Hello Ottawa

An escort and student, Lindsay is an outspoken advocate for sex workers’ rights in Ottawa. She works with POWER (Prostitutes of Ottawa/Gatineau Work, Educate, Resist), a local non-profit organization open to people who self-identify as current or former sex workers, to help raise awareness about sex workers’ rights. Lindsay worked on POWER’s most recent report, Challenges: Ottawa Sex Workers Speak Out, which addresses the issues facing sex workers in Ottawa.

Lindsay and I met for coffee and a candid interview before heading to the Tech Wall on Bronson for photos. Read on to find out about Lindsay’s life as a sex worker in Ottawa, and why the Tech Wall was a fitting place for our photo shoot.

Can you tell me about yourself?

 Yeah, I’m Lindsay. I’m currently a student doing my second undergraduate degree – this one’s in women’s studies – and I’m a working escort. I’ve been living in Ottawa now for almost five years. I’m very passionate about feminism, and I’m really into identity politics and sex work theory – that’s something I’d like to pursue in grad school, if I ever get there.

Where are you from?

I grew up in Owen Sound, which is, I guess, about an hour and a half west of Barrie and about three hours north of Toronto. If you’re looking at a map, it’s the elephant’s asshole. It was an okay place to grow up. It’s a place for newlyweds and nearly-deads – it’s not so great when you’re 15. Your options are, you know, drinking in a field. Not so much my thing. I’ve always been a super nerd. I love to read, although school doesn’t allow me to do as much reading for pleasure as I like.

After high school I went to Wilfrid Laurier in Waterloo and that’s where I did my first degree, which was in archaeology and classical history. I graduated in 2006. During my last year of university I had gotten involved in a long-distance relationship with my current partner, and we agreed that once I graduated I would move to Ottawa to be with him. I moved to Ottawa in May of 2006, and I’ve been here ever since.

After sort of wallowing for a year, not knowing what I was supposed to with myself, exactly – and learning how hard it is to get a job in Ottawa if you don’t speak French – I decided that my passion was feminist politics, so I went back to school. I’ve always, always been into feminism. I’ve been a feminist for as long as I can remember.

Now that you’re here in Ottawa, what keeps you here?

Well, I’ve kind of gotten settled a little bit. My boyfriends family is here, I’ve made friends. I’ve been working long enough that I have a regular clientele. Really, though, it’s mostly because I’m tethered to school. Once I’m done school, I think I’ll be gone. I mean, truthfully, my six degrees of separation is practically non-existent here. Everyone just overlaps so much. Each time I meet someone new I either know them, or they know people I’m sleeping with or they’ve slept with people I’m sleeping with. It’s just too small. I mean, when you’re polyamorous and a sex worker, your circle becomes fairly tiny. I need to move somewhere where there’s a bigger pool.

I like Ottawa itself – like, the physical location. It’s a beautiful city, but it’s a little too boring for me. It doesn’t seem that there’s a really big alternative community. Most people work for the government, and I’m pretty anti-government. Well, I’m pretty anti-work in general. People always misunderstand me when I say that, but I just mean that I don’t believe in compulsory production enforced by either political or financial means. I’m not down with wage slavery.

That’s part of the reason that I became an escort – it’s something that I want to do, and I’m not doing it for anyone else. It’s just for me. I’m not making or selling a product for someone else’s profit. I’m the only one profiting. Also, I can choose my own hours, which, as a student, is really key.

That’s a pretty good segue into talking about your life as an escort. How did you get started?

Well, I’m of the mind-set that I don’t have a problem with two consenting adults engaging in sexual activity where one person gets paid. It’s just not a big deal or an issue. Everyone else is just giving it away for free, and I’m getting paid! I like sex and I’m not ashamed of that. I like having it, and I like variety. I was sleeping with a lot of guys anyway, and I just thought, well, I should be charging for this!

Really, the big catalyst for my entry to sex work was when I was sleeping with a guy from Montreal, and I was seeing someone local in a more serious context – beyond my primary partner. I ended up cutting off the guy in Montreal, and he asked if he could pay to keep seeing me. And, I mean, why the hell not! Of course I wasn’t going to say no – I had already been sleeping with him for free.

It was really easy. It wasn’t anything like what I had imagined it would be, or what the media says sex work is supposed to be like. I really liked it, so I kept doing it. I started out just doing it when I needed extra money, but it’s now evolved to the point where I do it full time. It’s my sole source of income, it’s my job. I mean, honestly, it has never seemed that unusual to me. When I was in undergrad for the first time and really broke, sometimes I’d trade sexual favours for money. So I guess it just kind of happened. It’s never been hard for me, and I’ve never had problems separating myself from it emotionally. I do occasionally get really, really hot guys and those are the moments where I’m like, “I can’t even believe I’m getting paid for this right now!”

Do you see yourself continuing as an escort?

Oh yeah, I’ll probably continue with this until no one will pay me anymore, until I’m saggy and wrinkled. I mean, I hope to not always do it as a full-time job. I’ve always wanted to be a professor, so right now being a sex worker is a means to getting that position.

It’s sort of my own personal activism. I feel that a lot of people’s perceptions of sex work are really misconceptions based on stereotypes. It’s a lot harder to act like I don’t have rights when I’m standing right in front of you. It’s hard to say, “Oh, you know, prostitutes are all just cracked-out street whores” when I’m right here, the complete opposite of that. If people take the time to get to know me, they’ll realize that I’m really no different from anyone else, and sex workers are really no different from anyone else. If I can change one person’s mind, that’s a start. It means dealing with a lot of people’s projected shame and their own hang-ups about sex work and sex. It becomes difficult to not absorb that, but I feel that it’s worth it. I surround myself with people who love me and care for me, and that stuff doesn’t matter.

Is being a sex worker something you’re open about in your daily life?

Yeah. When I meet people and they ask what I do, I tell them. I’m an escort, that’s what I do. I’m a sex worker. Responses really depend on the person. Being in university, and in women’s studies, I’m surrounded by people who are relatively open to it in the first place, or who have at least been exposed to some sort of theory about sex work. Even if it’s abolition literature, people have read about it and thought about it. I find that I occasionally get abolitionist theory cast on to me – you know, I’m the victim, I’ve been brainwashed by the patriarchy, it’s a false consciousness. All that stuff. Mostly, though, people feel it’s a legitimate life choice and path. Personally, it just makes sense – it’s like an extension of the pro-choice movement and rhetoric. If it’s my body and I can choose whether or not to get an abortion, why can’t I choose whether or not to charge someone for sex? I mean, pornography is legal. Those people do it in front of tons of people and get paid – I do it in private and suddenly I’m demonized. It’s a big moral panic over nothing.

What are some of the issues that sex workers in Ottawa face?

The big thing for me right now is that it’s illegal to work out of your house. If I were to work out of my apartment, I could be evicted, my partner could be charged with “Living off the Avails.” You know, what really pisses me off is the insistence that the “Living off the Avails” law is supposed to protect me, but in reality it just incarcerates friends and family and lovers. It’s so hypocritical. The criminalization of sex work in general is terrible – if people view you as a criminal, it’s like you’re automatically cast as someone outside of the realm of human rights.

I’ve never had any problems with the law, but for street-based sex workers the law is a huge deal. POWER just released a report, and one of our big findings was that police abuse of sex workers is really systemic. I personally hope that our letter to the Human Rights Commission will affect some change. Right now, the situation with Ottawa Police [PDF] is atrocious. It’s completely egregious. I don’t have words for it, it’s just awful. I mean, I’ve never personally had contact with the police, and I hope to keep it that way, but I have to assume it will happen some day. Just being out about being a sex worker makes me slightly worried I might be targeted, but I’m extremely careful to work within the law. I mean, it’s so tempting to do work in your house. It’s easy, it’s safer, but it’s illegal.

You can do out-calls legally. That means that I can go to a client’s house or hotel room. I prefer hotels; there’s measure of safety in that. You can get to know the layout of hotels pretty easily. I’m less safety conscious than I probably should be, but I’ve been doing this long enough that I’ve developed something like a sixth-sense about it. I’ve always been pretty intuitive anyways, so you just learn to read people and if you get a bad feeling, don’t do it. Trust your instincts. I’ve never been in a violent situation, but I’ve been in situations where you’re not really sure how someone is going to react. I was working for an agency for a while, and their screening methods weren’t as rigorous as my own. For example, on my own, I would never go see a client who is on drugs, but I’ve seen a ton of clients who are on drugs through the agency. It’s a safety thing – I don’t know how someone who’s coked out is going to react. Are they going to respect my boundaries? Are they going to be violent? Are they going to try to force me to have unsafe sex? There are a lot of potential issues.

