Confessions of a gay political spouse

I have a Xmas Day release on the national page of Xtra.ca - an interview with MP Rob Oliphant's husband, Marco Fiola. This was an interview I did a couple of weeks ago when Fiola was in town for the Liberal Party staff and caucus Xmas party, and we went for a coffee together after the Question Period scrums were over. It was a genuinely delightful interview to do, and I'm glad I got the opportunity.

Fiola and I have struck up a rapport after our first meeting at Toronto Pride this past summer, and later when Oliphant and Fiola were my "dates" to the Press Gallery Dinner in October. He's a genuine delight to talk to, and I hope that you enjoy reading the interview as much as I enjoyed doing it.

Queer calls unheeded as refugee bill dies

I have a new piece up on the Xtra.ca national page today, which is one of the pieces that I finished last week. This has been an issue that I've had my eye on for several months now, and as a result, I've developed a bit of a rapport with some of the MPs at the centre of this. Being able to track an issue like this is something that I've really come to appreciate in doing the work I do in the Press Gallery, and working for a smaller group of venues like the Xtra chain means that I can really focus on a smaller number of issues, and report on them better. (The bills around reforming Canada's Access to Medicines Regime is another good example, but most of that tracking is taking place on my Hill Queeries blog.

As for this particular piece, Olivia Chow's reaction was dropped in the editing process, but otherwise it really captures what the fallout of the defeat of the bill in question was for groups concerned.

Capital Diary mention

My name cropped up in the Capital Diary column in this week's issue of Maclean's. In a paragraph about NDP MP Megan Leslie wearing a yellow sou'wester rain hat for a day on the Hill as part of a Stephen Lewis Foundation dare, the following was written:

It undoubtedly impressed Capital Xtra! columnist Dale Smith. He attacks Leslie regularly for her wardrobe choices on the gay paper's website. He calls it the Megan Leslie outfit watch.

And thus begins my infamy...

To be fair, I'm not attacking her for her wardrobe choices - I'm critiquing the choices themselves. As well, I learned at the feet of Trinny & Susannah and their "cruel to be kind" approach to teaching style, so that's where I'm coming from.

Opposition calls for border agency watchdog

I have a new piece on the national page of Xtra.ca today, which is the first of a number of articles that are coming out in the next few days. It began as a quick interview I did with Liberal MP Mark Holland in the foyer of the House of Commons last week, and my editors felt the comment was significant enough to warrant further investigation and a full article, rather than just a quick blog hit. Over the course of writing it, I was trying to get some academic feedback, but tracking down an academic at this time of year was next to impossible. (Incidentally, the experts database page on York University's website sucks. I can't understate how user-unfriendly it is). Nevertheless, it was a decent piece that should hopefully generate more discussion on the subject.

Peter MacKay retreats on gay veterans issue

I have a new piece on the Xtra.ca national page today, and it's an update to a story I did several months ago, this time with a new Liberal critic on the file. I'm particularly glad that the critic is Rob Oliphant, one of the MPs I interact with on a regular basis for my Hill Queeries blog, so you can be sure that I'll be better able to follow up on this story on a regular basis.

Border battle 'spiteful, intolerant': MP

Just a quick note to say that my website piece from last week about the MP responses to the CBSA issue has been incorporated into a summary piece in the current issue of Capital Xtra. And hey, it's the quotes I got that made the headline, so that's pretty cool - for what it's worth.

Thoughts From the Hill - December Edition + Olympic Cleansing

I have two articles in the December/January edition of Outlooks. The first is the usual Thoughts from the Hill panel, and this month I looked at the Canadian Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR) bills which are currently wending their way through the House and Senate. I've been following the two bills over on my Hill Queeries blog, and I was glad to carry over the debate to this platform. I was also very lucky that the legislative process didn't happen any faster, and that the two bills are coming up on important votes soon, rather than having already happened by now. (Such is the danger of being a monthly publication trying to be very timely and topical).

My other piece is a longer, more investigative look at the kinds of "social cleansings" happening around the Vancouver Olympics, and how that related to the kinds of cleansings from the Montreal Olympics in '76. I was turned onto this idea when I wrote about the queer youth and history article a couple of issues ago, so I'm glad that I got to explore this topic a little further.

Thoughts from the Hill is on page 16 of the issue, while the Olympics cleansing piece is on pages 23 and 24. You can download the full issue in .pdf format here.

