Status of Women Committee on Dec. 16th, 2024

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

I call this meeting to order. Welcome to meeting number 139 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women.

To all members, please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. I would also like to remind everyone that all comments should be addressed through the chair. Thank you for your co-operation.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on Wednesday, September 25, 2024, the committee is resuming its study of hate-motivated violence targeting the 2SLGBTQI+ community.

Before we welcome the witnesses, I would like to provide this trigger warning. We'll be discussing experiences related to hate-motivated violence. This may be triggering to viewers with similar experiences. If any participants feel distressed or need help, please advise the clerk. For all witnesses and for members of Parliament, it is important to recognize that these are difficult discussions, so let's try to be compassionate in our conversations.

I would like to welcome our witnesses.

I will start with, Mr. Tyler Wisner.

You have five minutes, please.

[Tyler Wisner, Paralegal, As an Individual]

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I'm a gay 26-year-old paralegal with the Department of Justice Canada, although I do not speak on behalf of the Government of Canada in any way.

First, I want to thank the Standing Committee on the Status of Women for allowing me this opportunity to speak about my community. While I am not trans, and I cannot speak on behalf of all queer youth, I have supported queer youth in one way or another over the past 10 years. I'd like to give a glimpse into the bullying they face, the exclusion they experience and the role disinformation plays, but I'll also focus on the joy and the necessity of a community that strives for understanding. This kind of community encourages co-operation and respect. I believe it increases a sense of safety, and it strongly reduces the likelihood of violence.

I'll begin back when I was in high school. I started a gender and sexuality alliance not only to discuss queer issues but also to create space for my Catholic high school's queer community. I knew of countless bullying incidents and overheard how people spoke negatively about trans youth in general. I saw first-hand how this group changed the lives of gay and trans youth, including me. The act of simply having space for queer youth to be themselves, without having to mask who they are, while engaging with their peers and with adults who either understand or strive to understand, I believe is paramount to the success of queer youth.

In 2015, then premier Kathleen Wynne introduced a new sex education curriculum. This new curriculum became incredibly controversial at Oakville, Ontario. One school board meeting comes to mind, when a strong disinformation campaign convinced many that the new curriculum was something very different from reality. This disinformation resulted in dozens of protesters filled with hate surrounding the school board meeting and resulting in the police being called.

Since 2021, I have worked as a camp counsellor for the 15- to 17-year-old group at Camp Ten Oaks. It is a summer camp in Ontario for youth of 2SLGBTQ+ identities, families and communities. The camp sessions provide a safe place for campers from across North America to engage with peers with similar experiences and to learn from the passionate team of queer role models, who also come from a variety of lived experiences. The executive director of the Ten Oaks Project, Kymani Montgomery, is here with us today.

Through deeply introspective conversations, real-life debates and their drive for a bright future, these groups of campers have opened my eyes to the common struggles that queer youth, especially trans youth, face today. While I can think of many examples, one conversation with a camper has stuck with me. An older camper pulled me aside and, articulately and passionately, expressed that they had been significantly struggling with coming out over the past few years. Camp Ten Oaks specifically gave them the confidence to come out and to be exactly who they are. I was lucky enough to see that change in them.

Queer and trans youth do not deserve the social exclusion, the emotional manipulation, the distrust, the transphobic and sexist rhetoric facilitated through social media echo chambers, and the violence that some experience. I know that places like Camp Ten Oaks are valuable and necessary—like my high school gender and sexuality alliance—due to the joy and courage that spaces like it produce.

In preparing for today's panel, I heard one common theme amongst my trans friends and colleagues: Queer spaces like Camp Ten Oaks were necessary for their own security and development. I hope for a future where queer youth can find a welcoming and nurturing community all around them, although, of course, this will not happen overnight.

Given my experience with queer youth, facilitating safe spaces for queer youth to be themselves and addressing disinformation through social media echo chambers or otherwise is important in combatting exclusion, bullying, hate and violence. Listening to the realities faced by trans people, especially trans people of colour, will absolutely contribute to a safer and more cohesive Canadian society.