Can you tell me about your involvement with POWER?

Yeah, sure! POWER has been around now for about three years. I came in about a year or so after I started escorting. A friend of mine told me to get in touch with them. At that point I had only a very peripheral understanding of what sex workers’ rights were. I went to check it out, and it was just so cool that there were all these people who feel the way I do – that sex work is a legitimate thing. It’s legitimate work and a valuable contribution to society. It was so freeing to meet those people. I was very isolated. Up to that point, I didn’t have a support network of other sex workers, or people to talk to. It was really just my boyfriend, and he’s not a sex worker – he didn’t understand all of the complexities of the industry.

It was really great to get with other people who understood exactly what I was going through, while fighting for rights at the same time. I got involved right away, doing a lecture at the University of Ottawa. I was also hired as a research coordinator for Challenges: Ottawa Area Sex Workers Speak Out. I recruited participants and scheduled interviews. It’s a big piece of research that was a couple of years in the making, and I’m really proud of it. We really wanted to avoid the pitfalls of previous research, which is primarily street-based and ignored male and transgender perspectives. We tried to get a very good cross-section of the sex worker population. It did end up still being almost half street-based.

Are street-based sex workers a large population?

No, the thing is that street-based sex workers account for maybe 5 to 20% of the sex worker population. About 85% of us work indoors, but that’s the population that’s hardest to access. We’re the most private and discreet, and what we do is all behind closed doors. You would never know, really, so that’s the perspective that never gets talked about.

I feel like it’s always the two extremes – you hear about the Eliot Spitzer high-class escort, or the drug-addicted street-based sex worker, and I think that does the whole industry a real injustice. It also perpetuates the awful stereotypes. Even perspectives on the “drug-addicted sex worker” are often wrong  – I mean, they’re not addicted to drugs because they do sex work. A lot of them did drugs before that, and then sex work became a way to facilitate the habit. Drugs aren’t inherent to sex work.

We did your photos at the Tech Wall on Bronson – why is that an important place to you?

I love the graffiti wall. It’s one of the only places where you can legally do graffiti in Ottawa. I think it really vibes with my personality. I love to look at it in the summer because it’s constantly changing, a space in perpetual transition.

 Thank you, Lindsay! To find out more about POWER (Prostitutes of Ottawa/Gatineau Work, Educate, Resist), visit http://www.powerottawa.ca. To read more about the issues facing sex workers in Ottawa, read POWER’s most recent report, Challenges: Ottawa Area Sex Workers Speak Out, which addresses challenges of working in the sex industry in Ottawa with exclusive quotes and interviews from Ottawa-area sex workers.

Update: Lindsay also did a really amazing interview with Toronto-based podcast I Like You, where she talks about how she came out as a sex worker to her mom, what her clients are like, and more. It’s definitely worth a listen!  I Like You Episode #51: Money Up Front.

Update 2: Because there have been a number of contact requests since this piece was first published, Lindsay has asked that I provide her email address here for anyone who would like to get in touch with her. Lindsay can be reached at live.to.rebel@gmail.com.

Meet Ryan, a photographer and security guard living and working in Ottawa. Ryan is a military buff and a big fan of Airsoft paintball - he works part time at Combat 307 in Gatineau, which is where we meant  to do photos. Some chilly days and a lot of snow led to a Plan B, though: Place d’Orleans station, where Ryan spends a lot of his day as he commutes from the edge of Orleans to his job downtown. Read on to find out about Ryan’s life in Ottawa, and why he chose Place d’Orleans in the end.

Can you tell me about yourself?

I moved here from Cold Lake, Alberta about twelve years ago - I went through high school here. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do until grade 11, when I borrowed my brother’s little Samsung camera. Luckily we had a multimedia program at our school, so I got a pretty good start and knowledge of photography through that. I love photography. I’ve never really been able to stick to anything because I have ADHD, but there was something about photography that just worked.

I took a semester in Photography at Algonquin, but it was just so expensive. I lost my job about halfway through, and I couldn’t continue. Right now I’m just about to get my security licence, so I’ll be working security for a local company once I’m done that. Also, you know, I’m taking photos when I can and hoping someone buys some.  

I’m not professionally a photographer – I only do it as a side thing. I’d really like to be a professional, but I haven’t gotten many job offers. I worked for a club down town for a while. It’s the off-season right now, but I also work for an Airsoft paintball field in Gatineau called Combat 307. He lets me play whenever I want, and I take pictures of all of the players. I only charge the players like a buck a photo, and I take maybe 70 a game. So I could walk away from a day there with $70. I love doing that.

I grew up in a military family, and I’m a proud military brat. I’m a huge military fanatic. That’s how I got into Airsoft. Airsoft is like paintball, only there’s more military simulation, and it’s more in-depth. You have to do things like find a downed pilot, locate lost documents, follow rules of engagement, stuff like that - just one game lasts a whole day. Video games also got me into military stuff – I played Call of Duty and stuff, and I really like the guns and everything. This is the second year I’ve done Airsoft, and I feel like I’m a big part of it now. There are only twenty or thirty active members, and I’ve gone to almost every game in the last two years. It really gets me into a military mind-set. If it wasn’t for my weight, I would have joined the military. Unfortunately it just wasn’t possible. I’m still trying to find a way to join the military despite my weight, but Airsoft is my fallback plan.

Do you see yourself staying in Ottawa?

I might move to Gatineau, but I like Ottawa enough that I want to stay here. Ottawa is so familiar to me now. When I travel to other places – and I go to Toronto and New York pretty often for Airsoft – everything just feels different.

Ottawa has its ups and downs. Being in here is what got me into photography. I’ve gone through many different events here. The architecture in Ottawa is pretty good for photos. Everything is nice and small, too. I can’t go anywhere without running into someone I know. It’s really safe, too – I mean, we have Ottawa Police, OPP, military… it’s very safe.

Do you have any favourite places to take photos in Ottawa?

When I first started out, one of my favourite places to take photos was the Orleans skate park. I was never a skater myself, but I really love the culture behind it. Ottawa has a really nice group of close-knit skaters, and the Orleans park is a nice place – it was renovated recently. Just outside of Ottawa, Gatineau Park and Combat 307 are favourite places, you know, places where I’ve had the best times with friends, just drinking and chilling out.

We did your photos at the Place d’Orleans transpo station – why is that an important place for you?

The OC Transpo bus station at Place d’Orleans is the first place I got drunk. I had no intention of drinking that night – I got off work at the mall, and a couple of my friends were there. I ended up getting smashed at the bus station. It was my first time drinking, so I didn’t know about rules like don’t drink milk or eat yogurt. It was a real learning experience!

Thanks, Ryan! Ryan’s own photography can be seen on his Flickr page and on Combat 307’s Flickr page, but he’s also provided a few in a slideshow below – take a look!

Kelly is an interior decorator and design blogger who recently started her own business. With the support of a solid network of professional and amateur designers, she’s focused on making Ottawa’s living spaces beautiful.

Kelly and I met for photos at Bruce Pit, a dog park in the west end of the city, on one of the coldest days of the year. I don’t think I’d have made it if she hadn’t lent me some gloves (thanks Kelly!) We also took a quick detour for some shots at HomeSense, one of her favourite stores. Read on to find out about Kelly’s experience starting her own design business, and her thoughts on Ottawa.

Can you tell me about yourself?

Well, my name is Kelly. I guess technically my day job is as a technical writer, but what I really want to do is interior decorating. So I’m pursuing that while working part time as a technical writer. I have a pretty wide variety of interests. I like animals – I have a couple of dogs. I’m really into cars, photography, writing, walking my dogs. And decorating! I guess I already said decorating, but I really like it so I’ll say it twice! I also like anything outside. Biking, hiking, kayaking — that kind of stuff. A lot of tomboy-ish things, I guess, but I’m a relaxed chick. I like a little bit of everything.

How did you first get into decorating?

I can’t remember specifically – I think it was about ten years ago? I discovered HGTV, and I just kept watching more and more until it was kind of an obsession. In our marriage vows, my husband mentioned that he would tolerate me watching HGTV as much as I needed! Of course he complains about it now. Anyway, that’s what kind of started it, and then we moved into our current house in 2001. It was really a blank slate where we could start fresh with decorating, so that was where I truly started. I just tackled room after room, and then a friend asked me to help her with a room in her house. It became a passion, and now I think about it all the time. I can’t stop thinking about it!

