Critics track Canadian fallout from Vienna AIDS conference

I have a new piece on the national page of Xtra.ca today about the recent announcement regarding the CHVI funds. Seeing as I covered the Commons committee hearings on the CHVI back in April, it was a nice chance to revisit the issue - especially in the way that I was able to tie criticisms back then to what emerged at this announcement. Something else I thought was pretty cool was the way in which Carolyn Bennett was thanking me really profusely for covering the story, seeing as it received virtually no mainstream coverage at all.

Can Canada's queer community sponsor more queer refugees?

I have a new piece up on Xtra.ca today, which takes a look at the capacity of queer groups across the country to assist in private sponsorship. While I filed it a couple of weeks ago, and it didn't get posted until today, the timing was great because of an editorial at the Globe and Mail on the very issue. It says that the community should step up, and my piece now shows that the issue is capacity.

It does seem that I've become somewhat of an unofficial expert in refugee policy in Canada thanks to all of the coverage I've been doing on the various aspects of the issue, and I'm glad that I was able to build on that to do a substantive piece like this one on the issue.

Elaine McCoy is one of four holding back a Conservative majority in the Senate

I have a new piece up on Xtra.ca today, which is actually long overdue, but one thing led to another, and it didn't get posted until now. Alas! This was a piece I was really happy to write, and which I lobbied a bit for, because I've become quite a fan of Senator McCoy, and wanted to find an excuse to interview her. When the opportunity arose, I was quick to take it, and I'm really happy I did.

The final piece unfortunately lost some of the conversation around issues, condensing it to get a few key points, but overall I'm glad to get her some more recognition, and really glad that I got a chance to meet her - and I'm sure we'll be speaking more in the future.

Pentagon consults with Canadian queers on repealing DADT

I have a new piece up on the national page of Xtra.ca today, which is a story that was a long time in the making. Well, actually it came together really quickly - but it took a long time to get my sources arranged. Once they fell into place, it all happened almost at once, and the story came together. While I'm generally not following the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" debate in the States, it was nice to get this particular Canadian angle to it.