Finally, learning is not just the responsibility of cisgender heterosexual people or straight people. It is also the responsibility of queer people to learn about those within their own community. Every one of us is human. We all feel happiness, fear and hurt. I truly believe that striving to understand rather than to tolerate or to accept is essential for queer youth.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Thank you Mr. Wisner.

Next are Mr. Breault and Madam Baker.

Go ahead, please. You have five minutes.

Before you start, can you please raise your mic to between your nose and mouth?

Thank you.

[Laurent Breault, Executive Director, Fondation Émergence]

Good morning to all parliamentarians and partners. Thank you for having us.

My name is Laurent Breault, and I am the executive director of Fondation Émergence. I am joined by my colleague Olivia Baker, trainer and content specialist, also representing Fondation Émergence.

Fondation Émergence is a non-profit organization dedicated to informing, educating and raising awareness among the general public about LGBTQ+ realities. Our expertise lies in training services, professional coaching and the production of awareness-raising tools. In addition to working to make workplaces, seniors and caregivers more inclusive, we also take action against conversion therapy and cyberbullying.

We also organize an annual awareness campaign on May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, which the foundation launched for the first time worldwide in 2003. This year's theme was “The Rise of Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate”, based on the trends we have observed. These include statistics on the increase in hate crimes in Canada, the growing presence of online hate and misinformation, the significant rise in hate messages received by our corporate partners when they publish anything related to sexual and gender diversity, anti-LGBTQ+ demonstrations and acts of vandalism, as well as the attitude and comments of certain people who express opinions based on misinformation during our training sessions, such as the infamous litter box hoax, or people who demonstrate a certain hostility towards the subject.

We would like to focus our comments on two points related to today's topic.

Our first point is illustrated in our campaign slogan: “A rollback of LGBTQ+ rights‍ is a setback for all of society.” This rise in hate and the rollback of LGBTQ+ rights must not to be considered in isolation, but rather as a symptom of a broader and more worrying trend for society as a whole.

It's often said that LGBTQ+ communities represent only a minority of the population, and that is true. We are generally talking about a little more than 10% of the population. However, anti-LGBTQ+ violence can also affect other segments of the population, such as people who are perceived as LGBTQ+, like a young boy who's considered effeminate and bullied for it at school, a cisgender woman who's considered too masculine and becomes a victim of transphobia, or the families and friends of LGBTQ+ people, including the children of same-sex parents.

It's important to note that, according to a Leger survey conducted in 2024, 45% of people in Canada have LGBTQ+ relatives. Then we have all the other marginalized communities, since LGTBQ-phobias open the door to other types of violence and can set dangerous precedents.

[Olivia Baker, Trainer and content specialist, Fondation Émergence]

Our second point is that this violence does not occur out of the blue. It can be seen as a pendulum swinging back after remarkable advances in LGBTQ+ rights in recent decades. Indeed, a spike in violence often follows major advances in human rights. I can't help but think of the massacre at École Polytechnique on December 6 or the growth of the masculinist movement, which so aptly exemplifies the negative reaction to feminist struggles of the day.

Anti-LGBTQ+ violence is also the result of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. On that point, I'd like to share some thoughts on the concept of dangerous speech. Dangerous Speech Project defines dangerous speech as any form of expression, such as speech or images, that can increase the risk that its audience will condone or participate in violence against members of another group.

This kind of dangerous speech can be identified based on several hallmarks, including rhetorical hallmarks often found in anti-LGBTQ+ discourse. Examples include dehumanization; portraying the targeted group as a threat to the integrity or purity of the group, including the idea that LGBTQ+ people are recruiting or confusing young people; accusing LGBTQ+ people of attacking women and girls, including accusations of psychological manipulation towards LGBTQ+ communities, or a fear that trans women will attack cisgender women.

Dangerous Speech Project produced a document on the use of dangerous anti-trans rhetoric in the 2024 U.S. election. However, we know that Quebec and Canada—

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Madame Baker, can you wrap up, please? Your five minutes is up.

[Olivia Baker]

Okay.

We are seeing an increase in hate speech in Canada as well. In fact, 34% of Canadians think that hate speech against LGBTQ+ communities has increased in Canada over the past three years.