I started my own business last summer. It’s still small, but the cool thing is that I have a group of friends who are all at the same stage, just starting out in business. We’re like a support group for each other. We call ourselves the TBBs. We chat on Twitter, get together for dinner, ask each other questions. It’s great.  We’re all just starting out and still learning, so it’s good to have people to go to for help with things. There are seven of us… the story about how we met is really weird! I have this friend named Donna, and we met online through our blogs. I had a giveaway on my blog, and she won. I told her we should get together so I could giver her prize to her in person. We met for dinner, and at some point in the four hour conversation we ended up talking about how we both had come from Montreal. It turned out that she grew up with and was very close with one of my cousins! Anyway, through her I met the others in the group. We’re kind of like the decorating version of the Group of Seven.

Can you talk a little about what it’s been like to start your own decorating business?

Yeah! I really should have waited until I had more decorating and business experience. I feel like the business side of it is my weakness. I’ve never really been a math person or anything – I’m more creative. I’m currently taking my fifth course at Algonquin’s Residential Décor program, so I’m almost halfway there. Part of that relates to business, so that should help. Mostly I’m just doing what feels right. There haven’t been any major incidents yet, so I guess I’m doing something right!

I think in general people have this perception that decorating is for rich people. People feel like it’s not something they can afford, or that there’s not any value in it. I think that’s something that a lot of designers struggle with everywhere. People just don’t really appreciate what you can offer. But there are a lot of interior decorators in Ottawa, and, I mean, if there’s enough work to keep everyone going that’s a great thing. For myself, I just have to get out there a little more. I belong to a group called the Ottawa Design Network Group, which is a group of people who are all kind of in the same boat. We meet about every six weeks and talk about the business of decorating. It’s a very positive support team. So hopefully we can get the word out there that decorating is a good thing!

How long have you lived on Ottawa?

I moved to Ottawa in 1998, so a little over 12 years.

What brought you here?

My husband. He had a good job in Ottawa, and doesn’t speak any French. I grew up in Montreal, but had a non-career type job, so it just made sense to come here. And I’m still here! I guess it’s going okay since it’s been twelve years. This feels more like home to me now than Montreal does. I was in Montreal until I was about 30. Good things happened there, but there’s always negative history with a place – like, my mom died there, so there are some sad memories associated with it. Things have changed so much, so I just reminisce a lot when I’m in Montreal. Ottawa has been all positive things for me, things have been good right from the start.

Do you think you’ll stay in Ottawa?

Well, actually, no! It’s a great city, but I really love the ocean. I’ve always loved Nova Scotia, and I really want to live there some day. So hopefully we’ll move to Nova Scotia. But, I mean, I have a lot of friends here, so I’d always be coming back to visit anyway. If Ottawa had an ocean, that would be perfect! But we only have a river and a canal, so, you know, it can’t really compare. Other than that, I think it’s a really good city. There’s lots to do and to see. It has nearly everything – except for good home decorating stores! We need more of those for sure. HomeSense is kind of my go-to store for decorating stuff. I mean, there are some good ones in the Market and Westboro, but they’re smaller boutique stores that don’t have the variety you’d get at a bigger box stores like Restoration Hardware or Pottery Barn.

Do you think Ottawa has a personality?

I think Ottawa is pretty conservative. I don’t know, maybe that’s because it’s a government town. You know, you go to a concert and people are polite and they clap, but they don’t go crazy. I guess it depends on where you live and the kind of crowd you hang out with, so maybe I’m just missing all of the funky and cool stuff because I don’t go out much and I don’t go downtown much. Maybe I’m just not aware of it. I guess I need to get out more and look for it. I think in general people have a perception of Ottawa as kind of conservative. People have told me that they think of it as kind of a snobby place.

I think Ottawa is very oriented to people who are active. There are a lot of outdoor activities – hiking, biking, walking, the canal for skating in the winter. I think people are nice. I mean, of course you meet a dud here and there, but for the most part all the people I encounter are nice. I guess it’s just a nice place to live.

My life in Ottawa is kind of centralized in this little cube between Woodroffe and Merivale and Hunt Club and the Queensway! In all honesty, my life really is in this kind of cube. Where I work, where I live, the dog park, shopping… from our house, we can walk to pretty much anywhere we need to go. I’m more of a suburban girl than a city girl, so what we have here in this area is perfect for me.

We did your photos at Bruce Pit and HomeSense. Why are those places important to you?

Well, one place I go to a lot is Bruce Pit to walk the dogs. They’ve fenced off most of it, so it’s a completely fenced in area that’s a really great place for socializing your dogs. It’s good exercise for the humans, too! I also go to HomeSense a lot. Decorating is a big part of my life, and it’s something I started in Ottawa.

 Thanks Kelly! Check out Kelly’s design blog at JAX Does Design, and her professional interior design portfolio at JAXdecor.ca. You can also follow her on Twitter at @JAXdecor.

Chantal is an entrepreneur, makeup artist, blogger, small business consultant, locavore, and – quite possibly – the friendliest, most positive person you’ll ever meet. Her two blogs, The O’ Valley and Me So Pritti keep her engaged in the community and in-the-know about the latest events and store openings.

For her photos, Chantal and I visited the Bank Street Bridge near Lansdowne Park on a beautiful sunny morning when the canal was at its busiest. Read on to find out why Chantal identifies with this part of Old Ottawa South!

Can you tell me about yourself?

My name is Chantal. I moved to Ottawa almost eight years ago from Toronto – I came here for school. I went to the University of Ottawa because it was in French, and I went to French elementary school and French high school in Toronto. I studied biochemistry initially because I wanted to go to med school, but that didn’t pan out. I finished with a science degree, but I also did a certificate in business. I’ve always had a knack for marketing, so now I’m doing communications for the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada. It’s been a huge learning experience, and I really love my job. I love what I do and why we’re doing it; it’s all about women’s health and international women’s health, and it’s just nice to be a part of something real with a purpose.

I like to shop, and I like to cook a lot. I’m not a baker, but I like to cook and invent stuff. I like experimenting with my garden - that was a fun challenge this year. It was the first time that I really dove into it and used it. I watch the Food Network religiously. Eventually I’ll have my own cooking show.

What else… I used to draw a lot more and paint and stuff. I feel like I still have that in me, I just need to push myself to do something. I love to laugh and joke around and watch funny movies. I think that’s a huge part of who I am, just laughing. People tell me I’m very funny, and I like to keep positive and just be a happy person.

What’s kept you in Ottawa?

I’ve pretty much stayed in Ottawa because I met someone. We got married a year and a half ago, and we just bought a house… so I guess my home is Ottawa now!

Really, coming from Toronto, I found Ottawa very quiet without much to do. I didn’t feel that way in university because I was meeting so many people and there was always so much to do, but after real life kicked in I felt like there was something missing. But then I thought, well, maybe I have to be a part of the change. You have to get out there and do something, so I started blogging. I had to learn about the city, and what better way to do it? So I do a lot of restaurant reviews, collect information about things that are coming up on the weekend, what there is to see and do. It’s really created a sense of community for me.

I really like supporting small businesses, and my blog helps me do that. I work in Old Ottawa South, so you really get to experience that small-business feel. I guess it’s because my dad has a small business in Toronto in an area that has that same community feeling. I really want to support local businesses because that’s what makes a city seem so unique, and not just copied and pasted.

I think my goal with this is just to express the attitude that “if you don’t like something, you can’t just complain about it!” You have to do something, and be a part of change. I had a friend who moved with me for school, but she really hated it here. She laid low and didn’t really indulge in what this city had to offer her. She finished school and left. I feel like I’ve had a completely different experience. I really want to support local businesses, I want to know what’s going on and tell people what’s going on. I’m really happy with my blog and where it’s going for that reason. I have a pretty strong presence on Urban Spoon, and that really helps me support local restaurants. I try to help populate the listings and choices. I want to highlight places that are small and up-and-coming.

Do you have any favourite small businesses in town?

I do! Near my work there’s Clothes Secret, which is a consignment shop. I bring a lot of my stuff there, and I find a lot of really cool stuff there. My other new favourite is Life of Pie, which is new to that area of Bank Street. I always get the scones, they’re great. We go to the Georgetown Pub after work sometimes. It’s not a big strip, but there’s something about each little place that I really like.

What do you really like about living here?

