Some days you arise from your slumber, and from the time you open your eyes, you know it’s going to be a great day. Today is one such day.
At a regularly scheduled Vancouver City Council Finance & Services Committee meeting yesterday afternoon, our City Councillors voted unanimously in favour of a motion brought forward by veteran, and soon to retire, Vision Vancouver City Councillor Tim Stevenson, that would prohibit businesses from operating within the City of Vancouver that would seek to provide services or counseling intended to change a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation.
In unanimously passing the motion at the Council table and in Council chambers, our elected Vancouver city councillors’ decision to ban conversion therapy makes our city the first city in the country to do so.
Conversion therapy can lead to depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness & suicide
An essay published by the Human Rights Campaign says this about conversion therapy …
So-called “conversion therapy,” sometimes known as “reparative therapy,” is a range of dangerous and discredited practices that falsely claim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. Such practices have been rejected by every mainstream medical and mental health organization for decades, but due to continuing discrimination and societal bias against LGBTQ people, some practitioners continue to conduct conversion therapy. Minors are especially vulnerable, and conversion therapy can lead to depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness, and suicide.
Peter Gajdics, the driving force behind the banning of conversion therapy, and himself a survivor, said he’s proud to see the city take this stance, nearly crying when he saw all Councillors voting in favour of the motion.
“I feel victorious. I actually didn’t think it was going to happen; I kept thinking something was going to get in the way,” Gajdics said. “This is huge for Vancouver to take this position,” as he went on to say that he wasn’t expecting such a move, “I was overwhelmed and thrilled that they changed it from minors to adults. I had wanted it to be adults cause I was an adult when it happened to me,” he said, his voice quivering. “I think they will not only have set a precedent, they will really draw the attention of jurisdictions for this reason.”
The bylaw was initially written to protect minors from conversion therapy, but a last-minute amendment by Vancouver Non-Partisan Association Councillor George Affleck made it apply to people of all ages.
NPA City Councillor George Affleck serves notice to conversion therapy businesses
Again, note should be made that it was Vancouver Non-Partisan Association Councillor George Affleck who sought to amend Councillor Stevenson’s initial motion that would apply to minors only, to extend to all persons.
Note should also be made that NPA City Councillors Melissa De Genova, Elizabeth Ball and Hector Bremner all voted to support both Councillor Affleck’s amendment, and Councillor Stevenson’s initial motion to ban conversion therapy. Much is made of how “right wing” are the NPA City Councillors, and of how they mean ill for our city. Yesterday’s unanimous approval of the banning of conversion therapy businesses within the City of Vancouver gives the lie to the notion that our elected NPA Councillors are not social justice warriors. Make no mistake, they are — along with their Green Party and Vision Vancouver colleagues on Vancouver City Council.
Vancouver A, B, C Elections To Be a Thing of the Past
On voting day, you arrive at the polling station, register and sign in, and are then given a ballot, the names of the candidates for City Council listed alphabetically by surname. Easy peasy nice and easy. Not in 2018, though, when you arrive at the advance polls, or go about casting your ballot on E-Day, Saturday, October 20th. And a good thing it is, too.
In Vancouver, voters tend to take a look at the ballot, and vote a, b, c.
During last autumn’s Vancouver School Board by-election, the top vote-getters: Joy Alexander, Fraser Ballantyne, Carrie Bercic, Ken Clement, Lisa Dominato — do you notice a pattern there? I recall my friend Michael Klassen — now a very fine civic affairs columnist with the Vancouver Courier, and the go-to Global TV guy for all things civic affairs — grousing to me on election night 2005, “Raymond (ed. note, I like being called Raymond, cuz that’s my name — being called ‘Ray’, not so much), look at the results tonight: Suzanne Anton, Elizabeth Ball, David Cadman, Kim Capri, George Chow, Heather Deal,” after which I believe I heard him collapse. Michael had campaign-managed Valerie Jenkinson’s bid for a seat on City Council — he thought she was just great, bright, socially aware, knew tonnes about municipal governance and all the issues that she would face as an elected civic official, dedicated, hard working, and one of the most accomplished people he’d ever met. But her last name started with the letter “J”, and her ascension to Vancouver City Council was not to be.
