READ FULL STORY HERE:
Saturday 29 June 2013
Wednesday 26 June 2013
YWCA SUDBURY CHANGES TRANSGNEDER POLICY
On December 29, 2011, Jessica Larabee filed a human rights complaint alleging that the YWCA Sudbury discriminated against her.
Jessica Larabee has decided to drop the human rights complaint against the YWCA Sudbury.
Jessica Larabee said she is confident she would win, but she doesn't want taxpayers to foot the bill for a victory at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
She says Her first priority was for the YWCA Sudbury to change its policy and her second priority was to receive financial compensation for pain and suffering and general damages.
Jessica Larabee said that the YWCA Sudbury has changed the policy and is currently allowing transgender people into the shelter. Jessica said she believes she achieved her goal.
“I hope this shelter will be a model for how things should be,” Larabee said.
Jessica Larabee believes it would take several years to prevail, and she doesn't think it's fair for her lawyer to keep working on the case pro bono.
Instead of fighting over financial compensation requests, Jessica Larabee said she wants to focus on the future and other social advocacy goals.
IMPORTANT YWCA SUDBURY POLICY:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
On December 29, 2011, Jessica Larabee filed a human rights complaint alleging that the YWCA Sudbury discriminated against her.
Jessica Larabee has decided to drop the human rights complaint against the YWCA Sudbury.
Jessica Larabee said she is confident she would win, but she doesn't want taxpayers to foot the bill for a victory at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
She says Her first priority was for the YWCA Sudbury to change its policy and her second priority was to receive financial compensation for pain and suffering and general damages.
Jessica Larabee said that the YWCA Sudbury has changed the policy and is currently allowing transgender people into the shelter. Jessica said she believes she achieved her goal.
“I hope this shelter will be a model for how things should be,” Larabee said.
Jessica Larabee believes it would take several years to prevail, and she doesn't think it's fair for her lawyer to keep working on the case pro bono.
Instead of fighting over financial compensation requests, Jessica Larabee said she wants to focus on the future and other social advocacy goals.
IMPORTANT YWCA SUDBURY POLICY:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/
Please read ANOTHER email I received from a transgender person, Rita O'link, regarding the YWCA Sudbury discriminating against transgender people.
A member of the LGBTQ community in Sudbury sent this email to the YWCA Sudbury.
Please click the screen shot below to be able to more
easily read the email:
Sunday 23 June 2013
Rebuttal:
Monday, March 2, 2004 In rebuttal to the article “The Good Samaritan Inn Sets The Record Straight”.
To call people’s questions and concerns about a publicly supported place “evil” is most pretentious. It is not evil to confront an issue. What is evil is when good people know of evil, and do nothing about it.
If a meeting inviting the public to join their Board of Directors was publicized in the Daily Press it wasn’t as noticeable as the obvious aforementioned article written by the Secretary of The Good Samaritan Inn Donald Bruneau. Mr. Bruneau says it hurts him deeply to hear false rumors against the Inn. Well Mr. Bruneau, it hurts our children and families deeply having to worry about leaving our windows open anymore and being safe in our own homes. It hurts us deeply to have our neighborhood imposed upon by dropping off parolees and bringing a convicted rapist here to take up permanent residence in the homeless shelter. You don’t mention that in your “Setting The Record Straight” statement. You don’t mention a lot of things the public has the right to know. Like the homeless people can't even find the place because it is not "centrally located" Exactly when did this particular Board of Directors unite? Answer: February 2004. Why? Because of a sought after $60.000.00 Trillium grant. No one is attacking the “Homeless”. On the contrary, we want to help the poor and homeless. However this “homeless shelter” encourages dependence rather than encouraging independent living. It advertises for permanent residents and for senior citizens at the rate of up to $550.00 per month, room and board, in the Timmins Times. Founder/President of The Good Samaritan Inn Rose Nadeau advertises that women and children of any age are welcome there. She does so aware that a convicted rapist and other offenders of any crime are sharing the common bathrooms and living areas. It does not mention that boarders, parolees, Rose, her mother, and her brother are all living in the homeless shelter eating the food and taking up the space meant for the homeless. This is exactly why Jesus was born in a