Well, I have to say that when I go to Toronto I get really irritated with a lot of things. It’s just… I don’t know. Sometimes it’s too busy there, and you just want to be more relaxed. It’s not like living in the country, but I do find it more relaxed in Ottawa. Sometimes I find that there’s a lack of things to do. Maybe it’s just not being aware of what’s going on out there, I don’t know. People in Ottawa seem very outdoorsy, are really into skiing and all that stuff. It seems like if you don’t do that here, either you should start doing it or, you know, try to find people who have other things going on.

I don’t want to sound mean, but I find Ottawa to be very conservative and nine-to-five. It’s very sports-oriented and not so focused on trends and fashion. It seems like a good place to raise a family. It’s safe, the news is always dull. I guess that’s a good thing! There’s not very much excitement, but it’s a safe place and I like that it’s bilingual. When I’m in Toronto, I miss Ottawa.

Do you think you’ll stay in Ottawa?

I think so, yeah. I think we want to start a family soon. My husband’s family is here, and they are just like my own – we’re all one big family. We go visit my parents in Toronto a lot. My husband is very close to his family and hasn’t ever had any distance from them. I’m used to it, so being here just makes sense.

If someone were to visit you in Ottawa, what would you show them?

I had a friend who visited recently, and we went to the market and showed her the cute kitchen shops like Ma Cuisine. We were going to go to Parliament Hill, but it was so rainy and cold that we ended up just driving by and pointing it out. I tend to think of Ottawa as areas that are comparable to neighbourhoods in Toronto. I compare Westboro to the Beaches because it’s like a pocket in itself, but it’s not really downtown. I really like Westboro and all the little stores there. The Glebe is kind of like Yonge and Eglinton: not so downtown, but kind of close to it. I’m sure there are tons of other places – I would bring a person to Le Nordik Spa if there were time – but those are the main ones.

We did your photos at the Bank Street Bridge – why is that a meaningful place to you?

I really have a thing for Old Ottawa South, so I thought of the bridge right after Lansdowne Park. I work nearby, I bought a house nearby, and I love all of the little stores down there. I skate a lot on the canal in winter. It really represents me in Ottawa.

Thanks, Chantal! Chantal writes two blogs: The O’ Valley, in which she outlines things to do and see in the Ottawa area, and Me So Pritti, which is a scrapbook of her interests. She’s also a professional makeup artist - you can check out her services and portfolio at Me2Morph. And as if she didn’t have enough going on, Chantal recently founded her own small business consulting group, Concetto Consulting.

Bethia describes herself as a “teacher and immigrant who lives a pretty quiet life” in Ottawa. We met over coffee and chatted about her life here, the culture shock that came from immigrating as a refugee from Liberia, and her two sons. Even though we met as strangers, it turns out that we’re practically neighbours – Ottawa seems like an awfully small city sometimes.

 Read on to find out more about Bethia’s life here in Ottawa, and why she chose Parliament Hill for her photos.

Can you tell me about yourself?

Sure. I’m Bethia. I obviously am from Africa - Liberia, to be precise. I live here alone. I don’t have any family except for my two little boys, who are 9 and 3. Most of my family is in Africa. I’m a teacher – I teach at the Ottawa Catholic School Board, delivering the after school program. I’m a graduate of the University of Ottawa and… that’s it, basically. 

When did you move to Ottawa?

I don’t know if I can remember. A long time ago – in 2001. Yes, 2001. Almost 10 years ago now.

Why did you choose to move to Ottawa?

Because of family. I used to have family here. My sister was going to Carleton, and she was living here alone. So I just came and joined her, but then she moved back to Africa and I decided to stay. It’s almost like a first home to me, since I came to Canada.

Did you move here directly from Liberia?

No, actually. I was a refugee in Ghana because of the war in Liberia. I went to St. Catharines first and spent a few months there, and then I moved here.

Do you like it here?

I love it here. Everything from the food and the weather to interactions with people and how to go about doing daily things - it was all very different for me when I first immigrated. If it wasn’t for my sister I probably would have gone back. I felt a little lonely. But things have changed. For me, it’s about meeting a variety of people and getting to talk to them and learn. It’s the little things that make me happy. I also love the language. I’m still in the process of becoming a fluent French speaker, but I’ve been able to acquire some French speaking skills. That’s good for me.

Do you think you’ll stay here?

Yeah, definitely. There’s not any reason for me to move right now. I just love Ottawa in general. It’s a big city, but it also has a small-town feel to it. I love it.

What neighbourhood do you live in?

I think it’s considered center-west? I guess it’s called Hintonburg. I love it because it’s in the center of everything. You can get downtown very quickly, but at the same time you can go on the highway and get to the other end of the city in five or ten minutes. There are a lot of amenities around, and I’m very close to my church. I love it. I’ve been living in this area for about six years now. I think I’ll move eventually, but I don’t know when. I want to buy a home eventually, though, and I want to buy somewhere that has new development. I also wish my kids had more parks to play in where we are now.

Do you feel that Ottawa has a personality?

Cold? No, just kidding. When I first moved here, there weren’t many people from where I come from. Like, it wasn’t very multicultural. But now I see that there is a little more multiculturalism in Ottawa. When I first moved here, I was the only person from Africa in my church, but now I can count more than 20 people there. The people are also very friendly here. It’s a very friendly city.

It would be nice if there were more childcare options, especially for single-parent families. For my second child I needed daycare so I could work, and we had to wait almost a year just to get on a waiting list. I would also like some kind of multicultural festival where members of different countries and continents could celebrate.

Is there a Liberian community in Ottawa?

Yes, there is – they have weekly meetings, and I try to attend once in a while. They also observe the Independence Day, and try to keep us updated with activities. They help new immigrants from Liberia integrate into the Ottawa community.

We did your photos at Parliament Hill – why was that an important place for you?

Parliament Hill is the first site I went to when I first got here. My sister brought me there. I felt very happy to see it. It was nice to see people out and doing things, taking pictures. It really felt different and new to me.

Thank you, Bethia!

A semi-retired aspiring sci-fi author, John and I met for coffee near his home in Nepean. He’s full of stories about his life and experiences, and very passionate about science, the economy, and current events. We chatted for a long time before heading over to Andrew Haydon Park for his photos.

 John recently received his one-year medallion from AA, and he definitely deserves a huge round of congratulations for his hard work and commitment. Read on to learn more about the challenges John has faced, and how drastically his life has changed in the past year.

Can you tell me about yourself?

Well, okay. I’m 63, and I’m semi-retired. I’m still looking for something part-time to do, to pull in some extra bucks and fill my time, stuff like that. But currently I’m in the midst of writing a book. So really I’m mostly just acting as chief cook and bottle-washer at home. My wife has her own business at home now, so I keep the place tidy and make supper for her and whatnot. I help with her business when and where I can. I did some volunteer work for the City of Ottawa to fill in some time and as a type of therapy.

I’m on my third marriage. I have two boys from my first marriage - the oldest is 39. He’s in the military, doing computers and communications. They’re in the Netherlands now with four kids, having a ball travelling all over the place. I didn’t have any kids with my second wife. My current wife and I met online, through Yahoo. We did the email thing, and then the phone thing, and then we met and one thing led to another. She lived in a place just North of Napanee in a really old house – it was almost 150 years old. It was really falling apart, and she had sunk a lot of money into it. I kept on bugging her to get rid of it. Eventually she sold the house so she could move to Ottawa and live with me.

One thing you should know about me is that I love animals. I have two cats at home, and my wife has got a cockatiel that she’s had for years. Nobody knows how old it is because someone else gave it to her, but we reckon it’s probably getting close to 20 years old. It flies around, you know, walks around on the carpet. I also have a ferret. Ferrets are very intelligent, very curious creatures. He’s just the cutest thing. My wife named him Sassy, after her sapphire engagement ring.

Can you tell me about your book? What is it going to be about?

It’s actually hard science fiction. There’s science fiction, science fiction-slash-fantasy, and then there’s hard science fiction.  Hard science fiction basically has to do with stuff that is either current technology or near-future technology. My book starts in the 1920s with Wernher von Braun in Germany. The beginning is about his experiences during the Second World War building the V-1 and V-2 rockets, but then it goes on to after the war when he joins the Americans and gets involved in their space program. Then it gets into the present-day and talks about the current economic situation where the worldwide economy is starting to slip. One guy has a vision of creating a generation ship, where a group of people take a 200-year journey to a habitable planet in Alpha Centauri because World War Three is about to break out.  I’m about a third of the way done writing it. I just pick at it when I think of something. It could be 3:00 in the morning, but if something pops into my head I’ll get on the computer and then go back to bed.

