Anidian

• Indigenous women and girls make up 50% of human trafficking victims, while only making up about 2% of the population.¹

•If the territory of Nunavut was an independent country it would have the highest suicide rate in the world (135 per 100,000, which is 10x the canadian average)²

•Despite Calgary having a fairly low crime rate the Calgary Police kill more people than any other police force in Canada. In 2018 CPS killed more people than the police forces of Winnipeg, Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto and Edmonton combined. ASIRT, the provincial police watchdog, has never charged an officer for these murders. If you control for population, the rate of civilians killed in Calgary by police is 8 times higher than in New York City. ³

•Between August 30th and December 14th 2024, 15 Indigenous people were killed by police in Canada. 15 people in under 4 months. Because Canada does not collect data on victims of police violence it's difficult to know exact numbers, but it's estimated that Indigenous people make up 16% of police killings, while only making up 4.1% of the population. Indigenous people are killed by police at a rate 10x higher than white canadians.⁴

•28% of people federally incarcerated are Indigenous. This number is as high as 40% in women's prisons. Indigenous women are incarcerated at a rate 12.5x higher than non Indigenous women. ⁵

•29 reserves in Canada are under drinking water advisories. Some of these advisories have been in place for more than 25 years. ⁶

•53.8% of kids in the foster care system are Indigenous. In the province I live in (Alberta) that number is more than 70%. ⁷

• 7% of non Indigenous Canadian children live in poverty. 38% of Indigenous children in Canada live in poverty. ⁷

Canada is not America-lite. Canada is not America's polite northern neighbour. Canada has its own brutal colonial history, and sits on forcibly occupied Indigenous land.

“I ain’t draft dodging. I ain’t burning no flag. I ain’t running to Canada. I’m staying right here. You want to send me to jail? Fine, you go right ahead. I’ve been in jail for 400 years. I could be there for 4 or 5 more, but I ain’t going no 10,000 miles to help murder and kill other poor people.

If I want to die, I’ll die right here, right now, fightin’ you, if I want to die. You my enemy, not no Chinese, no Vietcong, no Japanese. You my opposer when I want freedom. You my opposer when I want justice. You my opposer when I want equality. Want me to go somewhere and fight for you? You won’t even stand up for me right here in America, for my rights and my religious beliefs. You won’t even stand up for me right here at home. “

The thing is, asking how many genders there are is like asking how many colors there are. Yeah, there are a few main ones, but you could never name every. single. color. Plus, there are many shades that fall outside of or in between the few labels that we’ve created to categorize them. Asking a nonbinary person if they’re a boy or a girl is like asking if turquoise is blue or green - it’s somewhere in the middle, and that’s okay. 

ALWAYS TAKE SEALED, UNUSED TOILETRIES

(such as would be available at a hotel) whenever possible.

Everyone deserves a livable wage, because there is no such thing as unskilled labor.

happy national coming out day to everyone who’s been out for a while

happy national coming out day to everyone who can’t come out

happy national coming out day to everyone who could come out but isn’t ready