MPs respond to CBSA film detainment

I have a new piece on the national page of Xtra.ca today, which was another of those quick-and-dirty piece where I canvassed MPs on the Hill about the CBSA issue that exploded across the Xtra.ca page over the weekend. I would have liked to get the public safety critics from the opposition parties to have their say, but it's not my fault they're on a Parliamentary trip. I was also fortunate that Elizabeth May was on the Hill that day, which isn't often the case now that she's trying to win a seat on the West Coast. It also worked out that my editor had commissioned the sidebar on the history of these cases from someone else, and the MPs bringing up the Little Sister's case was a perfect means to tie into this sidebar.

New immigrants guide glosses over gays

I have a new piece up on the Xtra.ca national page today, which will also show up in the forthcoming print edition of Xtra in Toronto. It was one where I was a fairly quick-and-dirty piece canvassing some opinions about the effacement of sexual minorities in the new Discover Canada new immigrants' guide, done entirely after Question Period yesterday, and it turned out fairly well.

In the editing process, however, a great line from Scott Brison was dropped:

“I’ve met with new Canadians and members of ethno-cultural communities in Canada who believe very strongly in the Charter of Rights,” Brison says. “Sometimes, even though there may be some initial opposition to initiatives like same-sex marriage, when they are reminded that it’s a Charter issue and that Charter of Rights is not a buffet and you can’t pick from it the rights you like and leave the rest, and any attack on anyone’s rights is attack on all, they understand.”

Otherwise, it was a fun piece to write.

Thoughts From the Hill - November Edition

My Thoughts from the Hill panel appears once again in the November issue of Outlooks. This month, I asked the panel about nominations processes in each of their parties. Astute readers may note this is something of a theme I've been writing about - I am indeed trying to help people learn more about the political process from start to finish, and nominations are a big part of that, and frankly most people don't learn about it in school anymore. I figure the more I write about it, the more some people may learn.

The panel is on page 22 of the issue, which you can download in .pdf format here.

Scott Brison talks trade & human rights

I have a new piece on the national page of Xtra.ca today. I interviewed Scott Brison last Wednesday about his many travels that he made at the end of the summer. It was originally supposed to just be a post on the Hill Queeries blog, like we often do, but this time Brison said it would take a bit longer, and he was right. So I managed to convince my editor to make this a full piece.

There was only one bit that didn't make it into the final piece, which was just a reference (and link) to a speech that Brison made in the House regarding his trip to Colombia, which he said explained his trip better than he could have in the interview. But as I always enjoy talking to Brison, it was a great interview.

Feds consider striking hate speech clause

I have a piece in the current issue Capital Xtra, which is a full-page article on the Section 13 debate in Canada. It's a complex issue, and I will say right off that I am forever indebted to Professor Richard Moon from the University of Windsor, who took forty minutes out of his day in order to give me the complete background on the issue and walked me through his report on the issue.

Now, that said, there were were a couple of issues with the editing that I wanted to address. First of all, I would never use the phrase "bowels of Parliament," especially in reference to a committee, as I know the meeting rooms are all above ground. But that's just me. But the bigger issue is that a point I was hoping to make was dropped in the final version, which was a point about the tension that exists in the Canadian legislative cycle between Parliament and the courts. Given that Parliament has often handed off certain tough decisions to the courts to make so that they wouldn't have to face the wrath of the voters, I wanted this fact highlighted - especially in the context that there are now two streams at play here - one with the appeal of the Tribunal decision in the Federal Court, the other the justice committee study in Parliament. It's also what Keith Martin was speaking to when he said that he hopes Parliament has the courage to address the topic. I'm sorry this bit was lost in the final piece.

Thoughts From the Hill - October Edition + Queer Youth and History

I have two pieces in the October issue of Outlooks - my usual Thoughts From the Hill panel, as well as a two-page feature that examines the way that queer youth interact with their own history. The panel question was actually chosen months ago, but recent events with the Canadian Human Rights Commission made the topic that much more relevant (though I did change the preamble to reflect current circumstances before press time). The other piece was a topic I've been quite interested in, which is how do we learn and pass on our history as queer Canadians, given that we're not exactly a culture that can pass along our history to our children or the next generation in the same way that any other ethno-cultural community might. I managed to talk to a few very interesting people, which I'm glad I had the chance to.

The panel is on page 13, and the Queer History and Youth feature is on pages 20 and 21. You can download the full issue in .pdf format here.