As far as solutions go, what we would like to highlight is awareness, in accordance with the recommendations of Dangerous Speech Project. This includes preventive awareness as well as in response to hate and disinformation. It is actually easier to provide information than to undo disinformation.

Thank you for your attention.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Thank you.

Next, we have Lauren Pragg. You have five minutes.

[Lauren Pragg, Executive Director, LGBT YouthLine]

Good morning. Thank you, Madam Chair, the committee and my fellow witnesses.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today, and I would like to thank the committee for undertaking this important study.

My name is Lauren Pragg, my pronouns are they/them, and I'm the executive director of LGBT YouthLine. YouthLine is a youth-led, anti-racist organization dedicated to supporting 2SLGBTQ+ youth 29 and under across Ontario through peer support, resources, comprehensive training, advocacy and referrals.

YouthLine began in 1993 as a community-based solution to offer support to 2SLGBTQ+ young people who needed someone to talk to who understood what they were going through. Even 30 years ago, our founders recognized the need for support outside of major cities, so we aim to have a presence in rural, remote and underserved communities across Ontario and, at times, Canada, ensuring that even in regions where services are scarce, youth have one place to turn to for support.

At YouthLine, we're on the front line six days per week, connecting with approximately 3,000 queer and trans youth every year. Through our helpline, our peer-support volunteers provide support for youth navigating the real and pressing challenges they face, including discrimination and marginalization in their schools, families and health care systems. These conversations offer sobering views of how policies and inaction directly contribute to the barriers and harmful experiences shaping young queer lives.

At YouthLine, we do this work while also living its impact, with staff and volunteers who are themselves 2SLGBTQ+ youth and adults working tirelessly to create safe and affirming spaces. Our experience tells us that youth know who they are and have a strong sense of how they might identify. However, what we're seeing, especially with the rise of the parental rights discourse, is that young people must negotiate whether school is a safe place for them to be themselves when home may already be unsafe for them.

When service users ask if schools will out them to their families, we can't provide a definitive answer or reassure them because of the vast differences in not just policy but also the application of policy and enforcement.

The truth is that there's always a risk of being outed, regardless of policy. For our service users, this means that we cannot tell them that they will not be in danger if they choose to come out. Even in school boards that are inclusive on paper, safe school policies are not being enforced. Queer and trans students are dealing with daily homophobia, transphobia and harassment from their peers and sometimes the adults in their school.

One service user told us that they're constantly just being given dirty looks or harassed in the locker rooms and bathrooms. They and their friends always get comments at lunch or straight up get called slurs. They and another student told the principal about them, but she hasn't talked to them.

We've also heard about harassment from school staff. Another chatter told us about one such figure saying that she'll come into their other classes and out them to everyone, that it feels like she misgenders them on purpose, that they feel like such a failure and want to cry. They told their vice-principal, but it still hasn't stopped.

We also have service users whose parents have been radicalized by the far right and espouse opinions echoing popular figures like Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Jordan Peterson. We get service users whose parents are against the so-called “left agenda” and think schools are “transing” kids, but for these youth, school is actually the only safe place they have to be themselves.

Anti-2SLGBTQ+ violence also impacts students who aren't out. Since the lockdowns have ended, we've noticed that young people are having trouble making and keeping friends, and a lot of our chatters feel like their options are to put up with homophobic friends or to be alone.

Beyond schools, protests like the 1 Million March for Children and the rise of transphobia in general have trans people worried about their safety, at minimum, and at worst, have some of our community members feeling hopeless about being queer or trans entirely. Youth have also expressed the intense hatred that's facing them externally as being turned inward on themselves.

November was our busiest month of this year; specifically, the day after the U.S. election was one of our busiest days of the year. Of the service users who shared their gender, all were either trans, questioning or cis women. Of those who shared their age, all of them were 18 or under.

In one week's time, half of the chats that mentioned the election explicitly named being worried about trans rights or anti-trans legislation. On the night after the election, half of the chats that mentioned the election were from chatters from other provinces who were worried about the influence that the U.S. election will have on their own rights. Some of those chats have come from provinces that have stripped trans youth of their rights, such as Alberta, with chatters expressing absolute desperation. One chatter felt that they were forced to leave their province because they felt so unsafe; they felt there would never be a place for them.

