Focus on Family Day
Margaret Hancock, Hon. Deb Matthews, "father and son" Julius and Oliver, Hon. Kathleen Wynne, and Barbara Hall
Kevin Durkee, Tom Douangmixay and their daughter
Barbara Hall and Margaret Hageman (FST Marketing and Communications Manager)
Margaret Hancock signing the Family Day Campaign poster
The Honourable Kathleen Wynne and the adoptive family of Daniel, Dionne and Darren Cude
Honourable Deb Matthews making remarks in support of Family Day Campaign
On February 4, 2009 at Queen's Park, Family Service Toronto with Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, Jewish Family and Child Service of Toronto and the LGBTQ Parenting Connection officially launched the first Family Day On-Line Gallery Campaign.
The Honourable Deb Matthews, Minister of Children and Youth Services, the Honourable Kathleen Wynne, Minister of Education and Barbara Hall, Chief Commissioner, Ontario Human Rights Commission joined the event and congratulated the organizers for this initiative - first of its kind in Toronto. In attendance were also staff from the Family Day Campaign partner organizations and three unconventional families who came to share their stories.
Excerpts from Margaret Hancock's, FST Executive Director, opening remarks:
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When Premier McGuinty announced Family Day as a new civic holiday last year, an inspired staff person at Family Service Toronto, an organization which has been serving individuals, families and communities in Toronto for almost a century, recognized this as a gift, a unique opportunity to celebrate the spectacular diversity of families we see every day.
We began to share the idea and everyone was instantly captivated with its intrinsic value; and so here we are today with our partner organizations who have also been serving thousands of families for generations - Jewish Family and Child Service of Greater Toronto, LGBTQ Parenting Connection and the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto – to invite everyone to participate in our Family Day celebration of families in all their glorious colours, shapes, sizes and configurations.
We invite everyone to share our definition of family as two or more people, related by blood, marriage, adoption or commitment to care for one another.
This definition embraces extended families, lone-parent and multiple parent families, blended and step families, same-sex parent families, adoptive, foster and kinship families, nuclear and biological families and families that cross traditional boundaries including race, sexuality, language, ethnicity, place of birth, ability and language.
We believe that our society will be at its best when all families feel included in the community life of our neighbourhoods, schools, workplaces and places of worship and when all families receive the supports they need to be the best families they can be.
We are deeply honoured to have the support of Ontario’s Minister of Education, Honourable Kathleen Wynne, the Minister of Children and Youth Services, Honourable Deb Matthews, and the Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, Barbara Hall. They too see the complexity and diversity of families in their daily work to create an inclusive, egalitarian society for all Ontarians.
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What a superb launch for Family Day. Thank you all for coming and for your part in bringing this new idea to life. As this is an online campaign, we invite everyone to visit the website at www.FamilyDayToronto.org to see the photo gallery and share your own family photo and story. Please also spread the idea throughout your network. Let’s make Family Day grow into one of those great annual community celebrations which people anticipate and experience with joy.
