Cheri DiNovo

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The Reverend
Cheri DiNovo
MPP
Cheri DiNovo 2015 Photoshoot.jpg
Source: Ontario NDP
Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament
for Parkdale—High Park
Assumed office
September 14, 2006
Preceded by Gerard Kennedy
Personal details
Born 1951 (age 72–73)
Toronto, Ontario
Political party New Democratic
Spouse(s) Gil Gaspar
Children 2
Residence Toronto, Ontario
Alma mater York University University of Toronto
Profession Minister
Religion United Church of Canada
Website www.cheridinovo.ca

Cheri DiNovo, MPP (born c. 1951[1][2]) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. She is a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario who was elected in a by-election on 14 September 2006. She represents the Toronto riding of Parkdale—High Park. She is a United Church of Canada minister who served at the Emmanuel-Howard Park congregation in Toronto, Ontario.

Background

DiNovo grew up in a rooming house owned by her parents. After her father's death from emphysema and witnessing her stepfather's suicide, she dropped out of school at Grade 10 to live on the streets[3] for four years.[1][4] During her time on the streets, she helped smuggle LSD into Canada from California inside hollowed-out bibles.[5] Her time spent at the Fred Victor Mission convinced her to earn her high school equivalency test and enrol at Centennial College, though she soon changed from Centennial to York University.[3] It was during her time at York that she became involved with the student protest movement of the 1960s and became joined the Young Socialists of Canada. An openly bisexual woman, DiNovo was one of the few women to sign Canada’s first gay liberation manifesto "We Demand" in 1971.[6][7]

DiNovo left university shy of her degree and began working for a corporate headhunting firm, then in the early 1980s ran her own firm - the Abbott Group, a recruitment firm that specialized in placing women in high-profile jobs - for five years.[1][3] In 1988, after some church-shopping with her then-husband Don Zielinski she joined a United Church of Canada congregation in Richmond Hill. Soon after she finished up her York University degree and enrolled at Emmanuel College at the University of Toronto. In 1992, Zielinski was killed in a motorcycle accident. She earned her masters of divinity in 1995 and served a rural charge in Brucefield, Ontario for two years before beginning her ministry at Emmanuel-Howard Park United.[3] In 1999, she married college professor Gil Gaspar.[8] In 2002 she earned a doctorate in ministry from the University of Toronto.[2][9]

DiNovo began hosting a weekly radio show, The Radical Reverend, on Toronto's CIUT-FM in 2000 which ran until 2006.[3] She performed the first legal same-sex marriage registered in Canada in 2001.[10] Her book Qu(e)erying Evangelism: Growing a Community from the Outside In won the Lambda Literary Award in the Spirituality category for 2006.[11]

She has two children, Francesca and Damien Zielinski.[12]

As of 2013, she continues to appear on CIUT as host of 3 Women, a weekly show in which she moderates a political discussion with two guests, other women in politics, or leaders of social initiatives.[13]

DiNovo is known as the “Queen of tri-party bills” for tabling the most bills in the Legislature that have all three parties’ support. She has also passed more Private Member’s Bills than any other opposition MPP on record.

Politics

NDP nomination and 2006 Parkdale–High Park by-election

When Gerard Kennedy stepped down as the Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Parkdale–High Park, the NDP was not expected to win the seat.[14] With that gloomy outlook in mind, two candidates came forward to contest the NDP nomination: DiNovo and former journalist, and at the time of the nomination, the executive director of the Canadian Arab Federation, Mohamed Boudjenane.[14] The spirited campaign that followed lasted about a month, with both sides signing up large numbers of new members.[14] Boudjenane was endorsed by United Steelworkers of America president Leo W. Gerard and the former president of the Ontario NDP, Andre Foucault. DiNovo had the support of NDP stalwart Michael Lewis[15] and many members of the riding's executive. The nomination meeting took place in the middle of a heat wave on the evening of 17 July 2006, in the Parkdale Collegiate Institute auditorium.[16] The sweltering auditorium was filled with over 300 people, most of them delegates. DiNovo defeated Boudjenane with a comfortable margin.[16][17]

DiNovo defeated Liberal Sylvia Watson in the 14 September 2006 by-election to replace Gerard Kennedy in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. She officially took her seat in the Assembly on 25 September.

During the campaign, DiNovo acknowledged having been both a "street kid" and a user of recreational drugs in her youth. She was criticized for this by Watson's campaign.