manger, “For there was no room at the Inn”. Rose Nadeau, in her letter to the Timmins Daily Press editor, "The Maple Leaf could serve as a Shelter" states her wants clearly. No one was willing to sell her real estate in Timmins because they did not want the shelter in their neighborhoods. Instead of the city donating or supporting the "Homeless Shelter" by moving it into one of the dozens of empty buildings in Timmins, three vehicles were donated to transport the homeless from Timmins to The Good Samaritan Inn in South Porcupine. We are 5,000 people in South Porcupine; Timmins has 50,000 with a much larger downtown core. What is evil sir is Timmins denying the homeless affordable housing or a homeless shelter in Timmins. So don't be calling it "Timmins’ first homeless shelter”. Timmins rejected the shelter by their actions. Ostracize yourselves, not the people of South Porcupine who have real concerns knowing that convicted rapists and other offenders are living in the neighborhood. The Inn must be located where it would be most accessible to the majority of homeless and poor. It makes more sense to pick up the rare homeless people from South Porcupine and transport them to Timmins to a shelter rather than transporting the many more Timmins homeless here. Just one round trip a day to Timmins at a conservative cost of $5.00 for gas per round trip equals $1,825.00 per year, whereas a liberal estimate of one round trip per week to South Porcupine from Timmins would run $260.00 per year. $1,825.00 is ¼ of the Inns $80.000.00 mortgage payment. The Inn has three donated vehicles. If each of the three vehicles makes one round trip to Timmins and back per day, (I'm sure they are used more) a conservative annual gas total would run $5,475.00, which comes to 2/3’s of the Inn's mortgage payment. Is the Good Samaritan Inn a Homeless Shelter or a Tax Shelter? Quoted from “The Good Samaritan Inn Sets the Record Straight” is the intended scolding in the above article. "Come my children, listen to me. I will teach you to fear Yahweh. Who among you delights in life, longs for a time to enjoy prosperity? Guard your tongue from evil, your lips from any breath of deceit. Turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it." Psalms: 34-12-14 Mr. Bruneau goes on to warn us about what serious evils and harm can be done by the words of others and that we can curse or bless others with our mouths and will be judged accordingly by God. So be it Mr. Bruneau, you chose the quote. We who have invested our lives and money and are raising our families in South Porcupine, we who have roots and loved ones here, we who watch each other’s backs, neighbor for neighbor so we can sleep and live in peace, we who choose to live here in this "out of the way area" for our children’s and senior’s safety. We are the taxpayers , we are the voters, we too are children of God who are working hard to secure our futures. Many people are just a cheque away from being homeless, barely holding things together, and have been robbed of the delights in life and can no longer look forward to prosperity which Mr. Bruneau spoke of in his article, due to the present location of The Good Samaritan Inn. It is the "drop off centre" for parolees and home to known sex offenders, which knocks off no less than $10,000.00 in salability and property value, no matter how much we upgrade, no matter how many gold mines open. Who would want to bring their family to our neighborhood knowing who we are sharing our sidewalks and rental accommodations with? What you heard sir was the truth, there is more and it gets worse.
Mr. Bruneau, if you support the Rose Nadeau and her Good Samaritan Inn so much let them move next to your schools and home.
Yours Truly, Mary Theresa Kristie Concerned mother, grandmother, friend and home owner in South Porcupine. |
SOURCE:
The YWCA Sudbury has raised the concern that other women in the shelter may feel triggered by transgendered women sharing rooms with them oversight in the shelter. Based on some preliminary research completed by the Human Rights Legal Support Centre relating to the shelters in the province, the appropriate response to this kind of trigger is not to exclude the transgender women from the shelter but to population. As with other differences amongst women in shelters, whether those differences are cultural, , ethical, religious, or age - based, the YWCA SUdbury has a duty to facilitate inclusion, not discriminatory preference.
CUSTOMER PREFERENCE IS NOT A DEFENCE TO DISCRIMINATION.
Such triggering (If it were EVER to occur) can and must be addressed by management staff at the shelter in accordance with training. A woman who expresses a preference not to share a space with a transgender woman and cannot be convicted to share the space in an inclusive and respectful manner may need to be referred out, as would be the case if a women felt triggered by another woman's age or race.