Gaybourhood candidates prepare for election

I was surprised to see that I had a piece on the Ottawa page of Xtra.ca today, considering that it was supposed to be for the upcoming issue. Nevertheless, it's now online, and it involves the preparations made by the various candidates in Ottawa Centre for a possible election. This follows on the work I've been doing in trying to get more involved coverage of the local riding nomination races, to ensure that readers can engage with politics on the ground level like this.

It was good connecting with the various candidates. I've come into contact with Dewar before, and this time I was able to have a face-to-face with Bradley, which was nice considering we've previously only spoken by phone before. This was the first time I've spoken with Hunter as well, but I have little doubt that I'll be seeing more of her in the not-too-distant future.

Gay Bloc MP Réal Ménard bids farewell to federal politics

I have a new piece up on the national page of Xtra.ca today, which was an interview I did with Réal Ménard this morning on his last day as an MP. The last time I had been in his office, the walls were covered in old election campaign posters for his party and the PQ, but now they were bare as his assistants were packing up.

We did the interview mostly in English, though occasionally he'd slip in some French words that I translated in the piece (as well as proper verb tenses). But he was in good cheer, and excited about his next venture in municipal politics. We had a very good talk about the way that politics has changed in Canada in the 16 years that he's been an MP - both in the larger context of Parliament itself, and the way in which the Bloc's very presence virtually ensures minority governments - as well as how politics has changed for openly gay politicians, as he was the second openly gay MP in our Parliamentary history.

During my time on the Hill, I never had too much chance to work with Ménard, largely because of the language barrier, but now I'm a little sorry that I didn't make more of an effort. He was, however, always great when we did get a chance to speak (especially for the video pieces I did back in May), and I want to thank him for making my job a little easier.

MPs spar over Pride funding

A quick post to say that one of my three blog posts today on Hill Queries was packaged as a news item on the national page of Xtra.ca. This one was mostly a recounting of something that went down during Question Period, and then in the scrums in the foyer afterward. I like doing these kinds of short vignettes which give one a bit of the feel of the kind of action that takes place on the Hill, so I may try to do a few more of them as I'm able (given that my ability to attend Question Period has been reduced this year due to Masters programme commitments).

(And a huge thanks to Chris Rands from CBC for his help with the Tony Clement quote).

Immigration bid waylaid

I have a piece in the Toronto Xtra today, which is a bit unusual, though the editor called me up there and asked me to cover it since I do deal mostly with federal politics. It was an issue I had heard of, but I was interested to hear that he'd found the "gay angle" to it. But what was most interesting was to hear the refugee claimant's story. I told him he didn't have to tell me, to just give me broad strokes, but he poured it out to me, and it was absolutely heartbreaking to hear everything that he had been through, and to have to continue to live in limbo, his work permit nearing expiration while he continues to wait on Federal Court delays. At the same time, I had no idea about the ways in which the laws surrounding Federal Court justices were being subverted with these appointments of over-aged deputy justices. Quite an interesting story all around.

Finding a way out of the HIV criminalization loop

The second part of my HIV criminalisation story is now in print and online, and again I'm quite pleased with the results. By having the story split into two parts, I was able to go back and grab a couple of more quick quotes and interviews - in this case, the two MPs and ACO. Those additional viewpoints greatly enhanced the piece in my opinion, so I'm especially glad that I had that opportunity to bring them in.

That said, the editing of this piece did change things a bit. The last four paragraphs were all from the editor, which I feel changed the tone a little, but I realise this is part of the activist tone that a PTP paper likes to adopt, despite my best intentions otherwise. Still, it was a really engaging and important piece to write, and I'm glad I got the opportunity to work on it over the summer.

Thoughts From the Hill - September Edition

The September issue of Outlooks is finally online, and inside I have a new edition of the Thoughts From the Hill panel. This was an interesting topic to handle, and all three of my Parliamentarian panellists had really great answers to them. I think it was also the only time that they all had really succinct answers, which meant I had the opportunity to write a bit more of a preamble on what some of the issues at hand are.

As well, this is the first month where I am now on the masthead as Outlooks' new Political Editor. I'm eager to take on what new roles and challenges this title brings.

The panel is on page 52. You can download the full issue in .pdf format here.

Parties gearing up for federal election this fall

Another quick post to say that I have another Hill Queries blog post repackaged as a story for the national page of Xtra.ca. I'm not complaining - the exposure will do the blog good - not to mention the fact that I get paid the story rate rather than the blog post rate, which is an added bonus.