YouthLine's recent advocacy campaign, Write for Student Rights, focused on school safety and inclusion for 2SLGBTQ+ youth in Ontario. The campaign was developed in response to anti-trans legislation in other provinces and the recent nation-wide anti-trans protests. The campaign was also motivated by comments to the media from Premier Doug Ford—

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Lauren Pragg, you just have 30 seconds left. Please wrap it up.

[Lauren Pragg]

Thank you.

Comments to the media by Premier Doug Ford and the former Ontario Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce, in the fall of 2022 suggested they agreed with the policy changes in other provinces, which brings us back to the ongoing discussion that's been happening in this committee about the use of the notwithstanding clause.

The last thing I will leave you with right now is that I want to be clear that queer and trans people are everywhere. We're your neighbours, friends, family members and community. No social or political issue remains separate from our communities and our very real concerns about transphobia and homophobia—not indigenous sovereignty here or abroad, not poverty, not education, not housing, not the climate crisis and not health care. I hope the committee keeps that reality in mind as you complete this important and meaningful study.

I'm more than happy to answer any questions you might have for me.

Once again, thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Thank you, Lauren Pragg.

Next, we move to Mr. Tyler Boyce.

You have the floor for five minutes.

[Tyler Boyce, Executive Director, The Enchanté Network]

Good morning, members of the committee, and the Enchanté member organizations that have already provided testimony today.

My name is Tyler Boyce. I'm the executive director of the Enchanté Network, Canada's national association for 2SLGBTQI+ organizations. I'm also a proud Black gay man.

Today, I'm here to share the real life stories and challenges facing hundreds of queer and trans organizations across this country. Let me start with an uncomfortable truth. The organizations that the Enchanté Network supports should not have to exist. Their existence is a direct result of the gaps in government systems that have left 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians without access to health care, housing and basic safety, yet these organizations step in to provide life-saving services from suicide prevention to mental health supports, despite being underfunded, undervalued and now increasingly unsafe.

Anti-gender hate has created a chilling effect across the 2SLGBTQI+ sector, threatening the very existence of those vital spaces. This chilling effect is not abstract. Last summer, a queer organization in North Bay, Ontario called me. Their executive director, a trans man, had opened an email in the morning with threats against his life. Anti-gender extremists told him that they were going to put him through a wood chipper.

Just months later, I spoke with a mother in Vancouver, and she shared how she stopped attending the local parent support group for trans youth in her community because she feared being followed home. She described taking winding routes home from meetings, worried that anti-gender extremists might harm her simply for seeking the support that she needed as a parent.

Earlier this year, a cyber-attack on TransCar+ in Ontario forced them to halt services and divert their already scarce resources to cybersecurity efforts rather than providing their life-saving care to trans youth. These stories are just a few examples of how hate is not only targeting individuals but destabilizing the very organizations working to keep Canadians safe.

Meanwhile, the resources to address this crisis are grossly insufficient. Canada's national action plan to combat hate allocates 5.5% of its $273.6 million to 2SLGBTQI+ organizations. That's barely a fraction of what we need. When will our elected officials finally meet us with the resources necessary for us to meet this moment?

The Enchanté Network's very own rainbow resilience fund received over $1.6 million in requests from queer organizations in less than three weeks. However, we only had $500,000 to distribute, due to limited government support. For every organization that we helped, three more were left vulnerable to threats of violence. If something happens to these organizations that are left unsupported, the responsibility will lie squarely with our elected officials, who have failed to act decisively to prevent it.

Fortunately, this committee does have the power to act. I urge you to recommend three things. One, provide new and expanded funding to ensure that 2SLGBTQI+ organizations can continue to offer life-saving supports. Two, renew rainbow resilience fund support to address urgent safety needs. Three, improve systems for reporting hate crimes so that law enforcement and community safety alternatives can be best equipped to support our communities.

These are not luxuries; they are necessities, and the cost of inaction is devastating. When organizations like OUTLoud North Bay or TransCar+ face overwhelming threats of hate, it reflects the broader danger of anti-gender hate. 2SLGBTQI+ organizations are doing their part, often at a great personal and financial cost. It's time for government to step up and do its part as well.