What kind of volunteer work did you do you do with the city?

I was working with the City of Ottawa Health Department. You’ve heard of the City of Ottawa needle exchange program? Well part of my job was an extrapolation of that. I made drug cookers for addicts. These are basically blank bottle caps, and we have a special punch tool we used to punch a couple holes in the side of them, and then we threaded a paper clip through to make a handle. It takes maybe 20 or 30 seconds to make one, so they’re pretty fast to make. We sent them down to drop-in centres all over the city, and then addicts can pick them up, use them once, and throw them away. That’s one of the jobs I did. I also put together prenatal books for expectant mothers, and things like that. It kept me busy.

How did you get started doing that?

Well, that’s a bit of a story in itself. I was working for Nortel, but I got outsourced because they were trying to reduce some costs and they thought that outsourcing their IT department would help with that. Nortel offered a deal where you could go work at the outsourcing company. I did that but I waited too long to accept the deal, so I didn’t get a signing bonus. They did bridge our employment, though. Anyway, in December 2006 I got laid off. My job essentially went to India. I got quite a good severance package, so I decided to take the year off. That might have been a bad idea because after a year when I tried to get back into the workforce again, people wondered why I had this gap year. Getting a job in the IT field was hard. Also there are a lot of younger people in the market, with more education, and they are snapped up first.

I started to get pretty depressed about the whole thing, and I started drinking pretty heavily. By December of 2009 I was drinking a bottle of rum a day. Then in January of 2010 I tried to commit suicide and ended up in the hospital. I got involved with AA and a group run by the hospital. Along the way, my doctor suggested that I apply for some volunteer work so I had something to do during the day. Between the three – the support group, AA, and volunteering – it’s kept me off the booze up to now. I just got my one year medallion in January.

When I was drinking in 2009, I had no thought of the future. I really thought the best thing was to end it all. But now that I have a goal in writing my book, I have a whole new outlook on life. In fact, my wife was my girlfriend last December, and she threatened to leave me when I was drinking. I tried to commit suicide in January of 2010 and ended up in the hospital. I had brought my barbeque into the bathroom, closed the door. The suicide attempt was a real turning point for me. In May 2010 Gayle and I got married.

How long have you lived in Ottawa?

Except for one year away, I’ve been here since 1966. I was born in England, and I came over with my parents when I was five. We lived in the Petawawa and Pembroke area. My dad got a job at the nuclear plant at Chalk River. I guess six or seven years down the line he got a job with the Federal government, so we moved here in 1966. The following year I joined the Armed Forces, which didn’t really sit too well with my parents, but I said, well, it’s pretty hard to find a job just coming out of high school with no experience. I wanted to get a trade of some kind, so I figured that if I joined the Air Force I could do that. I was away for about a year on basic training and trade training, and then I asked for a posting back to Ottawa. I spent the next nine years between Rockcliffe and NDHQ. When I left the military I was a microfilm technician, and then in 1978 I started with Consolidated Computer. This was way before the first microcomputer came out, so these were all rack-mounted computers at a computer plant out in the East end of Ottawa. I was a peripheral technician. Later I was a Macintosh technician, and then PCs started rolling in when Northern Telecom and Bell Northern Research merged to become Nortel. So I got in on the ground floor of the Windows revolution. I was with Nortel from 1994 to the early 2000s.

What’s kept you in Ottawa?

It’s a nice city. My wife has relatives in Toronto, but Toronto itself is way too big. Ottawa is a nice size. You can get from end to end very quickly. The only thing I don’t like about Ottawa is that it’s a Federal town. Being a bilingual country, if you want to break into the Federal government you have to be bilingual. It’s getting worse and worse, you know, to sweep the floors you have to be bilingual. I’ve given up applying for government positions because I’m not bilingual. More and more private companies, even – especially downtown and in the East end – are looking for bilingualism.

I do really like Nepean, though, I really do. When Nepean was forced to join the City of Ottawa, a lot of Nepeanites, including myself, were pretty pissed off. I still use Nepean on my postal address.

Do you feel that Ottawa has a personality?

Oh, absolutely. Everybody thinks that Ottawa is all about the Federal government, but I think there’s a lot more to it than that. We have our own NHL team, which is a big plus for us.  Scotia Bank Place – it used to be called the Palladium, I loved that name – is a big draw. The Rolling Stones came to Ottawa in 2004. I would have thought that Ottawa was too small a venue, but they put them in Lansdowne Park and the concert was just out of this world, it was astounding.

Do you think you’ll stay in Ottawa?

Absolutely. I have no reason to leave for the moment. Gayle and I have talked about moving to Brampton, where her son and one of her daughters live. Her son-in-law is opening a restaurant, so maybe I could help out there. The business Gayle has going is all done by fax, email and modem so she can do that from anywhere.

We did your photos at Andrew Haydon Park. Why is that an important place to you?

My wife and I go to Andrew Haydon for a lot of activities. On Canada Day they have a fireworks show there, and we can walk from where we live near Bayshore. There are always lots of things going on. We’re over there quite a bit.

Thanks for sharing your story, John.

Meet Matt: a new media specialist by profession, he’s a true Ottawa local who is passionate about advocating for a bike-friendly city, and he plays a lot of bike polo in his spare time. We met near his workplace in Centretown to talk about his life and experiences here in Ottawa, and how he feels about changes to the city. Oh, and also so he could tell me what the heck bike polo is.

 Read on to find out about Matt’s life here in Ottawa, and make sure to check out two beautifully shot short videos he created at the end of the post.  

Can you tell me about yourself?

Yes. My name is Matt, I’m 25 years old, and I’m a web developer from Ottawa. I guess I kind of have three big things I do in my life: there’s the shop that I work at, bv02, I do a lot of charity work for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada, and I play a whole lot of bike polo. That’s my life in three boxes!

How long have you lived in Ottawa for?

My whole life! So, 25 years now. My whole family is from Ottawa – I guess I’m the second generation here, maybe third? I’ve been to a lot of places, and I always come back to Ottawa. It’s the cleanest, nicest city that I’ve ever been to. I particularly like the safety, and the sense of community that creates that safety.

I’ve kind of moved through different groups in my life here. You know, in college I was in the party-and-have-fun crowd, and now I’m in the professional-networking crowd.  I’ve met a lot of different people, and gotten to know a lot of different groups throughout Ottawa, and it’s always the same thing: there’s a real sense of community where everyone seems to know everyone else, and you get these auxiliary communities of people who know your people, and you get to know everyone very, very well.

I think I plan to stay here long-term… I mean, I have family here, and friends here, and I studied here. I’ve spent a lot of time in Edmonton, in Vancouver, and done some extensive travelling up in the Arctic and over in Europe, so I feel like I’ve kind of seen how people exist elsewhere. Ottawa is definitely the cheapest city I’ve ever lived in, and you get the most for the price you pay, so I have no reason not to stay.

Which neighbourhood do you live in? What do you think about it?

I actually just moved back to Centretown from the Glebe. I love Centretown to death. I’ve lived there before, and I’m glad to be back. All the crazies, oh man. Literally, it’s all the crazy people that keep it interesting. I mean, I used to live over near Kent Street, and me and my roommate used to sit in our living room with the screen-door closed and the inside door open, and repeatedly – I mean, really, more than once! – we had random people wander into the house. You know, just stand there in the hallway looking confused. We’d just usher them back out the door, be friendly. It keeps it interesting. And, well, I also like it because everything is walkable in Centretown.

Do you feel that Ottawa has a personality?

I would say that it has a lot of different personalities right now, but it seems to be developing in some really unique, niche areas. There is a long way to go.

How so? What do you think needs to happen?

Well, I don’t know what needs to change, exactly. I mean, there are all of those urban planning things you could do to improve it, like, let’s say, light rail, or making city sprawl more efficient, or more environmental programs and all that kind of stuff – but that also ends up detracting from what it is now, so I’d be worried that changing something would change the way it is. I really like the way it is right now.

There are some major issues on my radar, though. I’m a big cyclist, and a big cycling advocate. I used to be involved in Critical Mass, and I helped organize a memorial for Darcy Allan Sheppard, a bike messenger who was killed a year ago. So cycling, bike paths, and just cycling awareness is huge for me. I think the first thing that the city needs to do is deal with those hot-spot bike paths that end in the middle of nowhere. Those have killed a few people already. Once those are dealt with, we can move on from there. That said, on the scale of bike-friendliness, we’re no Holland where bikes have the right-of-way over everything, but Ottawa is pretty bike friendly. We’re certainly far more bike-friendly than Vancouver, which is touted as a bike-friendly city but it’s really not very safe, and cars don’t like cyclists on the roads there.