Getting to know the Liberal nomination candidates for Ottawa Centre

Of the new pieces I have online today, the big one is the two interviews that I did with the Liberal candidates for the Ottawa Centre nomination race. I enjoyed speaking to both candidates, and this continues what I think more local political coverage should focus on - the grassroots involvement, right down to who the nominees are and what they stand for. The questions for these interviews were chosen in large part by my editors, and they will again be used when we interview the Conservative nomination candidates in the next few weeks.

That said, one of the candidates, Scott Bradley, said something fairly profound, I thought.

"When people put $10 on the line, they themselves are passionate," Bradley says. "They have an investment in you, the candidate, and you can't let them down, you have to keep working hard. They're looking for that personal connection to politics as well, and when you can provide it to them, they're going to respond favourably and positively, and come out and support you."

This is precisely the kind of thing that I've been talking about - creating a personal connection to politics for people. That's the way that we should be engaging them, and it's something that I plan to continue carrying out.

My only regret with this piece was the way that slow editorial decisions meant that it wasn't up online in time for people to buy memberships before the cut-off date, as that was part of the process I've been trying to advocate for - getting involved in parties at the riding level. Nevertheless, the ball is rolling for future articles of this type.

Layton's meeting with Harper: Sound and fury, signifying little

Just a quick post to say that they packaged one of my Hill Queeries blog posts as the headline article on the national page of Xtra.ca today - which I thought was pretty cool. And it was nice to go to a press conference in the National Press Theatre again - I do believe I've missed it.

Weighing in on nominations helps to shape federal party policy

Today I have a piece on the Capital Xtra website, which I'm pretty passionate about. (That it was supposed to have gone up on last Monday is another matter). A few years ago, during the last Ottawa Centre Liberal nomination race, my then-flatmate volunteered on a campaign, and I got to witness what this kind of grassroots democracy in action looks like. It inspired me to think more about this institution we call Parliamentary Democracy, and just what it is that most Canadians don't see - the ground-level participation that gets them involved in politics, and counters the disconnect and apathy that currently plagues politics in this country. When these nominations came around again, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try and get more people to see these nominations as the way to get involved.

I've interviewed both of the Liberal candidates, and those interviews should go up any time. (They were supposed to have been up before Wednesday to give people the chance to purchase memberships before the Monday cut-off, but these things are apparently out of my hands). As the nomination races continue, I'm looking forward to covering them more.

Canada's record of criminalization creep

I have a piece in the new issue of Capital Xtra which is the first of a two-part series which examines the "criminalisation creep" of HIV in Canada. The Xtra chain has been engaging in an advocacy campaign about HIV criminalisation for a while, but until now, there has been no long-form examination of the history of the creep - which is what part one focuses on - nor has there been a solid examination of the solutions or alternatives, which is what part two will focus on when it comes out in three weeks' time.

That said, this was an article that kicked my ass. It was long and gruelling, and trying to find a criminal law professor who could speak to the issues at this time of year was almost impossible. However, after a long trail of phone calls and emails that went from one professor to the next, I eventually found someone at Osgoode Hall who, while he couldn't help me, forwarded me a law journal article on the very subject I was looking at, as well as the contact information for its author. That is what put this piece over the top from a good piece to a great one (in my humble opinion). It was originally going to be one huge piece, but my editor decided to break it up into two parts, which allows me time to add a few more pieces to the second half that there simply wasn't room for before. I'm incredibly happy with the work in this piece, and I look forward to the release of the second part.

NDP passes queer health resolution at convention

I have a new piece up on the Xtra.ca national page today, and it's one that I'm a bit frustrated with the end result. It was initially a longer piece which also made mention of the fact that the NDP's GLBT Committee adopted some new formal rules at the convention to give themselves more structure. Only as soon as it was posted, the one source immediately got in touch to say that I must have misunderstood, that they weren't a new organisation but it was just more structured. Which is what I said. And so I passed him onto my editor, who ended up excising the whole bit. So...that's the way it goes, apparently.

NDP prepares for Halifax convention

I have a new piece on the national page of Xtra.ca about the NDP convention taking place this weekend. It was nice having a chance to catch up with Bill Siksay again (and there's a bit more of that catching up on Hill Queeries here), as I'm in the process of doing with my other usual MPs.

