Maëlys McArdle

Category: Life

Every other post.

  • Victory?

    Victory?

    Following up on my last post, I sent this message to my MPP asking for clarification on his statements:

    Thank you very much for your reply.

    I did hear the comments made on behalf of the Premier. It was not clear to me, however, if this meant that students would no longer be forbidden from starting Gay-Straight Alliance clubs come September. Will that in fact be the case?

    – Julien

    Yesterday, I received a response back from his assistant:

    Hi Julien,

    My apologies for the delay in response. I’d like to confirm that students can now start Gay-Straight Alliances in all schools throughout the province.

    [Name Removed]
    Senior Constituency Assistant
    Office of Yasir Naqvi MPP, Ottawa Centre

    If this is true, this is big news. It would be a departure from Mr. Naqvi’s previous statements, which mirrored the party line. It would be a great victory for LGBT youth in Ontario Catholic schools.

    I forwarded the emails to Xtra!, who got back to me saying they’d follow up. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Is this in fact true? Did the assistant misspeak? I’ll let you know as soon as I find out.

    Update August 25th, 2011: I was able to talk to Mr. Naqvi in person at a town hall meeting that he held. Unfortunately, the assistant did in fact misspeak. The Catholic boards would continue the ban on any club with the word “gay”, though Mr. Naqvi assured me that students could rename the club and the content would not be censored by the schools. I have reason to believe that this won’t be the case, but time will tell.

  • Response from my MPP on GSAs

    Response from my MPP on GSAs

    A little over three months ago, I sent a letter to my local MPP discussing the ban on Gay-Straight Alliances in Ontario Catholic schools and imploring action. His name is Yasir Naqvi, and he also happens to be the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Education. Yesterday, his reply arrived.

    Dear Mr. McArdle,

    Thank you for your emails regarding the Catholic school system in Ontario. I appreciate the time you have taken to write and share your concerns with me, and I would like to apologize for the delay in my response. Every student in Ontario’s publicly funded schools is entitled to respect, equity, and an education free from discrimination and harassment. Students do better in a respectful and inclusive environment, and those in our publicly funded schools are fortunate to benefit from an environment where kids from all ages, races, and backgrounds share a classroom. Their differences help to make our province’s schools among the very best in the world.

    Last fall, our government required Ontario school boards to implement one of the most progressive inclusive education policies in North America. Every school board now must have their own Equity Policy, including Catholic and Francophone boards. Our Equity and Inclusive Education Policy is clear; discrimination based on race, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation are unacceptable, and boards and schools all have a role to play in helping to build more inclusive schools. We take matters like this very seriously: we have also passed legislation to make reporting violent incidents mandatory, and added “bullying” to the Safe Schools Act. We are focused on ensuring that all students have the supports in our schools through student-led forums to feel welcome, safe and free from discrimination and harassment.

    I know that student support groups for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) students have been controversial within some Ontarian schools. In September, 2010 our government presented Gay Straight Alliances as an option for boards to build more inclusive, respectful schools, but it has been left to school boards to decide whether or not to implement them. However, earlier this month the Premier stated that “…effective this September, high school students who want their school to have a student support group for LGBT students will have one. This is not a matter of choice for school boards or principals. If students want it, they will have it.” I am very proud of our government’s firm stance on this issue. We must all ensure that every Ontarian student feels welcome, safe and supported in an environment free from discrimination and harassment. Gender-based and homophobic bullying is unacceptable in all schools.

    Once again, thank you for writing. Please do not hesitate to contact me at my Community Office at any time to share your thoughts and concerns. I look forward to hearing from you.

    Sincerely,

    Yasir Naqvi, MPP
    Ottawa Centre

    I thanked him for the reply, and asked him if this meant that students would no longer be forbidden from starting Gay-Straight Alliances.

    That clarification is needed. The Catholic schools are currently working on a framework for their own version of the clubs, and the skeptic in me believes that the McGuinty government would be content to keep the ban in place and if it meant the introduction of these new clubs. I have reasons to suspect this will be the case given the exchange quoted below:

    Does McGuinty’s announcement mean, then, that there will be GSAs that are called GSAs and supported by Catholic school administrators next year? “Premier McGuinty did not use the words GSAs,” Murray wrote in a text message to Xtra. “He said ‘support groups for LGBT youth.”

    Ignoring the acceptance of intolerance with the persistence of the ban, the problem with this is that there is a world of difference between a GSA and what I’ll call the “framework clubs.”

    Gay-Straight Alliances are student run clubs that provide support for students affected by LGBT issues and their allies.  The good they’ve done in making schools safer for students have been espoused over and over by the Ministry of Education.

    Meanwhile, the framework clubs came to be out of an opposition to the genuine support offered by GSAs. Not exactly a promising start. Furthermore, its mandate is being worked out by the same institution whose leadership in Ontario dictates that gay students must be viewed as intrinsically disordered. The same institution that continues to marginalize queer students, sometimes to absurd lengths.

    Imagine if an organization who believed that racial minorities were “intrinsically disordered” had decided to come up with their own version of an anti-racism club, as a means to prevent real anti-racism clubs from taking hold. I think it’s quite evident how students would not likely be served with such alternatives.

    Update: Naqvi’s comments for this article gives further credence to the scenario I suggest. I’ll be the first to celebrate should I turn out to be wrong.

    Update: Xtra! has an interesting article on the situation.

