Status of Women Committee on Dec. 16th, 2024

[Tyler Boyce]

That is such a great way of thinking about it. I think we share that approach of empathy and compassion.

I'll equally share a story. I volunteer at old folks' homes just to meet new people and get different ideas from a different generation. So many times when I tell folks from that generation about my sexual orientation, the conversation shifts. However, through those moments, I have developed so much hope and belief in the good spirit of Canadians being brought into conversations of broader equality and justice. So many times, those conversations could have told me, “This person is a bad person because they don't understand my sexual orientation or gender identity.” When I took the time to listen and give them the patience and grace to come with me along that journey—when they felt safe to ask questions about what it means to be trans, non-binary or gay—suddenly, a new connection was built.

I shared that example because that individual connection in my life could be the blueprint for how we approach Canadian society in general.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

My time is limited.

I actually volunteer at seniors' homes. I will tell you that I enjoy it, because they're very innocent. I don't find they judge people. I find they're at a time in their lives where they're accepting. It's very reassuring to me that we are able to understand this as we get older. I'm a senior—I'm not going to lie—and I'm damn proud of it because I'm on the right side of the soil.

What I want to emphasize is that, unless we ensure the safety of everyone—whether it's within their home or outside of their home—there must be penalties so that we can keep everyone safe. That's what's concerning to me. I have family members who are gay and I know the struggles they went through with their own families. We need to change that.

When you talk about education—

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Thank you, Mrs. Roberts. You're way over time.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Am I cut off?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

You can quickly give a short answer in 30 seconds to Mrs. Roberts.

[Tyler Boyce]

I didn't hear the end of your question, but I will say that I don't think it's an either-or conversation. The point I'm trying to make is that there is a continuum of justice. I'm saying that the first point on that continuum must be one where we meet Canadians with empathy, compassion and the hope they can be brought into a conversation.

Maybe the last step is the punitive approach, but at this point in time, in 2024, I'm very willing to lean into public education as a first piece.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Thank you, Mr. Boyce.

Next, we have Ms. Damoff for five minutes.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you so much to all of the witnesses for being here today.

I'm going to move over to the other Tyler, if that's okay.

Tyler, you and I met in 2015 after you had been to the school board. You mentioned the meeting at the time. Your teacher asked me if I would have a coffee with you because you were so upset about what had happened. I still remember this, because the mom of one of your best friends had not treated you well.

Can you talk a little about your own personal experience being subjected to that level of hate?

[Tyler Wisner]

I'll expand a bit more on that board meeting, specifically.

Thank you again, Pam, for inviting me here. It's an incredible opportunity.

At this board meeting, my friend and colleague Joel was able to speak on my behalf about the social exclusion I experienced in elementary school in grades 6, 7 and 8, which pushed me to miss about half of grade 8, simply because I felt so excluded. The fear of bullying was so intense that, even though I was very involved in school and loved learning, I hid in my bedroom. I attended this board meeting with a youth group through the Positive Space Network. It was a youth action committee. My friend Joel, who was the student trustee at the time, shared my story, which was incredibly emotional to hear. It was very impactful, I believe, at this meeting. What resulted, because of a mass disinformation campaign—I have some articles about that here, which I'll mention later—were many hate-filled protesters screaming every slur you could ever imagine at us and getting physically violent, which is why the police had to be called.

This kind of violence continues today. I received a death threat a month ago. These things happen to my colleagues all the time. I don't see it changing today. However, as the other Tyler mentioned, I think we are at a place where we need to come together and talk about this. Education is the first step.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Tyler, I just want to say how incredibly proud I am of you, not only today, but also in 2015 when you told me what you were doing and that you were not giving up. It's obvious that you still haven't given up. It just makes me sad that you continue to have to fight these fights. I know that at the time, the Halton Catholic District School Board had elected officials on it who were contributing to the hate.

Today, there's a by-election in British Columbia, and the Conservative candidate there, in 2021, in a debate over conversion therapy, quoted the Bible to say that gay people were “unclean”. My colleague Rob Oliphant countered that to say that he is not unclean. Quite frankly, it was despicable. She's running for re-election today, and very likely, tomorrow, she could be a member of Parliament in the House of Commons again. We have a Conservative MP who said on a podcast recently that if he was given the opportunity, he would vote against gay marriage.

Tyler, I'll start with you, and then the other Tyler could, if he wants, comment as well. How do comments by elected officials contribute to the hate that is targeting people, the 2SLGBTQI+ community?

[Tyler Wisner]

I'll first mention that the rhetoric of being “unclean” is exactly what people said about people of colour. It's the exact same thing.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

That's right.

[Tyler Wisner]

It's completely the same, which is hard to hear. It's very hard to hear the rhetoric from social conservatives and people like Jordan Peterson. I'll speak about what I've heard from campers. It is devastating. They are terrified. It's something they can't wrap their minds around and that they hear every single day. It's also through social media, which pushes them into echo chambers that are filled with hate, which we've mentioned a few times here. The rhetoric is terrifying. Actually, I think this will connect to something that was asked earlier about where they can go.

