. But simply as Kyne stated, there may be a whole lot of overlap there as effectively.
Mercedes Stephenson: And taking a look at these numbers, I imply once we had been speaking about placing this panel collectively, there was a way that there was extra hatred on the market simply from what we had been seeing on social media. It was anecdotal for us. And then once we began digging and located these statistics that you simply talked about on this unimaginable spike in hate crimes, it’s deeply regarding and it looks as if one thing that’s not even essentially that effectively tracked in Canada, nevertheless it’s one thing that I do know you expertise. Kyne, are you able to inform us a bit of bit about the way you’ve seen issues change over the previous few years when it comes to hate that’s being directed at you?
Kyne Santos, Drag Queen: Yeah. Well for a bit of little bit of context, except for doing drag reveals, I additionally train math on-line. I’ve an viewers of virtually 2 million individuals and I make movies speaking about math as a result of that’s what I went to highschool for. And I’ve travelled round Canada and the United States, speaking to universities and academics and faculties, and just about each time I do this there’s all the time some type of backlash on-line. You know, I get known as a groomer, a pedophile, a freak. Every group that brings me, there’s calls to fireplace them, a waste of taxpayer cash. And in order that’s type of what I’ve been experiencing and I’m simply speaking about math. You know, I can’t consider a extra healthful topic to be going round speaking about.
Mercedes Stephenson: And Fae, the place do you assume that that—I imply it’s an affiliation that’s being put there, to attempt to create hate. This affiliation is being put there with none proof. Where are these phrases like groomer and pedophile coming from? Who is attaching these to the trans neighborhood and what do you wish to say to oldsters who see that on social media and are involved?
Fae Johnstone, Wisdom2Action: You know, I believe it comes from homophobes and transphobes, proper, prefer it comes from people who see our communities and wish to roll again our rights. I believe usually we consider hate as, you realize, simply any individual who’s ignorant, however there are individuals on this nation who’re pushing an agenda and it’s an agenda the place my rights are restricted. And so I believe groomer, allegations of pedophilia, they’re once more, these techniques within the 70s that folk are realizing they will use in these moments. I’ve misplaced observe of the quantity of occasions that I’ve been known as a pedophile and a groomer in my Twitter mentions and there are organizations, I believe, you realize, the True North Centre, for instance, which might be focusing on 2SLGBTQ occasions. They’re on the lookout for something that they will gentle a fireplace beneath. My message to oldsters is, trans people aren’t a risk and our younger people want, desperately want help. We know that when younger trans individuals are supported by their households, the exponential charges of suicidality of considerations about suicide plummet in a large means. And so the largest message to oldsters is trans people should not harmful. We’re only a totally different form of human being and we deserve the identical help, the identical inclusion, the identical acceptance that each different little one or grownup deserves.
Mercedes Stephenson: And there are usually these moments that turn out to be a spotlight of media consideration. I’m pondering of the trans trainer in Ontario, she wore a breast plate to highschool with very massive prosthetic breasts and this type of turned this defining second.
Kyne, you’re educating math to youngsters on-line. What message do you wish to ship to oldsters?
Kyne Santos, Drag Queen: My message to oldsters is that faculty is a spot that prepares you for maturity, and in maturity you’re going to come throughout trans individuals. You’re going to come back throughout homosexual individuals. You’re going to come back throughout individuals of every kind of walks of life and I believe faculties ought to put together college students for that. What I discover, you realize, so ironic is that a number of dad and mom they don’t need their youngsters to prove homosexual or trans or queer, partially as a result of there’s a stereotype related that queer individuals can find yourself homeless, can flip to medication. But what do they do? They will kick the queer kids out of their properties. They’ll attempt to get queer individuals fired from jobs. So it’s a suggestions loop that simply makes extra queer individuals flip to homelessness and be shunned away from their households.
Mercedes Stephenson: Fae, do you assume that it’s as unhealthy right here as it’s within the U.S. as a result of there’s been very critical shootings, hate motivated shootings within the United States. And I do know once we had been speaking to individuals behind the scenes earlier than this panel, we had been listening to so much about considerations about security.
Fae Johnstone, Wisdom2Action: Absolutely. I…I fear, you realize, I do a whole lot of public talking. I do a whole lot of work with social employees and educators, and I fear, I imply, each time that I do an engagement that one thing horrible may occur, you realize that there’s a threat that any individual will present up and that that hate will shift from a digital context to an in-person horrifying and terrifying expertise. I don’t assume we’re as unhealthy because the U.S., however I believe—I, I actually fear in Canada that we think about we’re so totally different that there’s one thing uniquely Canadian that protects us in opposition to this hate. I’ve by no means been as apprehensive as I’m proper now about the way forward for 2SLBGTQ rights and acceptance on this nation. And I’ve been doing this work as a queer and trans advocate for a decade. It’s by no means been as scary on the market as it’s proper now.
Mercedes Stephenson: Kyne, what wants to alter going ahead and the way does that occur?
Kyne Santos, Drag Queen: I believe that we simply want for extra individuals to face up for us. We have to really feel help from the neighborhood. You know what’s humorous is that each time I do these occasions and I’m going round speaking to colleges and to academics, I’m all the time met with a lot constructive suggestions, being informed we cherished your speak, we’re so impressed. They like it. And then I’m going on-line and there’s all these trolls threatening to carry weapons and it’s very scary. And as Fae stated, we prefer to assume that we’re protected and that these are simply people who find themselves a tiny minority on-line, however it’s scary for our security and what I’d prefer to see is for the neighborhood to essentially arise and stand with us.
Mercedes Stephenson: Kyne and Fae, thanks each a lot for becoming a member of us. This is actually a subject that we’re going to be conserving an in depth eye on as 2023 unfolds. We respect each of your time and your private experiences being shared with us and your perspective.
Kyne Santos, Drag Queen: Thank you a lot.
Fae Johnstone, Wisdom2Action: Thank you.
Mercedes Stephenson: Up subsequent, what we’re watching this week: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau heads to Mexico City for the North American Leader Summit.
[Break]
Mercedes Stephenson: The prime minister will be part of the U.S. and Mexican presidents on the North American Leader Summit on Tuesday. The leaders are anticipated to speak about commerce, safety, the surroundings and China. We’ll be conserving an in depth eye on that, however that’s our present for as we speak. Thanks for watching. For The West Block, I’m Mercedes Stephenson. We’ll see you right here subsequent Sunday. Have an excellent week.
