The Manitoba League for Persons with Disabilities, which was founded in 1974, says it may have to call it quits after the province denied its core funding for the year.
It’s a “devastating blow,” the league that advocates for Manitobans with disabilities said Thursday in an open letter to its members. The provincial non-profit organization promotes accessibility and inclusion for people of all abilities. Its executive council said it recently learned that the provincial government will not be providing core funding of $50,000 for the 2018-19 fiscal year.
“It’s extremely difficult for organizations to operate where there is a lack of core funding,” said disabilities advocate Carlos Sosa.
The league has been the voice of Manitobans with disabilities for more than 40 years, pushing for changes in attitudes toward people with disabilities, Sosa said. One of its biggest accomplishments is the creation of HandiTransit in Winnipeg, which has opened doors for thousands of people, he said.
I feel like an important message is trying to be communicated to me but I have no idea what it is
Our forests are being cut down 3x faster than they can grow! One acre of hemp produces as much cellulose fiber pulp as 4.1 acres of trees!!! This is super useful for so many things, especially paper production! In addition, hemp takes in carbon dioxide 4x as fast as trees do, which makes it especially valuable in the act of reducing CO2 emissions/greenhouse gases! 🌲🌲🌲 source
Important reminder that industrial hemp can’t be used as a recreational drug, so if anyone tries to pull that card you can just stop them then and there. There are no real arguments against using industrial hemp, even if you’re rigidly against the legalization of any recreational drugs.
Doug Ford’s government has revoked current and future funding for the College of Midwives of Ontario, the regulatory body that oversees more than 900 midwives and has had government support for 25 years.
The halt in funding is retroactive to April 1, 2018, and includes almost $800,000 in operational grants for the College’s current budget year, which made up one-third of its budget. The government informed the College on Nov. 8, eight months into the fiscal year.
In a joint statement, the College’s president, Tiffany Haidon, and its registrar and CEO, Kelly Dobbin, wrote that the loss of funding will place a heavy financial burden on the profession in future years, even though a contingency plan is in place “to ensure that the impact of these changes on members is minimal.”
The statement said the changes will have no impact on the public. “We cannot cut our services and programs, as the College’s work is mandated by our governing legislation,” it said.
FOSTA/SESTA, Sex Trafficking, Sex Work and Censorship
I wanted to discuss the passage of FOSTA/SESTA a little bit more. In part because of the flaws that keep them from doing what they allege they will do, but also because of all of the consequences (intended and otherwise) that we can expect.
First a few basics. FOSTA (Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act introduced by Ann Wagner, R) comes from the House of Representatives, SESTA (Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act introduced by Rob Portman, R) comes from the Senate. Combined, they have a very noble and important stated purpose; protecting victims of sex trafficking from being sold online and to allow them legal recourse if a site is proven to have facilitated their trafficking.
Additionally, FOSTA updates the Mann Act to make illegal “using or operating “a means of interstate or foreign commerce with the intent to promote or facilitate the prostitution of another person.”
FOSTA/SESTA targets online platforms like Backpage with the assertion that it and similar sites allow sex trafficking to flourish. However, they make no distinction between sex work and sex trafficking. There are big and important differences and a failure to understand those differences puts lives of both at risk
Advocates for trafficking victims and survivors of sex trafficking have spoken out against FOSTA/SESTA because for all it’s stated purpose, it does little to actually combat sex trafficking. Simply shutting down online platforms does nothing to stop the demand for sex trafficking, nor does it stop traffickers from simply seeking other venues. The laws fail to understand how sex trafficking works and that failure harms everyone.
How Victims/Survivors of Sex Trafficking are hurt by FOSTA/SESTA:
As online platforms close (you can see a running list here that includes Microsoft , Craigslist, Google Play, Instagram, Gmail etc), those who traffick will seek other means to sell their victims, as stated above. These other means are very often harder to identify and track, hampering investigations and allowing sex trafficking to flourish in the shadows.
Sex workers rely on the same online platforms mentioned in FOSTA/SESTA not only to advertise their services , but to screen clients and to communicate lists of dangerous clients with other sex workers. This is VITAL to their livelihoods and safety. In the days since the law passed, I’ve watched my sex worker friends and loved ones scramble- they are wondering how they are going to make rent, how they are going to afford to eat, how they are going to avoid being the next dead sex worker that people will ignore because society views sex workers as disposable and morally repugnant.
Because of its far reach, it leads to internet censorship. If you are fond of #MeToo, if you’ve been pleased to see people being held accountable instead of warned about in whispers via private lists, if you enjoy the fact that public outing of sexual predators is happening en masse right now or if you have told your own story as a survivor (or hope to do so in the future), you should be outraged, because these are the very things that will be censored.
