Hello, and thank you for inviting me and the collective.
My name is Awar Obob. I'm a writer, activist, and general show booker within the collective, Babely Shades. We are made up of marginalized genders and minority status people. We do a lot of art and positive things within the Ottawa community.
I wasn't quite sure what I had gotten myself into by coming here. I don't have anything prepared, but it's going pretty well. I'm liking it so far.
One of the main things I would like to bring up is the treatment of LGBTQ youth—lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer youth—within Canada, and also the current treatment of people of colour due to the violence going on in the U.S. and the current election, and what it has spurred within the country.
Though racism in Canada is not a very new thing—it's not new at all, it's kind of what the country was built upon—it has recently seen a new wave of targeted and very vocal violence against any person of colour, mainly people from middle eastern backgrounds and south-Asian countries. A lot of anti-Semitic violence has been brought forth, a lot of anti-indigenous and anti-black violence has been seen throughout Canada, spurring from this thing that happened in the U.S., which we like to think we're not really that attached to, but it has a huge effect, and factors in on the proceedings that go on within this country.
The pain that the majority of the minorities are feeling within the country really needs to be addressed and heard, and dealt with properly; just dealt with, period. There needs to be some type of vocal outrage that is not just from the lower working-class people who have most of this pain on their backs. It also needs to come from above, from the government, from high-standing officials to show that they do not approve of this, to say that this is not a proper Canadian thing to do, and this is not who we are as a people. I feel that's a very major thing that needs to be addressed.
That also does connect into the treatment of LGBTQ youth. Yesterday was the International Transgender Day of Remembrance. I'd like to remember all of those who we've lost, and those who are still with us who deserve all the love that they are not quite getting at the moment with a lot of the hate crimes, and it being one of the most deadliest years in a very long time for a trans woman.
There is a lot of negativity, and a lot of quiet brewing that goes on. It affects youth, especially the youth of today, the youth of first- and second-generation new Canadians who came here a while ago. It affects their children, and it affects their children's children. Everyone who I know personally has not only intergenerational trauma from the pain that their family members and ancestors have faced but they also have their current traumas going on due to what they face within their own lives, and what they've had to deal with just day to day.
No one should deal with these things at any point, especially when just going through one's day. I don't feel these things are properly addressed in Canada; they are seen as more of an American issue, though they are just as loud and prevalent as anywhere else.
Thank you.