The Liberals alleged that DiNovo endorsed the church ordination of pedophiles and axe murderers in Qu(e)erying Evangelism, when in fact she did not,[citation needed] and took DiNovo's past comments about Canadian murderer Karla Homolka out of context, saying the comments compared Homolka to a Christ-like figure, where instead they were used in reference to the dangers of scapegoating. The Liberals also did not mention DiNovo's expression of sympathy for Homolka's victims' families and the undue suffering she believed the media circus surrounding Karla was causing them. Many accused the Liberals of conducting a smear campaign.[18]

Poverty and the $10 minimum wage campaign

On 23 October 2006, a Toronto Star column by Carol Goar said DiNovo had brought a new clarity and assertiveness to the NDP caucus' voice in the Ontario Legislative Assembly.[19] Since entering the Assembly, DiNovo has approached a variety of poverty-related issues, including raising minimum wage and welfare rates in the province, creating more affordable housing and ending the government's tax clawback of the federal child benefit supplement.[19]

Earlier in the year DiNovo had shared her experiences of drugs and poverty as a 15-year-old, in a TV interview first shown on VisionTV on 9 March 2006. She said "I know what its like to live on the streets ... street kids are not bogey men, they are just poor".[20]

39th Parliament election and sessions

DiNovo retained her seat in the 2007 Ontario general election and began serving her term in the Ontario Legislature's 39th Parliament sessions. The Parkdale–High Park campaign featured the same three major candidates as the 2006 by-election, with Watson and David Hutcheon representing the Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives respectively. She increased the margin of victory from the 2006 by-election.[21]

When Howard Hampton announced he was stepping down as leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party in June 2008, DiNovo was one of four MPPs, along with Michael Prue, Peter Tabuns and Andrea Horwath, whose names were suggested by party insiders as potential candidates in the 2009 Ontario NDP leadership convention.[22] However, she was quoted in the Toronto Star a few days later as saying that she was unlikely to be a candidate,[23] and she subsequently endorsed Tabuns for the leadership.

She became the Third Deputy Chair of the Committee of the Whole House, also known as the "Deputy Speaker", on 26 March 2009.[24] On 16 September 2009, she was promoted to Second Deputy Chair of the Committee of the Whole House.[24]

In 2012, DiNovo succeeded in getting Toby’s Act passed, an amendment to the Ontario Humans Rights Code to include gender identity and gender expression–the first of its kind in North America.[25]

During the 39th Parliament, DiNovo introduced many other bills covering such concerns as repealing dog-breed specific legislation,[26] inclusionary housing,[27] and safe bicycle passing guidelines.[28] She also co-sponsored an all-party bill, that became law, calling for the commemoration of the Ukrainian genocide known as the Holodomor on the 15th of November each year in Ontario.[29]

40th Parliament election and sessions

DiNovo ran for re-election in the 2011 Ontario general election. Her main opponent was the Liberal Party candidate Courtney Pasternak. Indications from polling in the summer suggested that Pasternak might win; but on election day, DiNovo easily won re-election.[30] Like other districts bordering on the rail link to Pearson Airport from Union Station, she successfully made the project's potential environmental impact on the community as the main issue in the campaign, by coming out against the Liberal's proposal to first use diesel trains and then eventually electrify the line at some future date.[30]

41st Parliament election and sessions

DiNovo was narrowly re-elected in the June 2014 election. She defeated Liberal candidate Nancy Leblanc by 525 votes.[31] She avoided the Liberal success in Toronto that saw three out of four other NDP incumbents go down to defeat.[32]

As of July 2014, she is the party's Caucus Chair and the critic for Urban Transportation, LGBTQ, and Greater Toronto Area Issues.[33]

In 2015 DiNovo's Bill 77, which prohibits “Conversion Therapy” for youth (therapy intended to prevent young people from identifying as LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual or queer]) passed and became law. The legislation also de-listed “conversion therapy” from OHIP. Following the introduction of the Bill, President Barack Obama called for a ban of the practice in the United States. Manitoba has tabled legislation to ban the practice as well.

Awards

  • The Lambda Literary Award in Washington, D.C. for spirituality and religion for her book Queerying Evangelism
  • The Award of Merit by the government of Ukraine for her work on Canada’s first tri-party bill recognizing the Holodomor as genocide
  • the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2015 Inspire Awards for her lifelong work as an activist for equal rights
  • The Bicycling Leadership Award from the Share the Road Cycling Coalition
  • The Community Hero Award from Jer’s Vision
  • The Rainbow Health Advocate Award from Rainbow Health Ontario
  • The History Maker Award from Brockville Pride
  • The PFLAG Ally Award, presented by Rosie O’Donnell
  • On November 5, 2015 DiNovo was named Toronto's Best MPP of 2015 by Now Magazine

Electoral Record

Parkdale—High Park - Ontario general election, 2014
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
New Democratic Cheri DiNovo 18,400 40.73 -5.47
Liberal Nancy LeBlanc 17,875 39.57 +2.15
Progressive Conservative Jamie Ellerton 5,782 12.80 +1.06
Green Tim Rudkins 2,489 5.51 +2.18
None of the Above Matthew Vezina 306 0.68
Libertarian Redmond Weissenberger 191 0.42 -0.01
Freedom Melanie Motz 129 0.29
Total valid votes 45,172 100.0  
New Democratic hold Swing -3.81

References and notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ "...I was the only woman in Canada to sign on to We Demand in 1971."; "I don’t need a note to say I’m a bisexual woman."Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 3 Women. CIUT-FM.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ brother of former Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis, and son of former Canadian NDP leader David Lewis
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ although the NDP follows Roberts Rules of Order to run their meetings, which means the vote count is made public, the exact numbers were not released by the NDP as per an agreement between the two candidates
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.DiNovo talking with interviewer about her youth.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links


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