AGM for Community Centre Committee

On Monday, April 30, the GLBTTQ Community Centre will be holding a meeting in regards to shutting the organization down. If, after more than a decade, we have not made headway towards this goal, it’s clear that we should move on and focus on what matters now.

But we need your help one last time in order to do that. Please come to our final Annual General Meeting on Monday April 30 and support us as we move to close the project down.

Event: GLBTTQ Community Centre of Ottawa Annual General Meeting
Date: Monday, April 30, 2012
Time: 6:30 PM
Location: City Hall- Colonel By Room

To be eligible to vote at the AGM, you must be a member for at least 30 days. To facilitate this, memberships will be sold for $1. Sign up by March 30 to have your say! E-mail us at glbttqcommunitycentre@gmail.com. Collections of the $1.00 will be collected on April 30, 2012 where you can fill out the proper forms but you must register to become a member by March 30, 2012.

Thank you
Daryle Gardipy AKA Giselle Gotti
Treasurer
GLBTTQ Community Centre

Historic moment as the Village in Ottawa becomes official

On Friday, November 4, 2011, Ottawa joined many world capital cities in boasting a GLBT-friendly Village. After six years of advocating and lobbying, the Village has received official endorsement from the City of Ottawa when six street signs, featuring the Village’s and City of Ottawa’s logo with a round rainbow decal, were installed on Bank Street on three intersections at Nepean, Somerset and James Streets. The final decision to install  the signs was green-lighted by Somerset Ward City Councillor Diane Holmes, with the approval and support of Mayor Jim Watson.

The debate over whether to mark the six blocks of Bank Street from Nepean to James as a Village had met opposition, mainly from the business sector, but received wide-reaching support from three levels of government, community advocacy groups such as the Centretown Citizen’s Community Association, community groups and partners, businesses, and the community at large. The street signs cap off an historic year for the Village, with two public art projects unveiled in August, and more signs and flags installed than ever before in the Village area.

“This is something the community can take an enormous sense of pride in,” says Village chair Glenn Crawford. “We now, for the first time, have an officially designated Village in Ottawa. That’s huge and it’s just beginning to sink in for me how big this is. We’ve known this has existed for many years, as we’ve seen the area grow and become more GLBT-friendly, but now, after years of hard work, the Village has become recognized by the City as a unique area of specific cultural importance, on par with other areas such as Chinatown and Little Italy.”

Achieving this milestone is exciting, but the Village Committee recognizes that this is only the beginning. “It’s time to enter a second major stage for the Village; one of growth,” continues Crawford. “Now that we’ve created the designation, it’s time to grow it. This is an exciting time for the community to reflect on what we want the Village to become—discover what services we are lacking, what businesses we’d like to see. I hope that these signs will inspire people to demand more from us, from the City, from the community at large. We know that there are many areas for improvement, such as feeling safe in our schools, workplace and communities. We need better services for our elderly, trans community, and people living with HIV/AIDS. I know many people would like to see a more active nightlife. We believe that the Village can, by partnering with other exemplary organizations and businesses, contribute to making Ottawa a safer, happier, more exciting place to life, work and play.”

The Village’s Second Euchre Fundraising Tournament

We’re back with everyone’s favourite card game,as we host the second of our euchre fundraising tournaments.

Join us at the Montgomery Branch Legion Hall in the upper hall on Thursday, December 8th at 7pm, bring the $20 entrance fee and enjoy a full evening of card playing and help raise funds for the Village and our awesome events and projects.

Cash bar with really cheap drinks served by the Hall, with food and snacks provided for.

Prizes:
· 1st prize – 50% of ticket sales, up to $200
· 2nd and 3rd prizes
· Special prizes for most loners and last place

See you there!

PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE AT communications@villageottawa.com.

VOTE NOW for the Village street signs!

Councillor Diane Holmes is conducting a residential survey to see the public’s interest in the Village’s official street signs. Now is your chance to have your voice heard on this important and exciting new development, as Councillor Holmes has stated that if approved, the signs could be installed as soon as November, 2011.