So, can you tell me about bicycle polo? What’s that all about?

Yeah! I got involved in bike polo about a year and a half ago. I’ve been playing pretty steadily since then, three or four days a week. We have a club over at Ev Tramblay Park, and there’s a tennis court there where we play. It’s actually a city-sanctioned bike polo court. It’s been around in Ottawa for almost ten years now. It’s basically like hockey, you know, the physical aspects of hockey but also the dexterity of riding a bike. Ottawa’s not big enough to support a league – we have, at the most, maybe 20 or 30 people who come out on any given day, so it’s all just pick up. But we have a tournament once a year, and people come from all over the States to play here.

What do you do with the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation?

I volunteer my time – my strengths are web, multimedia, video, stuff like that — so I mostly do a lot of web work for them on the side for small-scale projects. Shooting videos at events, and photos, and that kind of stuff. I actually have Ulcerative Colitis, so it was kind of a natural thing to help them out.

We did your photos in two places – your work and out in a bike polo court. Can you tell me about why those places are important to you?

Well, those are the two places that really represent what I’m doing here. I really love my work at bv02, and bike polo is a big part of my life right now. They seem appropriate.

Thanks Matt! He didn’t mention it in the interview, but Matt’s really talented at shooting and editing video. You can take a look at his portfolio at http://mattdavidson.ca, and at his Vimeo to see a bunch of great stuff. You can also read his blog at http://nart.ca, and follow him on Twitter at @MattDavidson.

Check out two short videos he put together, below. The first is a promo for bike polo, and the second is one he created for Arctic Watch while on a recent trip to Somerset Island in Nunavut with bv02.

A painter, printmaker, animator, art instructor, community manager, and very creative person in general, Ashley wears a lot of hats. She’s also engaged in really exciting ways and working hard to help grow Ottawa’s creative communities.

It turns out that Saturday mornings at Major’s Hill Park are perfect for the kind of peaceful, well-lit, early morning wanders that will make you fall in love with a city. With the first snow of the season still clinging to the ground, it was the perfect time and location for photos. Read on to learn more about why this is an important place for Ashley, and find out about her thoughts on art in the city.

Can you tell me about yourself?

Sure. I’m a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Generally I see myself first as a visual artist. I’m also an arts instructor at the City of Ottawa, where I teach traditional printmaking and stop-motion animation for teens and adults. I work full time as an online marketing person, which has sort of segued into the community management and social media field. It’s been really interesting over the past year. I’m new to Ottawa – I’ve moved around a lot. I think of myself as a sort of ‘former nomad.’ But no longer!

I grew up in a small town outside of Barrie. From there, I moved to Burlington for my last couple of years of high school, and then I moved to Mississauga. I went to university at the University of Toronto and Sheridan’s joint program. From there I moved to Kitchener-Waterloo, and then to Bracebridge in Muskoka, and now I’m in Ottawa. So, I’ve kind of done most of Ontario except for the far north. Some of it was for my own work, some of it was because my parents were transferred for work, and then there was university. Most of my moves in the past few years have been for work. My past life was working in the arts and in arts administration, which is all contract work, so you have to be kind of mobile.

What brought you to Ottawa?

I’ve always wanted to live in Ottawa. That sounds weird to a lot of people who are from here, I know. But honestly, it’s big enough without being overwhelming, there’s a lot of stuff going on. It’s nice and green with open spaces, but it’s still a city. There are a lot of pluses to Ottawa. One of my good friends lives here, and she’s been bugging me for years to move to Ottawa. So there was that moment when I was wondering what to do next, and she called me to ask when my contract was done and told me I should move. So it was great, I’m glad I did it. It was a very crazy move. Four days before I was supposed to move here I got in a very bad car accident - my car was written off. I was fine other than a few bruises, but it threw a huge wrench into the process. I needed to pack everything into two suitcases, fly to Ottawa, and get a bus pass. And that was that, I haven’t really looked back! I really like the space here. I know that sounds kind of flaky, but coming from other parts of Ontario where it’s really hilly, it was as if the sky suddenly went for miles and miles! There’s so much room.

I know this sounds kind of weird, and I’m not one of those new-agey kind of people, but I do think that the space in which you live really affects your life. The things you keep around you, and the physical aspects of the space, that kind of stuff. So I like to get out of the city, and here it only takes 20 minutes, and there are green spaces where you can relax. There’s the canal right in the middle of downtown and almost anything you want if you look hard enough.

How do you feel living in Ottawa has affected your life?

I’m not really sure. It’s hard to get out of yourself and judge that, but I guess I’ve always felt like I’m one of those people who will just go out and do stuff. Now I have the opportunity to do that. When you’re living in smaller places, or places that are temporary, you don’t necessarily take those chances or build those networks, you know?  I feel like the opportunities are here to start doing those things and meeting interesting people, and start connecting with a place on a permanent level. In the last couple of months I’ve started going to events – like, there’s GenY Ottawa, Social Media Breakfast, Case Study Jam, and different professional networking events. I feel like, okay, I’m finally not about to pack up and leave.

Taking risks and not being afraid to go out and do things by yourself are all part of establishing yourself, I think. I mean, not that I ever was afraid to do those things, but now I really feel that I can contribute. I guess that comfort comes from a background in the arts – living close to Toronto, there were always different galleries and art openings. So if I heard about stuff I would just go. You know, if someone wanted to go with me that’d be great, but if not it’s also fine.

Can you talk about your art a little?

I guess my influences are artists like Henry Moore, Jenny Saville, and Damien Hirst. As a painter, I’m really interested in the physical quality of the paint, and how simple shapes can communicate to the viewer. Folks like Henry Moore and Native American printmakers are very much about the most basic, distilled version of a shape that can still communicate ideas and emotions. So, I identify mostly with abstract expressionism. However, some of my favourite works of art are nothing like my art. I love art with a sense of humour. David Shrigley is an artist from the UK who creates animations and drawings. He’s done a few public intervention pieces, like he has put this sign on a fence that says, “Sunday adventure club. Meet here, 4AM”. It’s the most amazing stuff!

 What would make Ottawa the perfect city for you?

I’d love to see a lot more diversity in the arts and cultural spaces. I’d love to see more interaction in the digital arts. There’s a really great space in Toronto called InterAccess, and they run an event about once every six weeks called DorkBot. The idea is that they’re merging the arts with the electronic world, and engineering and that sort of thing. They’re really, really interesting events. They invite three speakers to come and talk about their work. They’re usually artists who are working with technology, and they present their projects in 15 minutes. Then it’s a really casual gathering where people talk about their projects and funding sources, that kind of thing. I would love to see something like that here. I feel like the interest is there, and there are a lot of young people who would love to see this stuff and who are interested in art and technology, but who wouldn’t necessarily put them together. Show them what they can do, and they’ll get excited about it.

We went to Major’s Hill Park for your photos – why is that an important place to you?

I’ve spent a lot of time in Major’s Hill Park behind the National Gallery. Most of my exploring in Ottawa has ended up there, and there’s always something going on. You know, I’ve stumbled upon a Canadian-Chinese festival and there’ll be lion dance, or Canada Day stuff that happens there. I really enjoy just walking around. On a regular Saturday morning it’s really quiet, and you can just people-watch. It’s nice.

Thank you, Ashley! You can view some of Ashley’s beautiful creations and find out more about the printmaking and stop-motion animation classes she offers at http://ashleyandrews.ca/, or connect with her on Twitter at @cochinealred.

Marketer and award-winning music producer,  Jonathan is relatively new to Ottawa but busy building connections and feeling out the city’s music industry. He produces hip hop, R&B, and pop music as Menoza, and you can hear some of it at his Myspace page.  

Jonathan and I met on a sunny autumn afternoon for our interview, and then visited two locations for his photos: his workplace in the Byward Market, and the recording studio in the basement of his new home. Read on to find out why those places are representative of his life here, and how Jonathan’s making the most of his new city.

Can you tell me about yourself?

