Le chef du NPD, Jack Layton, annoncera ce matin à Montréal que Anne Lagacé Dowson, animatrice à la radio anglophone CBC, sera candidate cet automne aux élections partielles dans Westmount-Ville-Marie.

Mme Lagacé Dowson, âgée de 49 ans, est bien connue de la communauté anglophone de Montréal. Elle a animé jusqu'à la semaine dernière la tribune quotidienne Radio Noon sur les ondes de CBC, l'équivalent anglophone de l'émission Maisonneuve en direct. [...]

«J'écoute les auditeurs depuis des années. Leurs préoccupations au sujet de l'environnement, de la qualité de l'eau, du prix du pétrole, des écarts entre les riches et les pauvres sont les miennes. J'ai décidé qu'il était temps de passer à l'action», a-t-elle indiqué à La Presse.

Le premier ministre Stephen Harper ne dispose plus que de trois semaines pour annoncer la date des quatre élections partielles qui doivent avoir lieu au Canada en septembre, dont deux au Québec. La circonscription de Westmount-Ville-Marie est libre depuis le départ à la retraite de Lucienne Robillard. Anne Lagacé Dowson y affrontera une autre personnalité bien connue du public, l'astronaute Marc Garneau, candidat du Parti libéral.

Mme Lagacé Dowson croit que le fait qu'elle soit la seule femme à faire campagne donnera une bonne longueur d'avance au NPD: «Les préoccupations des femmes sont très importantes. Le parti libéral tient Westmount pour acquise, mais une élection partielle est une porte ouverte au changement.»

Le puissant Syndicat des métallos (SDM) compte tout mettre en oeuvre dans les prochains mois afin de faire élire Barack Obama à la présidence des États-Unis et le chef du NPD, Jack Layton, premier ministre du Canada.

Les deux hommes ont obtenu l'appui sans équivoque du Syndicat des métallos, réuni en congrès international pendant trois jours à Las Vegas, parce qu'ils se sont engagés à renégocier l'Accord de libre-échange nord-américain (ALENA) s'ils prennent le pouvoir. MM. Obama et Layton croient qu'il faut rouvrir ce traité commercial afin d'y inclure des mesures pour protéger davantage les familles, les travailleurs et l'environnement.

La Presse a obtenu hier un exemplaire de la résolution no 4 adoptée par les délégués au congrès de Las Vegas. Jack Layton a d'ailleurs été invité à y prononcer un discours mercredi.

Le NPD a réussi à recruter une candidate vedette à l'élection partielle qui doit avoir lieu dans Westmount-Ville-Marie en septembre. Il s'agit d'Anne Lagacé Dowson, animatrice à la radio de CBC. Mme Lagacé Dowson doit confirmer ses intentions lundi à Montréal.

Poilievre had come under heavy criticism for telling CFRA News Talk Radio that he wasn't sure Canada was "getting value for all of this money" being spent to compensate former students of federally financed residential schools.

"My view is that we need to engender the values of hard work and independence and self-reliance. That's the solution in the long run — more money will not solve it," Poilievre said. [...]

"Mr. Speaker, I am saddened and hurt by the attitude expressed by this official spokesperson for the government," said Liberal MP for Labrador Todd Russell.

"Referring to the residential school settlement, he said, 'Some of us are starting to ask are we really getting value for this money.' But how do you place a value on a stolen child?"

Harper rejected the call to remove Poilievre, but admitted his remarks were wrong.

I have to wonder if Harper even really knows what he's apologizing for.

Because his government has, so far:

• Refused to sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, making Canada an international human rights laughing stock.

• Cut the Status of Women, which included major funding losses for the Sisters in Spirit Initiative that advocated for victims of violence at the Native Women's Association of Canada, their largest contribution agreement.

• Thrown out the Kelowna Accord, which, say what you will about it, was the first time the government actually asked Aboriginal people to be at the same table and collectively make decisions for ourselves.

• Done nothing to help our people protect our own land and has silently watched our leaders be thrown in jail, from the KI Six in Northern Ontario to Mohawk territory to the tar sands in Alberta, etc. Twenty per cent of inmates in Canada are Aboriginal, while we only make up roughly three per cent of the population.

One Conservative Minister can now, with extraordinary and arbitrary powers, choose which immigrants are allowed in Canada and which are not. Another has permanently taken away $52 billion from the $54 billion Employment Insurance Fund from Canada’s unemployed.

First, I tell them to imagine themselves as parents whose 12-year-old son asks, “Mommy/daddy, what does is mean to be a man?” The list I write on the board as they respond is not hard to predict: To be a man is to be strong, responsible, loving. Men provide for those around them and care for others. A man weathers tough times and doesn’t give up.

When that list is complete, I ask the women to observe while the men answer a second question: When you are in all-male spaces, such as the locker room or a night out with the guys, what do you say to each other about what it means to be a man? How do you define masculinity when there are no women present?

The students, both men and women, laugh nervously, knowing the second list will be different from the first. The men fumble a bit at first, as it becomes clear that one common way men define masculinity in practice is not through affirmative statements but negative ones -- it’s about what a man isn’t, and what a real man isn’t is a woman or gay. In the vernacular: Don’t be a girl, a sissy, a fag. To be a man is to not be too much like a woman or to be gay, which is in large part about being too much like a woman.
[...]