If there are no safe spaces in schools, then where do they go? First of all, they shouldn't have to go anywhere, of course, but Camp Ten Oaks is one of those places. For example, in 2024—

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Mr. Wisner, if you could, please wrap it up in around 30 seconds.

[Tyler Wisner]

—309 campers applied, although we were only able to accommodate 179. That's an increase from 2023, when 287 applied. This is an ongoing need that needs support.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Chair, the witness mentioned that he had some articles.

If there's anything you want to leave with the committee, Tyler, it will get distributed to all of us.

Thank you.

[Tyler Wisner]

Absolutely. I have some articles about disinformation, specifically this board meeting, as well as some stats about Camp Ten Oaks.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Thank you.

Next, we have two and a half minutes with Ms. Larouche.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to turn to the Fondation Émergence representatives. I'm going to be quick because two and a half minutes goes fast.

I want to thank Mrs. Roberts for bringing up seniors. Aging Gayfully is one of your organization's many programs. There is a lot of focus on the importance of educating seniors and taking a proactive approach, before acts of hate are committed. Prevention is a major part of the program.

Mr. Breault, you're very familiar with the program. Funding is a serious problem for that kind of programming. Do you have anything to say about how important it is for government to keep these programs going?

[Laurent Breault]

When people think about LGBTQ+ rights, they tend to think about the realities young people face, and rightfully so. However, it's important not to disregard seniors. According to Canada's demographics, the population of people 65 plus is almost bigger than the population of people 25 and under. With 10% to 15% of the population being LGBT, we know there are LGBT seniors who are overlooked, who are invisible.

Unfortunately, the Aging Gayfully program hasn't had funding for a number of years now. The federal government provides very little funding for awareness and education programming and projects for seniors. However, a great deal of work needs to be done. Unfortunately, the population is invisible because many seniors are in the closet. Retirement homes and other senior communities are places where LGBT-phobia is still very present—and not just between seniors. There is a failure among stakeholder communities to prevent homophobia and transphobia and to respond to problems. It is a widespread issue, and unfortunately, resources to make these places more inclusive are very scarce.

It is very important to remember that seniors need to be taken into account as well.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Thank you, Madame Larouche.

Next we have Leah Gazan for two and a half minutes.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

I just want to say that part of my directness today is because I'm hoping that this study will allow us to all do better as elected officials in this country.

I want to point to a blog post written for the London School of Economics by a woman named Emily Sams-Harris. She wrote:

...far-right protesters occupied Canada's capital city of Ottawa in February 2022, under the banner of the “Freedom Convoy” and the ways apathetic police responses encouraged anti-gender rhetoric. Originally claiming to be organized in protest to COVID-19 vaccine mandates established by federal and provincial governments, the convoy quickly evolved. It quickly became clear that this anti-vaccine, anti-masking protest had absorbed anti-gender movement discourses and dog whistles under the banner of [so-called] “freedom”. For more than three weeks, occupiers employed aggressive and threatening tactics such as confronting people on the streets whom they believed to be pro-mask, pro-vaccine, particularly women, Black communities, Indigenous communities, people of colour, as well as [the] queer and trans communities. Hearing transphobic slurs was not uncommon.

I want to say that also happened with “Every Child Matters”, where the Orange Shirt Society pushed back against the convoy, asking them to stop.

Lauren Pragg, I want to go back to you. With the rise of far-right extremism in the country, what can we do as elected officials to ensure that we are not contributing to far-right extremism? What should we also do as elected officials to call out far-right extremists who are currently elected and serving in the Conservative Party of Canada?

[Lauren Pragg]

Thanks very much for sharing that and for the question.

As I said before, it's a question of really just naming misinformation and disinformation. It's also about offering empathy and understanding—understanding that, as elected officials, you're representing everybody in your constituency and that there are gay, queer, trans and bi people in your constituency. Understand that all of your constituents deserve the same rights.

In terms of existing discriminatory positions and thoughts, we have to come back to facts. We have to come back to laws and the charter. These things matter, and they need to be held up. This is where, like I mentioned before, the use of the notwithstanding clause to get around some of those things is a very dangerous precedent that we're seeing in many different instances—its either being used or being alluded to as a way of getting around that.

Again, it's just having conversations based on fact, empathy and equity, and it's really aiming to represent all Canadians as as our elected officials are supposed to, based on the charter. That would be my quick answer to your question.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Thank you.

Next, we have Ms. Dominique Vien.

You have five minutes.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for making time to meet with the committee.

Before I get to my questions, I'd like to set the record straight. The Conservative Party of Canada agreed to undertake this study on hate-motivated violence targeting the LGBTQ community and to give it the serious attention it warrants. We did so in the spirit of openness and compassion.

That is why it is so unfortunate today to hear the disinformation coming from my colleagues in other parties. This is not the first time since we've started the study that we've heard comments like that. Frankly, they are disturbing and inappropriate, especially since the Conservative Party of Canada and its members voted against conversion therapy. In fact, Mr. Poilievre himself appointed a member of the LGBTQ community as his deputy leader, Melissa Lantsman.

That said, Mr. Wisner, did I hear correctly that you received a death threat a month ago or less?