The form takes seconds to fill out… please follow the simple instructions below:

1. Download the Street Sign survey form

2. Email it back to Councillor Holmes’ office at bankvillage@ottawa.ca

Thanks so much for your support of the Village!

Speeches at “We Demand” mural unveiling

At the August 26th unveiling of the “We Demand” commemorative mural, Village chair Glenn Crawford and special guest Charlie Hill made some empassioned speech about the civil rights movement in Ottawa and in Canada. Looking back on 40 years of activism, much has changed but there are still so many fights to be made on our communities behalf.

Here’s what Crawford had to say as the mural was presented to the 1pm and 5pm crowds (Charlie Hill’s speech hopefully to be added shortly)

Capital Pride Candlelight Vigil speech by Glenn Crawford

On Thursday, August 25, 2011, Capital Pride held their annual vigil for human rights in Canada and around the world for GLBT persons at the Human Rights Monument on Elgin Street. Several speakers, including representatives from the AIDS Committee of Ottawa, Youth Services Bureau, Amnesty International, CFI, the trans community and more spoke with eloquence and passion about issues still facing the GLBT community in regards to equal and fair treatment under the law.

As a representative of the Village, I was honoured to be also asked to make a short speech on the needs for a Village, as well as recognizing our past and learning from previous activists, such as those at the original “We Demand” demonstration in 1971. Since an abridged version of my speech was published in Metro Ottawa, I’ve been asked by a number of people to publish my speech in full so others who couldn’t attend the vigil could read what I had to say. My speech is included in this blog posting in its entirety below.

The Village at the 2011 Capital Pride parade

It was a big weekend for the Village and the GLBT community. We’ll be posting more info and photos of all our activities over the next short while, but in the meantime, check out this awesome YouTube video of our 2011 Pride parade float made by past Village Committee member and all-around fabulous guy, Bruce Bursey:

Somerset loses some places; Gilmour gets some new faces

It’s been a time of change in the Village this summer. While we are expecting two new big art projects to be unveiled on the building Wilde’s occupies on Bank and Gilmour, we’re sad to note the loss of some great eateries along Somerset, just opposite CP.

Derek and Meg Benitz, owners of Benitz and B-Side restaurants, have had to shut their doors for the last time recently. The restaurateurs, long-time supporters of the GLBT community, were dealing with multiple challenges when the owner of the buildings were trying to sell the properties. Big, ugly “for sale” signs loomed large over the restaurants for over a year, eclipsing even their own signage. Confusion as to whether the restaurants were open for business or not clearly had a negative effect on filling the restaurants and sustaining business. We wish Derek, Meg their staff and family all the best on their new ventures.

Village map now functional!

So it’s taken a while, but we’ve finally got a functioning Village map… thanks to content from GayCities and our own Web site, and powered by GoogleMaps. It’s a great new way to see everything awesome in the Village… and beyond.

And if you’re a business or organization that wants to get on our map or listed higher in our online directory, contact our business relations member right away to find out how.

Welcome to the Village v2.0

The Village Committee is proud to announce the exciting re-launching of our Web site, www.villageottawa.com.

This re-design captures many of the features we’ve wanted to be able to offer Ottawa GLBT community and our allies. At last, in one place, you can access a wealth of information about our various projects, events, achievements and community, all in a dynamic, attractive and interactive format. As you browse the site, you’ll find an amazing interactive map, powered by one of our many partners, GayCites.com, as well as a complete directory of every business and organization in the Village area, and many other listings of GLBT-owned or friendly businesses outside the Village area.

By reading this, you’ll have already found the Village blog, where you can comment on many of our announcements that we’ll be posting in the future. Feel free to browse through our extensive photo galleries, and get information about all our upcoming events and other goings-on in the Village. As well, you’ll find other pages devoted to our projects, press coverage (which in the last six years has been remarkable), important achievements as noted in our timeline, and much more.