Taylor N Fountain

While mental suffering is no less real than the physical kind, Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) was built for failing bodies, and Canada needs to reckon with that. On June 17, a special joint parliamentary committee recommended that Ottawa indefinitely bar people whose sole underlying condition is a mental illness from MAID.

The growing push to enforce a strict gender binary ignores not only the lived realities of transgender and non-binary people today, but also the long history of Indigenous gender diversity on Turtle Island. On U.S. President Donald Trump’s second day in office last year, he signed Executive Order 14168, which prohibited the federal government from recognizing the gender identity of transgender people.

Every June, we spend weeks debating rainbow logos instead of queer issues. Corporations change their logos, retailers release Pride Month collections, and social media fills with accusations of “rainbow capitalism.” Critics question whether businesses are sincere, while supporters argue that visibility itself represents progress. By July, the logos disappear, and the conversation moves on. The annual argument has become so predictable that it risks overshadowing something more important.