Alas.
So, Michael (he calls himself Mike now, but I like to call him Michael) oughta be thrilled with the ground-breaking decision taken by Vancouver City Council yesterday to adopt a randomized ballot, about which Michael’s fellow Vancouver Courier journalist, Naoibh O’Connor writes, “The City of Vancouver will switch from an alphabetical to a randomized name order on the ballot for the 2018 civic election.”
Council: motion on randomized ballots goes to a vote. Councillors Ball, Carr and De Genova opposed but the motion passes. Municipal election ballot for Mayor, Council and Park Board will be randomized. Over to you @VSB39
— Andrea Reimer (@andreareimer) June 6, 2018
Of course, not all Vancouver City Councillors were on board for the motion to adopt a randomized ballot, the initiative passing seven to four. Strange thing that those opposed were: Elizabeth Ball, Adriane Carr and Melissa De Genova. Imagine. I wonder why? Couldn’t have anything to do with the fact their surnames represent b, c & d on the ballot. Could it? Nah, perish the thought. You can read Naoibh O’Connor’s Vancouver Courier column to read what the three dissenting Councillors have to say on the matter, and the wrong-headedness involving the adoption of a randomized ballot.
Meanwhile, responding to retiring City Councillor Andrea Reimer’s good-natured poke, the Vancouver School Board elected officials are indeed taking a look at — or “mulling”, as Vancouver Courier reporter John Kurucz wrote in a column yesterday — adopting a randomized ballot, although as Mr. Kurucz notes in his story, “Seven of the nine board trustees have last names that start within the first seven letters of the alphabet. Only Green Party trustee Judy Zaichkowsky and Vision’s Allan Wong fall outside of the first third of the alphabet.”
Joy Alexander has no problem with a move to randomization, Janet Fraser hasn’t made her mind up yet, and Judy Zaichkowsky thinks the change would be “chaotic.”
At the VSB, you can already tell who’ll like the idea of a randomized ballot: OneCity Vancouver’s Carrie Bercic (not least because it’ll help give her OneCity colleague Jennifer Reddy — who’ll run alongside Ms. Bercic — a better shot at gaining a seat on Vancouver’s Board of Education, both of which 2018 civic election candidates will be joined by Erica Jaaf on seeking a seat on the 2018 – 2022 Vancouver School Board — casting a ballot for these three accomplished women of principle, an absolute necessity for all those going to the polls), Ms. Bercic’s Vision Vancouver colleagues Joy Alexander (who will not seek another term on School Board — recovering one’s sanity after the past four years of B.C. Liberal provincial government shenanigans is sort of important, don’t you think?), colleague and progressive Ken Clement, and the incredibly wonderful veteran School Board trustee, the one, the only — I wouldn’t have made it through my cancer battle without him, he was so incredibly good to me — Allan Wong.
Except for Vancouver School Board Green Party of Vancouver trustee Dr. Judy Zaichowski (who also won’t be running again) — who is, unsurprisingly, opposed — we have no idea how the others will vote on the issue. Over to you Lisa Dominato, Fraser Ballantyne & Estrellita Gonzalez.
Municipalities across British Columbia and in other parts of Canada — including Calgary, Winnipeg, White Rock, Dawson Creek, Fort St. John and Langley Township — long ago adopted a randomized ballot, with little fuss or muss, or distress to voters. No doubt, there’ll be some confusion at the polls this autumn — as such, Council assigned an additional $235,000 to the office of the Election Returning Officer at City Hall to inform and help citizens adjust to the newly-adopted randomized election ballot.
Yesterday afternoon, Vancouver Non-Partisan Association City Councillor George Affleck, TeamJean 2018 community activist and Coalition of Progressive Electors Board of Directors member, Tristan Markle, eastside community activist, Jak King and your favourite VanRamblings blogger, among other participants, found ourselves involved in a lively, respectful and good-natured cross-partisan Twitter dialogue, a portion of which is available here, a response to yesterday’s VanRamblings column on the VDLC negotiated progressive “coalition” electoral settlement. Worth a gander, if you’re interested in how politics is done in this town.
