For those who aren’t Canadians, in Canada, there are two major cell phone, cable and Internet providers, and they aren’t Verizon or AT&T – they’re Bell and Rogers.
For the past few years, Bell has been hosting a yearly #BellLetsTalk Day, backed by celebrities like pro-athlete Clara Hughes and Howie Mandel. The point of the day is simple: people talk about why they believe speaking about mental health is important. They don’t have to discuss personal experiences; in fact, they actually don’t need to talk about mental health at all.
What happens is, for every text message sent by someone who has Bell as a provider, Bell donates 5 cents, regardless of the content of the message. You can also raise money by using a Snapchat geo-filter, retweeting or tweeting tweets with the hashtag #BellLetsTalk, watching videos posted on the official Facebook page, and posting on Facebook with the hashtag. Last year, the event raised over six million dollars, which, considering Canada’s population is only 33 million, is quite impressive.
The day is held in January because it’s the month with the highest suicide rates and highest reports of poor mental health, for a number of reasons, from the loneliness some feel after the holiday season to the lack of sunlight in many regions of the Earth and yes, it’s only one day. But it’s still important.
Until 2015, Kenneth Zucker was head of the Gender Identity Services in the organization’s children’s wing. Many LGBT+ advocates believed he was transphobic because he advocated therapies that encouraged children to identify and present themselves as the gender they were assigned at birth. While it’s true that this is transphobic considering that steps like puberty blockers are reversible and give children time to figure out their gender identity and any steps they wish to take medically to transition, it’s important to note that Zucker did not believe in conversion therapy. Instead, he believed children should identify as their assigned gender until they are adults, and, in his opinion, will have a better grasp of gender.
In my opinion, these beliefs are transphobic, but it’s important to note two important things about CAMH: firstly, Zucker, who had worked for decades in the profession of psychology, had been hired by other major institutions such as the University of Toronto and the DSM-5 working group; that’s right, he was assigned as one of the people who decide the criteria for diagnosis of mental illness. Considering the people who literally decide what’s mental illness and what’s not trusted this man, it’s no wonder that the organization did, too.
It is important to note that CAMH fired him. They listened to the public, listened to the LGBT+ community, and even though he was a qualified man who hundreds of patients and families spoke fondly of, they decided to listen to an oppressed community and let him go. That, in my opinion, is a sign that CAMH is an organization that deserves our support, not our hatred. It may have taken a long time for him be fired, but consider the fact he had many patients who spoke positively of his tactics, there is often a lot of discourse and meetings among executives to decide whether or not a man of such prominence in the organization should be let go, and finally, there are few mental health professionals in Canada with enough experience with working with gender variant children to be able to counter his theories and approaches.
But more importantly than all of this is the fact that CAMH is among the largest mental health charities in Canada, and without their services, thousands would suffer. CAMH (officially Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) runs a hospital in Toronto with a wide range of services, from anxiety disorder clinics to aboriginal mental health services to eating disorder support. CAMH is also a leader in mental health research. As a Canadian from central Ontario, I’ve seen firsthand the positive effects of CAMH, and there are people in my life who have used it directly. For many people, it allows them to access affordable and high quality medical care.
Did you know Margret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood was horribly ableist and pro-eugenics? Or that she made comments directly advocating infanticide? Or that many of your favorite politicians have, in some way, shape or form, supported something you probably adamantly disagree with? Would you honestly suggest that we should stop supporting Planned Parenthood, because the bigotry of one person within the organization is more important than access to healthcare for millions?
Additionally, Bell’s funding goes to more than just CAMH. Other grants include nearly $500,000 given directly to First Nations communities who are experiencing an epidemic of suicides and one million dollars towards grief and PTSD support for military families. Most people don’t realize it, but one of the great things about this campaign is the fact that it accepts certain groups and communities face higher rates of mental illness, and it addresses such issues in it’s funding.
Finally, the point about Bell being a major, multi-million dollar enterprise. This is true. It’s also true that this day is a great opportunity for themselves to self-promote, especially considering the fact the hashtag has their company name right there. But the thing is, I’m a Bell user. I pay them every month, and in return, I get a phone plan. That’s capitalism.
And it’s not just me. Most of my friends have Bell and if not, then Rogers, and if not, another smaller for-profit company. You can be against capitalism and the actions of for profit companies all you want, but the reality is, we still use them everyday. If you’re going to be against them, don’t be against them when they’re donating millions of dollars to a great cause and you can contribute without spending a dime of your own money. If you hate the company, boycott the products and services. Because, if you’re willing to support a company with your money but not with a couple ultimately harmless Tweets, you aren’t helping the LGBT+ community or the 1 in 5 Canadians with mental illness; you’re helping yourself, full stop.