There will indeed be a follow-up piece early next week to discuss what happened during the convention, so watch for that.

UK-style changes to Canada's refugee system could hurt queer claimants

I have a new piece up on the Xtra.ca national page today, which is actually about a week-and-a-half late in being posted, but there were several delays and a long-weekend in there, so what can you do? Suffice to say, I really enjoyed writing this article as I had a chance to interact with Peter Tatchell in the UK, who is an activist I have long admired.

There is a secondary component to the article that is posted on my Hill Queeries blog, in which I asked the two critics I spoke to about the likelihood of the Conservatives using this issue during an election. I got some fairly interesting answers as well, which I hope get a bit of play.

Shakespeare & the hypocrisy of sex laws

I have a piece up on the Ottawa page of Xtra.ca today. This was originally supposed to be in the print edition of Capital Xtra, but it got bumped for a variety of reasons, and has thus appeared online. I had fun writing the piece, and did my homework before hand, reading "Measure For Measure" the night before my interview to ensure that I had my grasp on the play and why it is considered problematic, as well as to see how it could be grounded in a contemporary context. It's also given me the desire to go and see the play being performed, but the likelihood of my making it out to Prescott is a little more uncertain. Nevertheless, it was a fun little piece.

Michael Ignatieff bashful about platform planks

I have one new piece in the current print issue of Capital Xtra, which is an analysis piece of the current Liberal policy directions. In many ways, this was a fairly frustrating piece to write because of the unavailability of the critics I was trying to speak to. While it did reinforce the narrative that emerged, I was doing my best not to create an unfair depiction. Nevertheless, I was able to use some of the few leftover bits from my interview with Michael Igantieff for Outlooks, so that was good.

There was a second piece that was supposed to be in the issue, but for various reasons it got bumped and will show up online by the weekend. Meanwhile, the piece I did on Divers/Cité for the website last week was reprinted as the headline news piece for the print edition, so I'm glad it's making the rounds.

NDP MP calls on feds to apologize to gay veterans

I have a new piece up on the national page of Xtra.ca today. It was actually meant to go up on Friday, but events got in the way, my editor got swamped, and it got bumped to today. But no matter.

It was an interesting piece to write, and I'm glad I had the space latitudes the website offered because I'm not sure how much more I could have really cut from this piece as it is. In fact, the genesis of this story was a very brief piece that showed up in a Sun Media piece a month ago that my editor asked me to take a look into. When I did, there was just so much more to the story than just a blurb. But then, I guess that's why I'm doing what I'm doing.

Let me also add that after the frustrations of being unable to get in touch with a couple of Liberal critics for one of the pieces I have in the upcoming print issue of Capital Xtra, having Judy Sgro get back to me in twenty minutes was a godsend. Similarly, for Stoffer to have been immediately reachable when I called his office was a nice change from the previous week.

Divers/cité scales back after being denied federal funds; Black and Blue worried

I have a new piece on the national page of Xtra.ca today, and it was a bit of a doozy. My day started with a press conference at 10 am, in a local restaurant that was so muggy and humid I thought I was going to melt. And from there, it was going flat-out until I filed the piece, around 6.30.

It was definitely one of those stories that many of my Press Gallery colleagues were hot on the trail of, and I'd like to think that I dug a lot deeper than many of them, especially with respect to what the impacts are for Divers/cité and potentially Black and Blue, though I will say that I was able to play off some of the ongoing coverage throughout the day. I also have some fairly unique figures that none of the other outlets looked at (for example, the per capita funding) so I think I provided a bit of a unique angle to the coverage. Nevertheless, as exhausting as the day ultimately was, it was very fulfilling and worthwhile.

What you should know about Tory MP Brad Trost

There's a new piece on the Xtra.ca national page today that I have a co-writing credit on, though my role was primarily research. I also authored the sidebar at the bottom of the piece, which looked at the per capita funding of the various festivals that got funded by the programme Trost railed about, and found that Pride got the second lowest per capita funding of all festivals to date. And while the piece is an interesting bit of background, there really isn't a whole lot to it. As a couple of staffers told me during my research, Trost is a "nobody" on the Hill, which this piece does end up reflecting.

Election tantra & the art of delay

I have two pieces in the current print edition of Capital Xtra - a reprint of my online story about Réal Ménard's resignation, as well as a large analysis piece about the latest bout of election speculation. (The online title, currently on the Xtra.ca national page, is different, but I went with the print title here).