  • The Road Trip

    The Road Trip

    One month ago, I embarked on a road trip with Jay and two of his friends.  The trip started out from my home town of Ottawa, and we would hit up Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, Washington D.C., New York City, Boston and Montreal. We did all of this in seven days.

     

    One of the guys estimated that we drove around 5,700 kilometers. Five of the days were spent on the road. Among the sights while driving were the Great Lakes, the awe-inspiring storms of the Midwest, the beautiful rolling hills of Pennsylvania, and the small forest Eden that was Connecticut.

    Of course, we did do plenty of stops as well. We stayed a full day in Washington D.C. and New York City. We toured the Capitol building. We walked around the MIT campus in Cambridge. We took a nice break in Milwaukee. We wandered around the Chicago water front, which you can see in the picture below.

    For the most part, things went smooth. There were a few surprises a long the way as well. As this was my first time doing extensive driving in the US, I hadn’t realized to what extent Americans love toll roads. Most major routes between the big cities were toll roads. I remember one day costing us over $60.

    The extensive advertising for basic medical care and for religion were also a bit of a culture shock. I know that Americans treat basic medical care as a privilege rather than a right, but I always get taken aback seeing those ads.

    If I could go back to any place, it would be New York City. I really felt like I only touched the surface. On our first night, we visited the core of Manhattan, ate dinner in the Empire State Building, after which we took a ride to its top (second photo below.) Then the following day, Jay and I went shopping while the two other guys we were with (picture below) went off to Ellis Island and toured the statue of Liberty. We got back together at Central Park and went off for a supper in the city’s vibrant Chinatown.

     

    The day complete, we headed back to our hotel in New Jersey. But there was so much more to see: Queen’s, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Harlem, SOHO, etc. Most of the cities were like this actually – there was so much to do and see, and so little time to do it in.

    After all was said and done, I felt like I needed a vacation from the vacation. Too much driving and too little time for the places we were at. But despite these minor gripes, this was a great experience, and one I’m glad I had the opportunity to take part in.

  • Weight Loss

    Weight Loss

    Brief overview: I weighed around 158lbs when I started working my first “real” office job in 2008. I then went on to gain 20lbs. A year later, I shed the weight, and went back down to 160. After I hooked up with my boyfriend, I started to gain again. By last spring, I weighed over 210lbs. 

    Over the last few months I’ve been working on losing weight. I’ve managed to shed over 30lbs, and now sit in at 178lbs on the scale. The photos below compare what I looked like this past spring (left) with my current appearance.

    This isn’t the first time I’ve made a concerted effort to lose weight, but it is the first time I’ve done it right. My previous approach had been terrible: I’d eat one massive unhealthy meal a day, which I’d get from a local restaurant. By reducing my consumption to a single meal, I did end up shedding pounds – at the expense of my life span.

    This time, I’m eating again, but eating smarter. I started measuring portions and counting calories. I set daily calorie intake goals for myself. I found that I was eating much more than I needed to, and started make changes to my eating habits.

    I eschewed bread and cheese for vegetables as my snack of choice. Chicken breasts, fish, salads, stir fry’s became our dinner staples. Gone were the foods that came in boxes from the grocery store. Pasta became rarer. I stopped buying coke and chips from the work vending machines, and resisted our doughnuts Fridays. Frozen juice replaced ice cream at home.

    I became aware that I did not need to eat as much to feel satisfied. That I could be happy with a burger without the fries and the sugary drink. That I didn’t need to buy popcorn at the cinema. That using smaller plates, limiting the items per plate per trip at a buffet, placing the pots of food outside of arm’s reach, and eating slower – would all make me eat less without actually putting restrictions on food.

    Most important of all: I didn’t stop eating the things I like. That would have been a sure way to guarantee failure. It’s all about eating smart, and that just means putting those foods in context.

    Unlike the last weight loss stint, these changes to my eating habits are permanent. To be honest, I can no longer envision myself living like the old days – and I couldn’t be happier for it.

  • When prejudice wins

    When prejudice wins

    On Tuesday, the Minister of Education for the province of Ontario attended a breakfast to mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. It was there where the Xtra! finally caught up to her, and was able to talk about the Gay-Straight Alliances and its province-wide ban in Catholic schools.

    Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky (Flickr)

    Unfortunately, it turns out that the minister sides with Catholic boards on the ban. Though I should have expected this outcome given the previous tepid response from the provincial politicians on the matter, it still came as a shock.

    It’s a disheartening development, because short of the courts, the provincial government is the highest authority on the matter. So now you have the schools, the boards, their religious overseers, and finally the provincial government all backing homophobic policies.

    What’s particularly discouraging is that I feel like there’s no one left to turn to. The provincial government was the last level in the Catholic boards’ chain of command that could have put an end to this bigotry.

    I’m very skeptical on there being swift progress on this issue. Despite the negative press, the Liberals are getting out of this relatively unscathed and the Conservatives are keeping silent. Meanwhile, the minister’s endorsement of some initiatives to counter homophobia is serving as an effective shield to defuse criticism.

    The burden is on advocacy groups and dissenting voices, but I don’t know what these voices are worth if there’s no one left to listen.

    I contacted my local MPP, Yasir Naqvi, who also happens to be the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Education. I promptly received a reply from his staffer informing me that he’d get back to me. That was over a month ago. I sent an email to follow-up the other day, and I was told by the staffer that a response was forthcoming. I have yet to receive a reply from Mr. Naqvi.

    A thank you to Duncan for catching and informing me of the typographical error.