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Manitoba
Asper School
IN THE FOREFRONT
In what may be a first for any business school in Canada, four gay and lesbian professionals came together in Winnipeg on March 22 for the panel discussion “OUT in Business: Understanding Different Perspectives of the LGBT Workforce.” One of the event organizers, Matt Boisjoli, a fourth-year commerce student at the University of Manitoba, told Outwords, “The event was a success with over 110 students, faculty and professionals in attendance.” As for feedback: “The support from faculty and our dean at the Asper School was phenomenal, saying that it is about time we had an event like this at our school,” Boisjoli said.
The event, presented by The University of Manitoba’s I. H. Asper School of Business and its Career Development Centre, was designed to start a conversation among students, faculty, and stakeholders about creating safe workplaces and protecting the rights of LGBT workers. However, the most interesting topic of discussion was coming out of the closet. As reported in the Winnipeg Free Press, Patrick O’Reilly, the former Chief Operating Officer of the Canadian Museum of Human Rights, said he was “shocked” at how many professionals in Winnipeg are still in the closet. Karen Busby, professor of law at U of M, commented that she knows of only one out senior partner at Winnipeg’s top five law firms; her partner.
Outwords asked one of the panellists, Brad Tyler-West, a senior human resource consultant at Legacy Bowes Group, what he thought of the event. “It was a good first step on the journey,” he said. “The Asper school has had guest speakers in the past dealing with marketing to the GLBT population, but this was the first time there was a session dealing with the GLBT community in the workplace.”
Westwood Collegiate gets an
“A” FOR AWESOME
Every time students take the initiative and form a Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) at their high school – especially with a vision statement to make everyone feel welcome, safe and respected – it’s a hopeful indicator that we’re moving into a better and brighter future.
It’s an even more hopeful indicator when those kids are recognized and awarded. The YMCA-YWCA of Winnipeg presented the 2010 Youth Peace Medal to the Gay Straight Alliance of Westwood Collegiate.
Nominations are made by the public and the medal is awarded to individuals or groups who work for peace and the promotion of non-violence, tolerance and respect in our diverse society, thereby making a distinct and describable difference. Students Erin Laforet and Stephanie Higgins founded the GSA to counter the slurs and bullying endured by their gay friends. Their accomplishments include a rainbow sticker drive for Gay Pride week, creating information pamphlets advocating for gay rights and a teacher education package, and inspiring 90 per cent of the student body to wear purple on anti-bullying day.
The group’s teacher-advisor, Catharine Teichroew, told Outwords, “It gave a strong indication of the impact the GSA has made in making people aware of the need for acceptance, understanding and dignity of all people in this world.” The GSA has been successful in changing attitudes and helping students at Westwood, Teichroew said. “The GSA has been able to have a very positive influence on the school and the community. The kids of the GSA have been working to make the school safe, not just for GLBTTQ* students, but for all who attend Westwood Collegiate.”
Teichroew also acknowledged the support of the St. James-Assiniboia School Division and Westwood principal Mike Wake. The GSA has also helped other GSAs form throughout the division and city, ensuring that even more kids will have stellar qualities like social responsibility and progressive leadershop placed on their permanent records.
Deck The Q Halls
WITH BALLS OF AWESOME
One of the panellists who participated at the Out In Business event will be inducted into the Q Hall Of Fame, headquartered in Vancouver B.C., where it houses and commemorates the history of the LGBT community. Nominations are submitted by members of the community. An independent committee chooses inductees based on the impact the individual, group or entity has had on their community through activism, philanthropy, advocacy, sport and more. Inductees at the inaugural ceremony in 2009 included Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Mark Tewkesbury and Janine Fuller of Little Sisters Bookstore.
The Q Hall of Fame induction ceremony is The Q Ball, a red carpet, black-tie fund-raising gala. This year, the event takes place on July 30 at the close of the Vancouver 2011 Human Rights Conference and the day before Vancouver’s Pride parade.
So which Winnipeg resident will walk the red carpet? Karen Busby, professor of law, University of Manitoba. Among her many achievements, Busby is the founding director of the University of Manitoba Centre for Human Rights Research. As a member of the national board of Egale Canada she worked on the Equal Marriage Campaign, challenges to the bawdyhouse/indecency laws, the age of consent laws and gender identity issues.
When asked for her reaction to the news of the nomination, Busby told Outwords, “While I don’t know who nominated me, I would like to thank them. The LGBT communities in Manitoba work well together; we don’t seem to suffer from the destructive infighting that many social change groups experience,” she said. “It has been an honour to be one of the public figureheads.”
Imagine Lady Gaga
GAGGING
Maria Aragon is a lovely, talented 10-year-old who performed her rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” on YouTube. Lady Gaga saw the video, sent a message to her eight million Twitter followers, and the video went viral. Aragon became a YouTube sensation. When Lady Gaga played the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on March 3, she invited Aragon on stage where the two sang “Born This Way.” Lady Gaga wept tears of pure, glittering artistic joy.
Then, as universal forces are wont to do, an event of opposing magnitude occurred.
On March 29, Stephen Harper came to Winnipeg on the fourth day of his campaign and visited Maria Aragon at home. They sat side by side at her keyboard as she sang “Born This Way.” Then they performed a duet of John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
Rarely do events converge to create such a perfect example of irony. Lady Gaga intended her song to be a gay anthem. Harper courts support from religious groups who find homosexuality “immoral.” John Lennon intended his song to be a plea for peace. Harper spends tax dollars on overpriced F-35 fighter jets and was a strong supporter of the American invasion of Iraq.
One day, Maria Aragon will write the world’s saddest song about the corporate oligarchy/military dictatorship she inadvertently helped Stephen Harper create. Or maybe she and President Gaga will form a coalition and forever rid Canada of capital H.I.M.; His Infernal Majesty.
– Charles Melvin is a Toronto-based freelance writer.
