We’ve come a long way since July 20, 2005, when Canada became the fourth country ever to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide. And we’ve still got a long way to go.
Today, policy makers, queer activists and allies must come together to protect trans youth in schools, advocate for gender-affirming policies province to province, and invalidate the idea that queerness is somehow inherently wrong.
This month on Off the Hill, we talked about the celebrated triumphs and the challenges facing the 2SLGBTQIA community. We were joined by NDP Member of Parliament for Edmonton Griesbach Blake Desjarlais; rabble columnist Charlotte Dalwood; podcaster and strategic communications executive Shawn Dearn; assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Work, Fritz Pino; and the regional director for 2SLGBTQ+ Business Development in Québec & Eastern Canada for TD Bank, Martine Roy on Wednesday, June 19, 2024 at 4:30pm PT / 7:30pm ET. This panel was co-hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies.
About our guests
MP Blake Desjarlais (he/him) was born in ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (Edmonton) and raised on the Fishing Lake Métis Settlement. Prior to his election as the Member of Parliament for Edmonton Griesbach, Desjarlais was a community activist and national director of the Métis Settlements General Council. Desjarlais made history in September 2021 when he was the first openly Two-Spirit person ever elected to the House of Commons and the first Indigenous representative from Edmonton.
Charlotte Dalwood (she/they) is a Student-At-Law at Prison & Police Law in Calgary, AB, and an incoming Master of Laws student at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University. She holds a Master of Arts in Religion from Yale University and is a monthly columnist on legal and 2SLGBTQ+ issues for rabble.ca. Their first book, Until At Dawn We Wake: Gender, Madness, Theology is forthcoming from Quoir in 2025.
Fritz Pino is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Regina. Her work focuses on queer and trans philosophies and theories; racialized LGBTQ immigrant communities; decolonial approaches to social work research; and more. Her work aims to create culturally-grounded interventions and approaches by centering the cultural knowledge and practices of marginalized groups and communities.
Martine Roy serves as the regional director for 2SLGBTQ+ Business Development in Québec & Eastern Canada for TD Bank and is committed to bridging the gap between the 2SLGBTQ+ community and the workplace. In the past, Roy served as a member of the board of directors of Pride at Work Canada for 10 years and served as president of Fondation Émergence until 2015. In 2017, she was awarded the Medal of the National Assembly of Quebec, and in 2023, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada for her tireless efforts as a leader, activist and advocate for diversity, inclusion and equity in Canada’s 2SLGBTQ+ communities.
Shawn Dearn is an award-winning podcaster, broadcaster and strategic communications executive. He is co-founder at Montreal-based social impact entertainment firm, Secret Agents, and Shawn is the host of Queer Legends: An Oral History Podcast. Shawn spent the last two years researching and conducting interviews for an eight-part documentary series about Canada’s LGBT Purge, which is now streaming everywhere you get your podcasts.
About Off the Hill
Since 2019, Off the Hill has been rabble.ca’s live monthly panel which breaks down important national and international news stories through a progressive lens.
Co-hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies, this webinar series invites a rotating roster of guest activists, politicians, scholars, researchers and more to discuss how to mobilize and bring about progressive change in national politics — on and off Parliament Hill.
Join us the third Wednesday of every month at 4:30pm PT / 7:30pm ET. The live, digital show is one hour long – 45 minutes of moderated discussion followed by 15 minutes of audience participation.
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