I spoke with Marci Ien, minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, a few hours after the launch of the federal government’s 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, which had been received with much fanfare in advance of Capital Pride’s parade.
During the event, both Ien and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the plan was launching months later than the promised date because they wanted to get it right, and Ien said that she wanted to do more consultations in person. I asked her about her process and what she heard through the consultations.
“Do you have ten hours?” Ien asks with a laugh. “There’s been a common theme, and that’s why I spoke about kindness [at the launch], and I was joking but not joking when I said I wish I could legislate it, because the common theme when I spoke to younger people in the community, seniors in the community, urban, rural, you name it—the commonality was a lack of acceptance.”
Ien recounts tales about people whose families kicked them out or excommunicated them from their communities, and seniors who feel they need to go back into the closet in order to get care.
“For younger people, people of colour, Black, queer trans folks, Indigenous people as well—Two-Spirit people are celebrated in Indigenous culture, but that’s not necessarily on the streets of Toronto, where you are homeless,” Ien says. “That’s not in a rural place where you are living. This lack of acceptance is the theme right across the board. That’s what has me thinking about basic kindness and empathy.”
Ien shares some other experiences she heard about, including people being subjected to slurs, being afraid to hold their partner’s hand or afraid to walk home at night.
Now that the plan is out, Ien says that they are laying groundwork to ensure that the work continues.
“The disaggregated data is so important,” Ien says, referring to statistical data that breaks out features like race, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability status, which until recently was rarely captured. “We need to get that data. I don’t want to see numbers from other countries with regard to the queer community and what’s happening and what is needed—we need our own numbers and when we see numbers, like, one in 100 adult Canadians now identify as non-binary: those are things that help us serve better. We need more of that. When we see the numbers that recently came out regarding the trans community, we need more of that.”
Ien says that when they get Canadian numbers, the pathway opens in a couple of ways. One of them is a new federal interdepartmental structure around LGBTQ2S+ issues, with two tables—one focused on advancing queer and trans issues writ large, and the other with the specific focus to support the resilience and resurgence of Indigenous LGBTQ2S+ communities.
“That work is already underway,” Ien says. “Those tables will build on the relationships we have built over the last 18 months in a Secretariat-led interdepartmental working group of director generals. There are a lot of people at work here, and it was created specifically to support the development of this plan, and that also includes community engagement. That does not stop, but it also now includes 24 federal departments and agencies.”
As an example, Ien says that all federal departments and agencies will now be using the new federal acronym—2SLGBTQI+—based on her instructions, because words and acronyms matter.
I asked Ien about the scolding her department recently received from the auditor general on the lack of disaggregated data, and how she is moving forward to address that.
“I pointed to community engagement as to how important this is,” Ien says. “These are the kinds of things that data will help with. These are places I’m talking about, that data will help with, because data matters. When we have it, we can say this is what we have to move forward with. This is where the community is losing us, this is what the community has been saying and now we have the numbers to support them.”
Because the Action Plan is intended to be evergreen, so that new issues can be added to it when they arise, Ien says there is no structured timeline for when they will review or add to the document, but rather that she intends to be constantly consulting and engaging.
“Listen, there are already a couple things I want to add,” Ien says. “If I hear something else tomorrow, I want to put that in the mix. When I say evergreen, it could mean every day. Whenever the community comes forward, whenever we hear something that we need to act on, it’s going to be a part of this.”
So how and when do we hold the government to account for what they have or have not accomplished out of this plan?
“The community always keeps us accountable, but I am a person who loves data—this is the former reporter in me,” Ien says, referring to her 29-year career as a broadcast journalist, most recently with CTV. “Whether it is a report card, or a check-in six months from now, a year from now—you will hear from us. We will make sure, because it’s important. When we get the disaggregated data, you will hear about it because it impacts the community, and how we lead, and where money goes and how community services people. You’re going to hear a lot about it.”
“We have to do a better job at being louder when we make changes and things are implemented,” Ien continues. “I realize that there are a lot of things that we do as a government that people don’t always hear about, and we need to do that a lot more. I will make sure that when we have news, that we share that news, that we make sure that people understand that this is making a difference.”
Ien has also committed to bringing this plan with her when she meets with her provincial and territorial status of women counterparts in November.
I mentioned my conversation with Michelle Douglas, and her mentioning that the RCMP is one of the federal organizations that has a lot of work to do when it comes to dealing with their homophonic and transphobic culture, and whether Ien is able to engage in that process, as the RCMP are ostensibly arm’s length from government.
“This is an all-of-government approach, and Minister [Marco] Mendicino, Minister [David] Lametti and others—we are working together to address all that needs to be addressed,” Ien says. “It’s important that we do that. There is obviously a lot more work that we need to do with the RCMP, there’s a lot more work that they need to do, and I’m happy to share expertise whenever and wherever we can, and whenever we’re called, because it is what we do.”
Her assistant breaks in and says the minister’s time is up; Ien agrees to talk again soon, in order to keep this conversation going.
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