I really enjoyed the process of writing this piece, really being able to plunge into the entrails of what happened during the last week of the Commons spring sitting, and to get to engage with a few other people about it. I had a really great and long conversation with Dr. Catherine Côté from the University of Ottawa, a lot about how politics and the media intersect (which is her field of study), but unfortunately, most of it didn't make it into this particular piece. I'm hoping, however, to return to that particular topic soon enough.

During the editing process, it was decided to make more of a focus on the current Conservative law-and-order agenda push, which I'd explored in previous pieces as blatant electioneering, and to that end, we added a sidebar full of law-and-order bills that have all been introduced (something I ended up writing last-minute, late night during my vacation in Toronto). In all, I think it gave the piece a bit more focus, and I'm pleased with the results.

Michael Ignatieff on Equality in Canada and the World + Queeroes

I've been waiting a while to talk about this, but in the July/August issue of Outlooks (now a glossy, might I remind you), I have a two-page interview with Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. It was a pretty great interview, and he's certainly a pretty great person to do an interview with, who gives thoughtful and personable answers (though he politely declined to give substantive answers to a couple of policy questions).

The interview did take a few weeks to set up, between Parliamentary business and his hectic travel schedule, and in order to make deadline, we only managed a twenty minute phone call, but I ended up meeting him two days later at the caucus and media garden party at Stornoway, so we still got to put faces to names there.

Also in this issue is my review of the book Queeroes, along with an interview with author Steven Bereznai. This was initially a case of pitching a story to one editor, having it assigned, writing it, and then finding out that another editor in the same chain had assigned the same piece to someone else, and well, mine got cut (with a kill fee, mind you). Outlooks was happy to pick it up, especially as we interviewed Bereznai two years ago after his first book came out, so it all worked out in the end.

(Curiously, however, it appears that the summer edition of my Thoughts From the Hill panel got bumped).

The interview with Michael Ignatieff is on pages 28 and 29, while the Queeroes piece is on page 45. You can download the full issue in .pdf format here.

Conservative MP blasts decision to fund Pride Toronto

This piece, now on the Xtra.ca national page, was a very interesting piece to write. It began as a quick brief early in the afternoon, and then expanded later on as interviews rolled in, and thus we come to the final product here.

It was also one of the first pieces that I wrote where I also spent time on the phone trading information with other journalists - which was pretty cool. I even contributed to the piece put out by The Canadian Press (here) - that was my interview with the unnamed caucus member, who I couldn't use in my piece for certain reasons, but I was happy to see that it got out there. (Now, if I had been given more credit in the article, with a "with files from Dale Smith" mention or something, that would also have been nice...) I'm also really glad that I've built up enough contacts that getting interviews for this piece was fairly easy, and that it made the turnaround time fairly quick, all things considered.

Competing AIDS drug bills meet some opposition

My last piece for the month (finally) appeared on the Xtra.ca national page today. This was completed well over a week ago, but a glut of Pride-related stories from around the country kept pushing it back until now. This builds on a piece I did several months ago after attending a press conference on the topic, but there have been several developments since then. I'm looking forward to seeing what develops out of this come autumn, as I'm sure there will be more chapters to this tale just yet.

Gay Bloc MP Réal Ménard plans to resign

I have a quick piece up on the national page of Xtra.ca today, which talks about the planned resignation of Bloc MP Réal Ménard.

Ménard, being one of the six gay and lesbian MPs in the House, is someone I've been following quite a lot since I started up in the Press Gallery, although he's someone I haven't followed as much as the others simply because the language barrier was often an issue - he's largely uncomfortable in English, and while I can converse in French, my skills as a translator are pretty marginal. Nevertheless, I'll be sad to see him leave as he was a genuinely nice guy on the Hill and almost always had time for me.

NDP, Bloc accuse Liberals of stalling refugee bill

The piece I have up today on the national page of Xtra.ca is actually sadly overdue. The piece ended up coming in about a week late thanks to the enormous difficulty in scheduling the final interview (I will remind everyone this was the crazy final days of the spring sitting of Parliament, where absolutely everybody was in a manic dash to get as many things accomplished as possible, and unfortunately sometimes media requests turned into days-long episodes of phone tag. But I digress). And even when I did file the piece, there were delays on the website end of things. But it's now posted.