 Sure. My name is Jonathan. I was born in Philadelphia, and my parents met in Montreal. My mom is Filipino-Canadian and my dad is American. He was doing his residency at the Montreal Jewish General Hospital, and my mom was a nurse. They met and got married and moved to Philadelphia – that’s where my dad’s from – and they had me. About a year later they moved to Florida, and that’s where I grew up. I lived there for 23 years of my life. I went to the University of Florida and graduated with a history degree. Shortly after graduating, I told my parents that I wanted to become a music producer, so they told me to use my Canadian citizenship, and they let me move to Montreal. I was happy to leave the house after living away from home and going to school for four years - I didn’t want to move back home. I spent six years in Montreal in the music business. I eventually wanted a change, so I decided to go back to school and do my MBA. I applied to the University of Ottawa because I wanted a change of scenery, and I was looking for something a little bit more stable than Montreal. It’s kind of a party town, and Ottawa seemed a little more stable. So, yeah, that’s kind of how I ended up here.

I like to do a lot of things. I’m not just the MBA guy, and I’m not just the marketing guy. I like to do a lot of different things. I have this whole past life in music, and I still do some of that. You know, I still produce music and I still put music in television and movies, as a side thing. I work for a really cool start-up company, but I also have a lot of creative things on the go. All of those things make me who I am.

Can you tell me about producing music?

Sure. When I moved to Montreal when I was 23, I moved because I wanted to be a music producer. When you’re 23, you think you’re going to make one song, it’s going to be a hit and then the next day you’re going to be on MTV. I’m naturally a shy person, so producing my own music changed me a lot. I moved to Montreal and didn’t even know anyone. I kind of got dropped off and was supposed to go to school in June for audio engineering, but the school didn’t have enough people enrolled, so I got deferred. I was stuck in a city I only knew from when I went skiing in Tremblant over spring break, but I hadn’t ever lived there. I was an outsider from the US, and wasn’t working or in school, so it was hard to meet people. It was kind of scary for the first few weeks, just walking around and not having anyone to talk to. But I broke out of my shell, started to volunteer and joined a radio show at McGill University. I started meeting people and producing music. I was opening up, and doing crazy things that I never thought I would do just to get my name out and market myself. That changed me a lot. I met so many people, and so many people helped me on the way. I ended up working in music publishing, so I was able to get my music out that way. I also helped form a non-profit organization with a few other people where we’d help kids produce shows in school. We’d go to schools and produce a show from scratch – a high-class talent show is what I called it. Then I changed jobs and took a position with TouchTunes Music and got more into the business side of things. The company started changing very fast and a lot of executives we being hired to manage things, so that’s when I decided I wanted to do an MBA. I still love to do music. It’s harder these days now that I have a house and more responsibilities, but I’m still trying to feel it out in Ottawa and meet as many people as I can, because you never know. I think it’s important to just network when you’re new to a city.

So do you feel that Ottawa has been receptive to your attempts to break into the music scene?

Well, to be honest with you I haven’t even really made the first attempt to put my foot forward yet. I struggled when I got my MBA, you know, do I go back to the music business, or do I do something else? To me it felt like if I chose to go into marketing I’d have to leave all that behind because I’m the kind of person that has to go full-force into something, and if I half-ass it, it doesn’t get done. So I put music to the side for a good year. I did a couple of songs here and there, and I did get some royalty cheques for past work, so that kept me motivated. But now that I’m more stable, and I have a house and I have a great job, I’m feeling more confident and I’m reaching out to people and saying, you know, hey, I make music and I’m doing it again. It’s like riding a bike. You get apprehensive when you get back on – am I still good? Can I still do this? It’s something I’ll do for the rest of my life, though, whether it’s professionally or not.

When I was in Montreal I composed music on my computer and I recruited artists. I went online and just said: I need singers, I need rappers, here’s my stuff, let’s meet. I’d meet them at, you know, Second Cup and stuff because who knows who they were! At the height of it after working hard for two years, I had nine artists and had released two albums. We had huge shows and did all sorts of promotions, so lots of people would show up. I was feeling really good about it. The last thing I made was an instrumental project that was well received. But at the end of the day, the amount of work you put into it and the amount of money you get out of it just wasn’t enough to have a family and do all those other things I wanted in life.

Now that I’m in Ottawa, I’m gonna start to look around. You never know. In my house I have a nice studio set up in my basement, all ready to go. I’ve just got to put my feelers out again.

I write R&B, hip hop, and pop music, and I produce top-40 type of songs. I always wanted to make that kind of commercial music – I grew up listening to Timbaland, Usher… you know. I wanted to emulate that. And I had some success in Montreal after I found my sound – I got a couple of song writing grants from the government, which meant I was able to rent time at a professional studio to record some tracks. I was also one of five finalists in the national song of the year contest representing Montreal on Mix 96, a radio station. Some of my music has been in TV shows, and a couple of B-movies. I mean, not big stuff, but I get a little rush every time something get placed! I worked really hard to get to this point. I feel like it was really an accomplishment to move from making music in my parent’s study in Florida to having my songs play on the radio in a city where nobody knew me. I learned a lot during my time in Montreal, and I hope I can produce some more music now that I’m living in Ottawa.

What do you like about living in Ottawa?

To be honest, I’m still getting to know the area. I’ve been here for just over two years, and the first year I spent trapped inside the Desmarais building at the University of Ottawa, spending 12 hour days trying to get my MBA done. So I kind of confined myself to that building and a couple of bars nearby. But now that I’m working I’m trying to explore a little more. I feel like most people in Ottawa are pretty active. I play a lot of sports – I’ve been playing soccer since I was five. I do OSSC, and I find the people there are, you know, just having fun. So I think it can be a pretty active lifestyle if you know where to go. That’s one of the things I really like about the city so far.

Do you think you’ll stay here?

Yeah, I think I’ll stay here. I met my girlfriend in the MBA program, and when I was finished I kind of wanted to get back into the music business. I looked around and Toronto would have been the place to go, but I did a couple of interviews, looked at all the factors and decided not to move. I decided a change was in order, and I always liked marketing and communications, so I started to transform my music resume, got a great job and settled in Ottawa. So, yeah, I’m happy here and I think I’ll be here for the immediate future, anyway.

Do you feel that Ottawa has a personality?

Yeah. I describe it as comfortable. That’s what I tell everyone who says that it’s boring compared to Montreal, which is more of a party town. I just think that 1/5^th of Ottawa is working for the Government, and that’s for the security for the most part. They do it for the pension, the benefits, the stability. So they’re comfortable with their living situations, salary levels, buying power. Once you get in that comfortable mode, it’s hard to think about making things better.

For your photos, we did two shoots: one in your basement studio, and one at your workplace. Why are those places representative of your life here?

To me, I feel like I have two alternate personas. There’s the MBA guy where I like strategy and process, and making things better and faster. I’ve been lucky enough to have great bosses who have let me make improvements. But then I go home, there’s this creative side where I go down to the basement studio and create music.

Thanks Jonathan! You can listen to some of the music Jonathan has created at www.myspace.com/menoza. He’s also on Twitter at @jonathanlsimon and on LinkedIn.

Rachelle is a recently transitioned transgender woman living in Ottawa. She’s very active in the trans community, and is on the planning committee for Ottawa’s Transgender Day of Remembrance, which will be held this Saturday November 20^th. This year is a particularly special one for the trans community: in addition to the annual candlelight vigil for trans persons who have lost their lives due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice, Ottawa Police Services will be holding a flag raising ceremony that marks the first time the trans community has been officially recognized in Canada. There will also be a peaceful march to Parliament Hill in support of Bill C-389.

I was touched that Rachelle felt comfortable sharing her own personal transition story with me. Read on to find out more about Rachelle, the trans community in Ottawa, and why Parliament Hill was such an appropriate place for our photoshoot.

Tell me about yourself!

Okay, sure. My name is Rachelle. I’;m a fully transitioned woman - born male, obviously, and now female. By profession I’m an IT manager, so I’m a geek at heart. I love computers. I also have interest in web development. I’m an avid skiier – I ski from the moment that the ski hills open right through to the last day. I love travelling, too. I’ve traveled a bit to Europe and the US and the Caribbean. I also love camping, believe it or not! I camp a lot during the summer, and I enjoy riding my motorcycle. I go on motorcycle trips at least once a year where I leave in the morning at sunrise and ride until sundown. Last year I went to Cape Breton, and I visited Halifax and PEI. I mean, going around Cape Breton on a motorcycle is paradise. It seems like as soon as you get to New Brunswick life seems to slow down a beat or two.

Obviously I’m also very active in the trans community. I’m on the executive committee of Gender Mosaic as First Vice President. Gender Mosaic is a transgender support group based here in Ottawa, and we’ve been here for over 20 years. I’m also on the planning committee for the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which is on November 20^th.

How long have you lived in Ottawa?