Members of this committee, we have a choice to continue underfunding and overlooking the organizations that are quite literally saving lives or to act decisively to protect the spaces and the people who rely on them. The future does not have to be defined by this chilling effect. There is a Canada where queer and trans Canadians can thrive, where hate is no longer tolerated, and where every person, regardless of who they are, has the chance to live a safe, full and dignified life, but we can only get there if you act.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Thank you, Mr. Boyce.

Thank you all for your opening remarks. Now we will move to our rounds of questions.

We'll start with Ms. Ferreri.

You have six minutes, Michelle.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thanks, Madam Chair.

Good morning, everyone.

Thank you to our witnesses for being here.

If I could, I'd like to start with Mr. Breault.

You previously referenced your stats. Could you share with the committee the stats you've seen on hate crimes impacting your clientele?

[Laurent Breault]

May I answer the question in French?

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Yes.

[Laurent Breault]

Fondation Émergence commissions Leger to conduct a survey every year to assess the opinion and perception of Canadians on LGBTQ+ realities. All of our surveys are available on the foundation's website. A total of 1,500 respondents from across Canada took part in the survey. To answer your question, 78% of Canadians say they are allies of LGBT communities, but there is still a significant gap.

As far as hate crimes are concerned, we rely heavily on police data. This is publicly available data on the rise of hate crimes. Between 2018 and 2022, hate crimes against people from the LGBTQ+ communities nearly tripled or quadrupled. We always use official data. I don't know if I'm answering your question correctly, but perhaps Ms. Baker would like to add something.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

That's great. Thank you.

We've seen a lot of witnesses come forward to share some powerful testimony. One of the things I've seen in my own community is that people who are violating parole and violating bail are committing crimes, so public safety is at risk for a lot of people who feel more vulnerable or who are more vulnerable.

I have a lot of friends who don't feel safe walking down the street anymore. They just don't feel that public safety has been a priority, based on the bail and justice system, where people are out free, like violent repeat offenders.

Has this been an issue within the communities that you serve?

Anyone is free to answer that question. I have Mr. Wisner and Mr. Boyce in the room, but anybody is free to answer that.

[Olivia Baker]

Yes, I would like to add to that. Assaults and hate crimes have increased quite dramatically, by 72% in recent years. That said, we also need to consider all the crimes that go unreported and the complaints that go undocumented. Here's another figure that might give an idea of the situation: 91% of LGBTQ+ people who have experienced violence related to their sexual orientation or gender identity did not report it to the police. So when we talk about these figures, it's important to remember that this is really just the tip of the iceberg.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Agreed.

One of the things we've seen in our studies on intimate partner violence from witness testimony is that, when there are no consequences, there's nothing stopping hateful people, bad people or criminals from doing these things again. I think you're exactly correct that.... I don't even know that all of these things are reported, especially when we look at intimate partner violence or domestic violence, because there's an element of shame as well for a lot of folks.

Mr. Boyce, you looked like you wanted to say something as well.

[Tyler Boyce]

First of all, I really appreciate the question.

I do want to bring this committee back to the point that it's not only violent criminals or repeat offenders who are committing these crimes against queer and trans communities. Rather, we're living in a heightened moment where folks with no record, everyday Canadians, are being radicalized into an anti-gender movement for a myriad of different reasons. I really want to bring it back into focus that it's not only folks who are repeat offenders who are committing these crimes. Rather, there are folks who are being radicalized. That's why these conversations are so important.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

That's fair.

Are those folks getting charged? With the folks who are engaging in those radical movements, those crimes that you're talking about, do you feel that justice is being served? Whether they're repeat violent offenders or first-time offenders, or whether these are hate crimes, do you find that justice is being served for the victims?

[Tyler Boyce]

While it's very important to think about justice, I think there are many ways to think about it. One is with the approach I think I'm hearing in your question, which is a punitive approach towards justice. I think there are other ways to approach justice. That's why conversations like this, listening to witnesses who are providing real-life testimony, allow us to understand how broader narratives around the pathologization of queer and trans people, some of which has been echoed in the House of Commons itself, have consequences. It's not only about the punishment but also about us all acting responsibly with our words to prevent crimes from happening.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thank you so much. I'm out of time.