I point out the obvious: The list of traits that we claim to associate with being a man -- the things we would feel comfortable telling a child to strive for -- are in fact not distinctive characteristics of men but traits of human beings that we value, what we want all people to be. The list of understandings of masculinity that men routinely impose on each other is quite different. [...]

I ask the class: If the positive definitions of masculinity are not really about being a man but simply about being a person, and if the definitions of masculinity within which men routinely operate are negative, why are we holding onto the concept so tightly?

trollprincess

If you're out with your family and you see two people of the same sex kissing, you don't actually have to explain anal sex or fisting or the workings of a strap-on or the precise anatomical location of the prostate or what a bear is or how to put on assless chaps or what gay-for-pay means or how edible flavored lube really is or why that well at the tip of a condom has to be there or what kind of batteries go into a dildo or how many sexual positions two six-foot-tall guys can get into in the cab of a pick-up truck or why Heath Ledger was robbed of that Best Actor Oscar or what Melissa Etheridge needed David Crosby for or what poppers are or why those really flamboyant guys in the Pride parade only wear a sparkly thong or Leonid the Magnificent.

If you're having such a hard fucking problem understanding what to say to your kids about gay people, ask them. Ten bucks says they will look at two guys or two girls kissing, shrug, and say, "They must like each other a lot."

Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski, who offered an emotional and national apology in the Commons on April 4 and attracted national headlines after the Saskatchewan provincial NDP released a 17-year-old video tape of him making derogatory remarks about homosexuals, still hasn't reached out to gays in his riding.

Nathan Markwart, a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Community of Regina (GLCR), a not-for-profit organization that runs a community centre in Mr. Lukiwski's riding, said his organization, along with other Regina-based gay advocacy groups, sent a letter on April 11, both through the mail and electronically, in which they invited Mr. Lukiwski to meet with them, but Mr. Lukiwski did not respond.

"[Mr. Lukiwski] stated he is going to spend the rest of his life making amends, well when does that kick in? It's been quite a long time [since we sent the letter] and we still have received nothing. He says the only explanation is that it was stupid, thoughtless and insensitive, well I would say isn't it thoughtless and insensitive not to engage the community after you've received an invitation to?" [...]

Still, despite the media conference and a letter asking Mr. Lukiwski (Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre, Sask.) to meet with the organization to discuss policy initiatives relevant to gay people that a staffer in the MP's constituency office confirms they have received, there has still been no word from Mr. Lukiwski. "I think it's appalling," said NDP MP Bill Siksay (Burnaby-Douglas, B.C.).

"[Reaching out] was an important part of what needed to be done after Mr. Lukiwski's comments came to light. His apology was one piece of that but all along I've said that he needed to be meeting with members of the GLBT community in Regina to have a conversation and to see what further steps would be necessary. I think it's extremely disappointing that he hasn't responded to that invitation or that request from the community," said Mr. Siksay.

[...]

Mr. Lukiwski immediately apologized outside the House of Commons and then made a more formal apology the next day in the Chamber where he pledged to "spend the rest of my career and my life trying to make up for those shameful comments."

Now, almost two months later, gay community groups in Mr. Lukiwski's riding say they have received no contact from the MP and formal requests to meet with him have been ignored.

Mr. Lukiwski did not return calls to The Hill Times for an interview.

Discovery of HPV in male oral cancers leads to vaccination call
CBC News

There's growing evidence that the virus that causes cervical cancer in women is also linked to cancers in men, leading health professionals to call for an HPV vaccination program for boys.

Janet Dollin, the president of the Federation of Medical Women of Canada, said public health officials in Canada should consider vaccinating both girls and boys against HPV.

"Start thinking about immunizing everybody who is at risk — it makes no sense to vaccinate only the girls," Dollin said.

Recent research found more than half of some oral cancers in men are associated with the human papilloma virus.

Famous in Spain for her Left-wing views, the duchess served eight months in jail in 1967 when she led a protest march over a nuclear accident. Two American aircraft collided and accidentally dropped hydrogen bombs in the Palomares area of Almeria, southern Spain. The bombs did not explode, but Franco tried to suppress any hint of plutonium release. The duchess used her diplomatic status to publicise the plight of Spanish villagers who lost everything because of contamination.

A short time ago, I'd discussed the movement to have "Gender Identity Disorder" (GID, a.k.a. "Gender Dysphoria") removed from the DSM-IV or reclassified, and how we needed to work to ensure that any such change was an improvement on the existing model, rather than a scrapping or savaging of it.

Lynn Conway reports that on May 1st, 2008, the American Psychiatric Association named its work group members appointed to revise the Manual for Diagnosis of Mental Disorders in preparation for the DSM-V. Such a revision would include the entry for GID.

On the Task Force, named as Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Chair, we find Dr. Kenneth Zucker, from Toronto's infamous Centre for Addictions and Mental Health (CAMH, formerly the Clarke Institute). Dr. Zucker is infamous for utilizing reparative (i.e. "ex-gay") therapy to "cure" gender-variant children. Named to his work group, we find Zucker's mentor, Dr. Ray Blanchard, Head of Clinical Sexology Services at CAMH and creator of the theory of autogynephilia, categorized as a paraphilia and defined as "a man's paraphilic tendency to be sexually aroused by the thought or image of himself as a woman."
( cut for tl;dr and gah )