I’ve lived in Ottawa since 1989. Essentially I came from Northern Ontario to attend college, and I never left. I like it here, Ottawa seems to be the right sized city for me. I don’t think I’d feel comfortable living in a place like Toronto, which is probably about five times the size of Ottawa. I like the location of Ottawa, I mean, we’re two hours from the US, one hour from Montreal. You know, a short plane ride to Toronto. And also, there are a lot of opportunities in this city. It’s a very stable city, it’s very cosmopolitan. It’s changed since ‘89. I would say that Ottawa has started to come out of its shell in the last couple of years. The city is expanding - obviously we have a hockey team, we have the water slides at Calypso. So, I mean, amusement parks are being built and there are a lot of exciting things happening around the city.

I must say, Ottawa is a very good place to be transgender. When I came out I had prepared myself for catcalls, stares, you know, whatever the case may be. I was pleasantly surprised when none of that materialized. People were just like, “Okay, this is who you are. That’s fine.”

The Transgender Day of Remembrance is on Saturday November 20^th. Can you tell me about that?

Absolutely. In 1998 a transgender woman named Rita Hester was murdered because she was trans, and a year later a candlelight vigil was held in San Francisco. Since then they’ve called it the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Between 1999 and 2010 the event spread across the US, Canada, and Europe. There are candlelight vigils all over, and we remember people who have lost their lives to transgender hatred or prejudice.

This year is a very special year because a few of the Gender Mosaic members are on the LGBTQ Liaison Committee at Ottawa Police Services. The Ottawa Police does a lot for the gay and lesbian community, but for the trans community it always seemed like we were kind of tacked on to the end. So Ottawa Police graciously offered to raise a flag on our behalf this year. There’s going to be a flag raising ceremony where they’ll raise a flag of our choosing, and the Chief of Police will speak, as will the Chief of Police of Gatineau, the Superintendent of Paramedic Services, Mayor Elect Jim Watson, and the NDP MP Bill Siksay, who is the sponsor of Bill C-389, will also speak. There will also be two members of the transgender community speaking – a male-to-female trans person, and a female-to-male trans person.

The flag raising ceremony itself will last about an hour, and then we’ll march to Parliament Hill in support of Bill C-389. It’s a bill that would add gender identity and gender expression to the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Canadian Criminal Code. That would mean that if someone were transgender, they couldn’t lose their job because of their gender identity or expression. It would also affect cases where there are custody issues with children, and so on and so forth. In the Criminal Code, if someone were physically attacked because of their gender identity it would become a hate crime, which means stiffer penalties. The bill will be introduced in Parliament for a third and final reading in December. If it passes that reading, it will become law of the land. We have people from all over the place coming, and it’s our hope that we’ll have over 1000 people, and it looks like we’re on track to achieve our goal. It’ll be a peaceful march along Elgin Street from Ottawa Police to Parliament Hill. We just want to express that we’re a group of people like everyone else. Our families, supporters, and friends will be marching with us. It will be the first time that an official organization in Canada recognizes the trans community.

Let’s talk about the trans community here in Ottawa. What’s it like? What kind of challenges does it face?

Well, the trans community is a small minority. It’s also very fragmented. A lot of people in the trans community have had a very rough life because of their gender identity, and because of that a lot of them are disenfranchised and angry. A lot of members of the community live in what we call “stealth.” Some will transition and you’ll never know that they were anything other than a man or a woman. They are very determined that no one ever find out. In my case, I wish I could have transitioned and people would never know. But, I mean, my reality is that I started to transition at 38 and testosterone did its work in my teens and twenties and thirties, so people look at me and I assume they know. A lot of people in the trans community seem obsessed with wondering if people know. I just assume that they know.

Anyway, the transgender community is very fragmented. At Gender Mosaic we have a good core of about 30 people. A lot are, for lack of better language, cross-dressers. I don’t like the word cross-dressers because it implies fetish, and the people in our group are transgender in the sense that they like to live in both genders. They need to live in both genders to keep their sanity. Most of our members are male to female. Many are married with children or grandchildren and what have you. I would say that at Gender Mosaic maybe 5% of members pursue full transition. That just goes to show that the transgender community is very varied. You know, it’s not black and white. We’ve tried to reach out to the female-to-male community, but it’s very tough to break into. Female-to-male trans people tend to blend a lot easier into the general population and don’t want to be associated with a transgender group because they’re determined to show that they are a man and they don’t want to be ‘outed’, so to speak. And youth today, they’re hard to engage too. Today they seem very pansexual. I’ve done presentations at the University of Ottawa and Algonquin College, and the kids in those classes don’t seem to feel like gender or sexual identity is as big an issue as it was for my generation. They seem very flexible, there’s less of a taboo among the younger generations. It’s hard to make it a cohesive community where we can say, you know, let’s all get together and celebrate our differences.

Can you tell me about your experience as a transgendered person?

For my part, when I came to Gender Mosaic I was broken in pieces. I knew that I couldn’t continue living the life that I had previously lived. For most of my life, I mean, I was pretty much a hermit. I was completely isolated. Since I’ve come out, I can honestly say that I’ve met more people and made more friends than I had in my entire life. In my case, I’m out of my prison, out of my cell, and I’m not going back in.

I started my transition at the age of 37, three years ago. I went into counseling with a gender identity specialist. It’s a very gradual process. First you do therapy to identify how severe the gender identity problem is. For a lot of people living as a woman for 25% of the time and a man the rest of the time is enough. That’s what they need. Hormones are for when everything else has failed. If you say you want to live as a woman, you start dressing as a woman and start acting like one. If that’s all you need, great! But if you need more you move on to hormones. It’s the same thing with surgery. Surgery is for when everything else fails. In my case, at 37 I started the transition, so I started with therapy and androgen blockers, which lowers the testosterone in your body. I came out to my family and friends. My family did not take my coming out well. I did a legal name change, and started hormones in January ’09. I had a few hair transplants because I had pattern baldness, and in June of this year I had my surgery. To get the surgery you have to live full time as a woman for at least a year, and then you sign a thick document that states very clearly, “You will lose your penis. This operation is irreversible.” They want you to understand what you’re getting into. In my case, when I woke up from my surgery, it was nothing dramatic. I just felt like, duh, this is the way it’s supposed to be.

It’s funny because I have a friend who had her surgery a couple of years ago, and she says that sometimes she’ll go to the bathroom late at night and stand over the toilet for a few seconds before realizing, “Oh! I don’t have one of those things anymore!” That hasn’t happened to me, though. For me it just removed a lot of frustration. Before what I had was not working out. I just didn’t want to have any intimacy with that. I guess you could say that I’m rediscovering myself and what I want. I mean, I’m still attracted to women, I’m not attracted to men, and I’m perfectly comfortable with that. I was married before, and being intimate with what I had actually made me very angry. I hated it. I hated it with a passion. It was almost like I was being forced to do it. It was like, “I am married therefore I have to do this,” because, you know, I didn’t want my wife to know that there was anything wrong with me. To me it was torture. So I looked at men because I thought maybe that was a solution, but I’m just not attracted to men. But at the same time, what I had with women just wasn’t working for me. So now, I would say that finding a partner is difficult. Gay men like men, and gay women like women. So to be something in-between is… you know. It can be tough.

You chose Parliament Hill for your photos. Why is that place meaningful to you?

Parliament Hill. Well, Parliament Hill for me is a landmark for Ottawa. I mean, when people think of Ottawa they think of Parliament Hill. And, I guess, being a very political person, I know all of the parties, I know the leaders, I know most of the current events that happen on the Hill. It’s the heart of Ottawa. I am an Ottawa girl, so for me Parliament Hill is my own back yard.

Thank you, Rachelle, for sharing your story. If you have any questions for Rachelle, visit her website at http://RachelleGauvin.com. For more information about transgender issues and activities in Ottawa, check out Ottawa Gender Mosaic. Rachelle also hosts meetups that provide a safe and sociable environment for women who do not fit into the mainstream through Ottawa Womyn. The group is open to GLBTQ women, straight women and transgendered women.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance begins at 1:00PM on November 20^th, 2010 at Ottawa Police Headquarters for a flag raising, followed by a march along Elgin Street to Parliament Hill in support of Bill C-389. A candlelight vigil will be held at 7:00PM at the Canadian Human Rights Monument at the corner of Lisgar and Elgin to commemorate people who have lost their lives due to transgender violence and prejudice. Everyone in the LGBTQ community, including family, friends, and allies are invited to attend any and all parts of the day. For more information visit http://www.gendermosaic.com/tdor/.