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YouthSpeak executive director Una Wright said she has concerned about hatred she sees in schools she visits across York Region.
Running the Vaughan-based youth mental health organization, Wright said things have shifted, and there are times where it is like “walking on eggshells” addressing matters of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
“It’s a shame when it happens…it just has an impact about that sense of inclusion,” Wright said, adding that she is concerned by the hate messaging that young people are being exposed to on social media. “They don’t really understand what they’re exposed to, and they’re just regurgitating things when they’re not really aware of the impact it has.”
Organizations connected to the LGBT community attended a Pride town hall hosted by Newmarket-Aurora Liberal candidate Jennifer McLachlan April 3 at her Main Street South campaign office. The event gave people the chance to speak about their current concerns and actions they would like to see the government take. About eight people attended the event from outside organizations both in-person and remotely, along with several people volunteering for McLachlan's campaign team.
Pflag York Region president Tristan Coolman said it has not been a common style of event in election campaigns.
“You’re the first to hold this type of town hall in a very long time,” Coolman said. “I can’t remember the last time that a queer-centric town hall was held. I think it’s important if somebody is making space for us, we show up, and we engage because that’s a two-way street.”
York Pride operations director Jacob Gal also attended and said the organization is focused on ensuring voices are heard.
“We just want to make sure that people are being heard throughout this election,” he said. “There’s obviously a lot of resentment to(ward) our community. We’re trying to figure out how to make the queer case a little bit more relatable for people and be able to get people actually talking.”
McLachlan, previously a security director for York Pride, said that she wanted to hear out the community.
“I’ve been an ally for this community for quite some time,” McLachlan said. "I understand the challenges that face the community and really want to hear from all of you where I should focus my advocacy.”
Discussion included concern about a sense of greater backlash against the community, stemming in part from the U.S.
Pflag York Region vice-president Damian Mellin said that after rallies against COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccines ended, a lot of people pivoted to attacking the LGBT community instead. But he said he would like to find a way to engage better with those people.
“I don’t want to see these people as enemies,” he said. “How do we get them back on board to want to actually work with people in politics?”
York Pride 2SLGBTQ action plan program coordinator Nicholas Kashef said economic hardship can lead to deflection onto marginalized communities.
“What has happened in the past is during economic hardships, it’s the population minorities, it’s the ethnic minorities, it’s the religious minorities and gender and sexual minorities that bear the brunt of that economic hardship and a lot of the displaced anger towards that,” he said.
Participants also delved into social media regulation and finding ways to have people engage with a greater variety of content beyond hateful ones.
“People only see what they like to see. You have to encourage companies to enforce a two-way road,” Gal said. “Algorithms can play a big role.”
The previous Liberal government attempted to introduce the Online Harms Act to police hate speech and bullying online, but the bill stalled and raised concerns about censorship. But McLachlan said it is something she would like to focus on if elected and to see the act passed.
Still, Coolman said caution is needed to ensure proper safeguards for such a bill. He said there are other ideas that could be considered too, like having algorithms consider location more so that people can get more content and connection to their local and regional communities.
“Putting guard rails up on speech, it’s incredibly difficult to do. You got to be very careful,” Coolman said. “I don’t think the Online Harms Act was entirely there, but hopefully, this is an opportunity to revisit it.”
Gal said York Pride has members from all of Canada’s biggest political parties and they are happy to engage with any party to address LGBT issues, and have worked with Newmarket-Aurora Conservative MPP Dawn Gallagher Murphy.
“Trying to get all the different kinds of political candidates, or MPs or MPPs, to understand how they play a very real role in shaping the country," Gal said.