This particular bill I've been tracking for a while now, and this issue of it being stalled in committee has been coming to a slow boil, but it's now getting some attention. I have no doubt I'll be keeping an eye on it (as much as I am able) when Parliament resumes in autumn, as this is something the community is treating as an important issue.

Gay MPs critical of Conservatives' tough-on-crime agenda

I have a piece on the Xtra.ca national page today talking about Conservative justice bills, mostly around bill C-31. While it was fairly interesting to write, it was a bit delayed because a couple of my sources were difficult to get in touch with. Nevertheless, everything made it through okay in the end.

AIDS activists say US travel requirements are 'discriminatory, intrusive'

I have a new piece up today on the Xtra.ca national page, which pretty much serves as a follow-up to the piece on the HIV travel ban from the other day. And whereas you'd think it would be a piece of cake considering all the work and research I'd put into that previous piece, this one wasn't. In fact, it was a pretty difficult and indeed frustrating piece to write, largely because many of the sources were all giving me contradictory information that on the surface didn't make sense, but the deeper one would dig, the more one found that there wasn't much of a story at all. Many of the accusations were specious (that this new waiver process was quietly put in for June 1st, that the paperwork is more draconian than ever), and it took some digging to get to the bottom of everything - which I eventually did, and I will note, the Ottawa Citizen didn't. Overall, the piece came together - a little later than I had initially hoped, but there was a lot more to dig through than I had initially thought - and I will note that in the end, it does end up serving as a companion piece to the first piece, and that everything worked out in the end.

Gay MP Mario Silva works to combat anti-Semitism

My second piece on the Xtra.ca national page arose from a press conference I attended this morning at the Charles Lynch Press Theatre in the Centre Block on Parliament Hill. It wasn't terribly well attended by media, and most of the media was there was of the more ethnic variety (Omni and various Jewish news outlets) - and the gay press, thanks of course to Mario Silva's involvement. Nevertheless, I kept it relevant to the readership, and ensured that the bigger picture was presented. I also took a couple of photos, hoping they would be included, but my editor chose not to include them, so here's one of them, just to give you a sense of the scene.

Critics wary of changes to sex offender registry

The first of two pieces I had on the Xtra.ca national page today is a story that I have a feeling I'm going to be writing an awful lot about in the near future. It was a bit of a crazy writing process, grabbing as much commentary as possible and writing it up in the space of a few hours, and knowing that I had two more pieces to write the following day, I worked some "overtime" to get this one finished up. (Of course, overtime is a relative concept when you work for yourself, but I do try to keep regular daytime hours in order to maintain some semblance of a work-life balance).

There was some discussion after the fact about how I wrote the lede for this story. While I have no doubt that this is a significant issue for my readership, I ended up writing this to highlight how the government was using the "moral panic" as an electioneering tool. One of my editors felt that I should have instead gone for a bit more of a direct appeal to why this issue matters to the readership - though I'm not sure that I'm sold on the rather alarmist tone of his suggestion - something to the fact about how the way you or your friends have sex could land them on this registry for the rest of their lives. After all, there are still many criminalised sexual acts in this country (like, apparently, threesomes). He said that I wrote it in the style of a Globe and Mail piece - but he didn't mean that in the most complimentary manner.

I see his point - and I should better craft my ledes for my readership. But at the same time, I don't want to go the tabloid route and make every headline about how this is the end of the world. It's certainly food for thought, however, on how to better work on my craft.

Iceland Elects Openly Gay Prime Minister - A World First! + Thoughts From the Hill - June Edition

I have two pieces in the new issue of Outlooks, on stands now, and the big news is that the magazine has gone glossy and expanded. I'm extremely proud of the step that they've taken, and I can't wait to see the print copy when it arrives. Being a glossy will mean additional challenges - like the fact that all of my deadlines have now been pushed up by three additional weeks - but I'm very much looking forward to what's to come.

The first story in this issue is about Iceland's new lesbian Prime Minister, and given the fact that little has been said about it to date was something I felt worth mention, but not only that, I gave us a bit of reaction from our out gay and lesbian Parliamentarians here in Canada.

The second piece is my June edition of the Thoughts From the Hill panel, with the thematic topic of "What does Pride mean to you," complete with some Pride photos of two of the three panellists.

You can download the full issue in .pdf format here. (My Iceland story is on page 14, and Thoughts From the Hill is on page 15).

