For more examples on how precisely these laws are problematic, review articles such as this from the Guardian, where a teenager was murdered for ringing a doorbell in Missouri: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023...

I appreciate and empathize with MPP Brady's passion and advocacy for improving public safety, but after reading her column this morning I felt compelled to speak against what would be an extremely erroneous and problematic measure for our federal Minister of Justice Sean Fraser to take.

The laws (and MPP Brady's statement) also invokes very colonial language and ideology ("An Englishman's home is his castle") that I fear within a Canadian context would be used to further perpetuate colonial violence against the indigenous people in Canada.

The "Castle" laws in the US allow for the lawful murder and persecution of racialized people, in particular black Americans, by white Americans. It is also deeply tied to the very problematic gun culture in the US, which would also be a tremendous error to bring into our Country.

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I was pleased council passed an amended version of my motion to oppose Bill 5 last night, but the fight does not stop here. I encourage you to get in contact with your representatives at all levels of government to discourage them from supporting these types of legislation.

I would encourage those who are interested in supporting (or opposing) this motion to please consider contacting your councillors or delegating to our council next Tuesday night at 6pm. Please find the details on how to register as a delegation here: www.brant.ca/en/council-a...

It must go back to the drawing board so we can accomplish shared goals of economic growth, whilst respecting municipal jurisdiction, indigenous communities, and our stewardship of the environment.

Thus, I gave notice this morning of my motion coming to next week's council to oppose Bill 5 and request the government repeal this poorly crafted and wide sweeping legislation.

I have a great deal of concern about what this motion could mean for local governance, environmental protections, and indigenous treaty rights.

Happy Pride Month everyone 🏳️‍🌈

And to those in our community who are 2SLGTBQIA+, know that you have unconditional and stalwart allies in the Council and staff of the County of Brant. I encourage you of those in that community to please reach out if there is more than we can be doing to actively support you.

I have consistently pushed back against these transgressions against valued members of our community. I would encourage everyone to do the same in their day to day as well.

But in those three years, our neighboring community of Norwich has regularly had Pride flags vandalized, I helped organize a counter protest to the hateful "Million Person March" in 2023, and numerous smaller encounters where people have complained about "wokeness" or pushing LGBT on them.

I, perhaps naively, thought these conversations had long since been settled. Of course people are entitled to be who they are, and live their lives as their authentic selves without prosecution.

When I became a councillor three years ago, I never imagined that fighting for basic human rights and dignity would become something that I would need to regularly engage in.

As one of the students from PDHS said to the assembled crowd today, we must not tolerate intolerance, and call people out when they engage in bigotry, particularly as allies, as it is unfair and unduly burdensome to leave this on the shoulders of 2SLGTBQIA+ people alone.

We must never stop the fight to ensure everyone has access to the same spaces, resources, and safety; and right now is a particularly scary time for our 2SLGTBQIA+ friends.

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