To the Human Rights Legal Support Centre knowledge, the YWCA Sudbury is the only service provider of its kind in Ontario that refers transgender women to motels during the night (Safety being one of the concerns with this approach) Inclusive shelters in Ontario (including those in small towns), have a "no questions asked"fully inclusive policy for providing services to those who identify as women, regardless of whether they are transgender. There is a very small minority of service providers the Human Rights Legal Support Centre has been in touch with who refer to other inclusive programs.
Please read ANOTHER support letter that a supporter sent to the YWCA Sudbury regarding them discriminating transgender people.
Barhareh Norouzian sent this email to the YWCA Sudbury. She worked for the YWCA Toronto and when she sent the email to the YWCA Sudbury she happened to also be an Applicant in a human rights complaint against the YWCA Toronto herself.
Please click the screen shot below to be able to more
easily read the email:
Saturday 22 June 2013
Please read ANOTHER support letter that a supporter sent to the YWCA Sudbury regarding them discriminating transgender people.
The support emails YWCA Sudbury telling them how they feel about the YWCA Sudbury discriminating against transgender people.
Please click the screen shot below to be able to more
easily read the email:
Friday 21 June 2013
I figure this is a good place to clear the air as to why I am still posting about the CAS and group homes after being out of the system for a little more then 6 years. Make sure there is no confusing of my reasons. I am not seeking sympathy from anyone. I am seeking positive changes. Let me share with you some of the positive changes I would like to see happen in the government foster care system in Ontario and please feel free to comment and share your views or the positive changes you too would like to see. I am sharing with you some (I will probably add more tomorrow or the next day) of the positive changes I would like to see happen to the CAS in Ontario.
Not in any order of importance...
- Shut it down, and rebuild it from scratch. Using the many of us who were lucky enough to survive and learn what is actually going on in the system.
- Ontario CAS needs Ombudsman Oversight
- All CAS and social workers required to be registered with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers
- The RCMP should investigate allegations of child abuse or neglect and the CAS should only deal with social work and only social work
- Mandatory that all workers working with children and youth receive training on LGBTQ issues
- The CAS should not be able to apprehend children based not on abuse or neglect but simply because the mom is young or poor or because the child was once in foster care themselves
- Group home workers need more training on mental health
- The Family Courts should be public and NOT SECRET
- Children's Aid Society and its funding formula needs to be changed IMMEDIATELY
- Shut down all group homes immediately
- Reduce the case load workers have
- Hire more staff. I lived in a NLP group home when I was a kid and the staff had 1 staff for almost 7 kids late at night and thats just not safe for the staff and kids! Think about it. The group home worker needs to to resident ratio needs to be raised....like 2 workers to 3 kids.
- If a child or youth sues CAS or a group home, require that the responding party can't ask for a gag order.
- CAS and group home owners should hire more LGBTQ people
- CAS should get a financial bonus when ever they help a family be stronger and together NOT when they apprehend a child
- Foster homes and group home owners should not allow their homes to be dirty with holes in the walls
- CAS should start measuring how kids are doing in the care of the CAS. We have hospitals measuring outcomes and schools are measuring how students are doing. CAS should be doing the same! (Mr. Harold Cleary agrees)
- HOMES specifically for LGBTQ youth and children
- If a child dies in government foster care, don't put a gag order on the family (So many cases, Velvet Martin and Jamie Sullivan and many, many other cases too)
- Stop over medicating children. Stop drugging children for profit
- CAS not be allowed to interview the children at school
- CAS should give aging out of youth their full unedited file. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO HIDE??
- All group homes should post a rainbow LGBTQ flag in the common area. Visibly display posters and signage to educate and raise awareness about LGBTQ children and youth struggles
- Foster parents and group home workers should really be put through a more gruelling screening process
- Foster homes and group homes and should room kids based on their gender identity not on their sex. Trans children and youth should be addressed in the name they self - identify with, regardless of what name may appear on their identification.
- Trans children and youth should be addressed by the pronoun they prefer, regardless if the child or youth had a complete sex change or not. Consistently using the wrong name or gender pronoun should be considered a form of harassment.
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