A "unique prism"

In the foyer of the House of Commons today, after a blitz of scrums and interview for the piece I was working on (which should be on Xtra.ca tomorrow - check back for me to post it here), one of the CBC reporters started chatting with me, asking which story I was on. When I told him, he said that my beat (being largely the GLBT angle) is a "unique prism" on these issues, and it's important that I'm covering them. That was pretty awesome to hear. Plus, having another journalist email me later and giving me props on the questions I asked for one of the scrums was also pretty cool.

US HIV travel ban on the way out, albeit slowly

I have a piece today on the Xtra.ca national page, which talks about changes to the American HIV travel ban. This was an interesting piece to write, which I had at first thought might be a bit boring, but I talked to a variety of different people which created a slightly more interesting article than I had read in the past. As well, it gave me a bit of an insight into how the regulatory process works in the American political system, which is quite different than the Canadian system.

Trans bill piece - Reprinted

Just a quick note to say that my piece on Bill Siksay's newly tabled bill for trans rights has been reprinted in the new issue of Capital Xtra. It's always nice to have other parts of the Xtra chain pick up pieces I've done for the website.

California court to rule on gay marriage

I have a short piece today on the national page of Xtra.ca about the rallies planned to mark the fact that the California Supreme Court will rule on the challenges of Proposition 8 tomorrow. I will have to say that both rally organisers got back to me in short order, which made my job much easier, which is always greatly appreciated.

The Toronto organiser mentioned the Love Exiles group. I have a project on the backburner about them, and hopefully I'll get to writing about them before too long.

Gay MPs on International Day Against Homophobia

My second video piece is now up on the national page of Xtra.ca. This was shot at the same time as the first piece, on the 40th anniversary of the passage of Trudeau's Bill C-150, but edited separately.

The editing process for this second piece went much more smoothly than the first piece, but that had a lot to do with having more practice. I'll also note that the original version was a full minute longer, but my editor chopped out a couple of the segments, but most of those only just illustrated a couple of further points, rather than adding anything substantial, so it wasn't a huge loss (and it's also a lesson to me that I need to be tighter with my video editing - much as I've learned to be with my writing).

Also, the phrase that didn't make it into the video that I almost wish could have, was Scott Brison saying "Octogenarian pugilism aside..."

Here's the video:

Siksay tables trans bill for a third time

I have a new piece today on Xtra.ca's national page, this time regarding Bill Siksay's new Private Members' Bill. This was probably one of the most straight-forward pieces I've written in the past couple of weeks, where everything fell into place nice and neatly, and I didn't have to chase people, or harass them endlessly on the phone, or anything like that. In other words, it was a refreshing change from the way things normally work around here.

The Maclean's Parliamentarian of the Year Awards

Last night, I attended the Maclean's Parliamentarian of the Year awards, and over the course of the evening, spent time talking to Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, who I frequently interview for my various projects. We were photographed by Maclean's Mitchel Raphael, as part of their coverage of the event.

Gay Canadian MPs on the legacy of Bill C-150

I have a video piece on the national page of Xtra.ca today. This was a great deal of fun to shoot, in conjunction with a piece for a second video which will go up this weekend. And despite the trials and tribulations involved with editing video (yes, I'm still learning), that's not to say that there weren't some additional complications over the course of its creation. Like for example, how my Conservative senator interviewee pulled out at the last minute. And how I was supposed to get a clip of the Liberal leader to add a statement in there as well, but the people who had said video couldn't get the clip to me in time. And having to translate Réal Ménard's comments with the aid of the only other bilingual guy at the office. But overall it turned out quite well, and I'm happy with the result.

Here's the clip:

Where are all the gay characters on Canadian television?

I have a piece up on the National page of Xtra.ca today, which is the culmination of nearly three weeks of hard work. It was an enormous challenge to assemble all of the various parts of this article, and yet in the end, it all managed to come together.

For starters, contacting the various networks was difficult in and of itself because I kept getting passed between so many different people that my deadlines had lapsed twice before I finally tracked down figures from everyone. And once that was done, trying to find someone to comment on the significance or causes was even more of a challenge. Apparently there is virtually no one in Canadian academia who can comment on gays and lesbians on television. In the end, however, one of my fellow journalists suggested I talked to Brad Fraser and arranged an introduction, and Fraser turned out to be almost perfect to talk to. I was also glad that I could use some of my notes from my previous article on Jeff Geddis and Sophie and incorporate them into this piece.

Overall, despite the headaches and frustrations, I'm incredibly proud of the piece, and I hope it garners some attention.