So to summarize: FOSTA/SESTA does NOT stop sex trafficking, nor does it protect victims in any meaningful way. It puts their lives at further risk by forcing trafficking further underground.
FOSTA/SESTA actively endangers consensual sex workers, who make up the vast majority of sex advertising on the sites it attacks. It puts THEIR lives at risk by taking away all of the safety nets they have, forcing their work underground.
It also hurts you by allowing for censorship of the most disenfranchised voices, including yours. And it chips away at basic internet information freedom, which is crucial in fighting rape culture and keeping information available .
Educate yourself as much as you can about FOSTA/SESTA and then share that knowledge with other people. You can listen to those most harmed by FOSTA/SESTA by following Twitter hashtags #LetUsSurvive and #SurvivorsAgainstSESTA, both of which feature sex trafficking survivors and sex workers currently dealing with the fallout.
Sex trafficking is a problem that needs to be addressed, but FOSTA/SESTA is not the way.
Within the past two days, both the Ontario Human Rights Commission and the Office of the Independent Police Review Director published reports containing evidence of systemic racism in policing in Toronto and Thunder Bay, and it’s already clear that neither the TPS, TBPS, or their municipal governments have any sense of accountability or desire to create change.
The TPS made a statement dismissing the issue, refusing to admit that their officers assault, shoot, and kill black people at disproportionate rates and instead saying that maybe some black people “feel” that this happens. The TBPS referred to evidence of their racism and callous disregard for Indigenous lives as a “barrier in policing.”
None of these people are going to take responsiblity and actually do something unless we force them to. This means calling our city councillors, demanding that the recommendations from the OHRC and OIPRD are accepted, supporting political candidates who aren’t going to sit on their hands, and showing up at police board meetings – the next Toronto Police Services Board meeting is January 18.
I try, when talking about certain things, not to talk from a place of panic. Speaking from experience, panic spreads like wildfire and can just as easily burn down the thing you are trying to protect just as readily as the thing you are trying to protect it from.
The people in charge know this, and are relying on you being frightened of them. Wilful obedience would be better, but fear is also a malleable thing they can work with. It helps people to bend, thinking it will prevent them from being broken. Except the people trying to make you bend, don’t give a single fuck if it breaks you. Control is more important to them, control and the continuing illusion of power. Anyone else that gets smashed under the wheel of their authority is considered *gestures vaguely* negligible and acceptable damage.
So while I understand the inclination to run screaming in circles over certain recent events (trust me, I do it often enough myself) it is vital that you don’t let it own you. Fear is a vital part of our survival instinct, but only if we know how to use it. It lets us know, much like pain, that something is very wrong and we should do something about it.
And you don’t have to be fearless to be brave. To quote our dearly beloved Space Mother, Carrie Fisher, “stay afraid, but do it anyway.”
(And I know it’s hard for a lot of us, I really, really do. There are some days my clusterfuck of mental health issues are just so bad I can’t uncurl from the fetal position long enough to stay hydrated, let alone fight the good fight. But even on those days merely existing is an act of rebellious defiance.)
So you see, I’m not trying to be blase when I talk about certain things. Just because you don’t see me visibly screaming in terror doesn’t mean I’m not doing it on the inside. By remaining visibly calm, I am in fact trying to help other people to not be afraid. To give them some sense of understanding and feeling of control over the situation so that in turn they might be better equipped to help me and others so inclined like me, to fix this shit.
Acknowledge your fear. Let it pass over and through you, breathe it in and hold it in your lungs, then let it out like fire.
You do not need to be a ray of sunshine to be the positive change you want to see in the world. Sometimes you can be a very small, very afraid flicker in the darkness. Just don’t let that flicker go out.
“Do not drink this water,” warned the signs taped to fountains and bathroom sinks in a small Ontario town.
For thousands of people in the rural community 150 kilometres northwest of Toronto, the water they once used to brush their teeth, bathe their children and prepare their meals had become a hostile enemy.
Jugs of clean water had to be delivered to a depot. Hospitals were overrun with new patients. Children were pulled out of school. Businesses closed.
The tainted-water scandal in Walkerton in the spring of 2000 devastated the community, with thousands falling ill and seven people dying. It was one of the worst health epidemics in the province’s history.
Nearly 19 years later, environmental advocates say Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government is posing one of the greatest risks both the environment and public health have faced in decades.
Last week, the government tabled a new piece of legislation, Bill 66, that, if passed, would allow commercial development to bypass several long-standing laws meant to protect the natural environment and the health of residents, including the Clean Water Act that was put in place following the Walkerton tragedy.
Queer Fiction Writer 