Today marks the 13th annual International Transgender Day of Visibility! We see you, and we love you!

Today we celebrate transgender, non-binary and gender-nonconforming people worldwide and within the TUC community and the progress made towards equity for the trans community. Today is also about living TUC's core value of inclusion by renewing our commitment to educate ourselves on transgender issues and raising our voices against transphobia in all its forms and the work still needed to save trans lives!

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RESOURCES:

Check out these great resources from our friends at GLAAD, PFLAG and Egale Canada:

• GLAAD:
  • Tips for Allies of Transgender People
  • GLAAD blog posts about transgender issues
• PFLAG:
  • Our Trans Loved Ones
  • The guide to being a trans ally
  • Straight for Equality: Trans Ally Materials
  • Guide for Parents of Transgender and Gender-Expansive Youth
• Egale Canada:
  • Pronoun Usage Guide 
  • Inclusive Language Guide
  • 2SLGBTQI Allyship Guide
  • 2SLGBTQI Sports Inclusion: Playbook to breaking down barriers
  • Genderbread Person: Components of Human Identity

IMPORTANT MESSAGE: TUC Fall Indoor Leagues and Winter Indoor Leagues Update

Dear Members,

The Toronto Ultimate Club continues to monitor COVID-19 developments in Toronto and beyond.

On January 5th, the Province of Ontario returned to a modified Step 2 of Ontario's Roadmap to Reopen to "blunt" the surge of OMICRON cases, at least until January 26th. Under the modified Step 2 of the Roadmap to Reopen, all indoor sports and recreational fitness facilities were closed as a public health measure, resulting in TUC cancelling all indoor programming until January 26th.

For the last couple of weeks, TUC has been liaising with venue providers regarding refunds/credits for the 21-day mandated indoor facilities closure and looking at ways to complete the Fall Indoor Season while minimally impacting the Winter League season.

2021 Fall Indoor Leagues

TUC leadership feels it is vital to complete the Fall Indoor Season and crown 2021 Fall Indoor League Champs somehow! The survey TUC sent out to the Fall Indoor League participants shows people are in favour of a one-day playoff date to close off the season.

We want to make that happen - and to do so, we're excited to announce that on Sunday, January 30th (afternoon between 12 pm and 5 pm), TUC will host the 2021 Fall Indoor League Championship "a la Sudbury's SnowPlate" at St. Patrick's (just down the road from Monarch) to crown the following league champions:

1. Tuesday League
2. Wednesday Parity League
3. Thursday Elite League
4. Sunday Masters League

The top 2 teams, based on the standings as of December 17th, will face off to be the league champs. The remaining teams/players in that league will be invited to watch and or play a pick-up game alongside the championship game.

TUC staff will be in touch with each league to provide more details regarding the championship on January 30th.

2022 Winter League Season Start Delayed

For all 2022 Winter Leagues set to start the week of January 24th, the start date is currently pushed back by at least one (1) week to the week of January 31st. Please note that for the Monday West League @ Lamport, the Winter League will begin as scheduled on February 28th.

21-Day Mandated Facility Closure Refunds/Credits

To ensure we continue to provide our members with value for their registration fees, TUC will be issuing refunds (less 10% admin fee) and credits per our refund policy for the 21 days of the Ontario Government-mandated closure as follows:

1. Adult Leagues:
   1. The refund is based on the cost savings (reimbursement) for the venue for the mandated shutdown for the particular league.
   2. The cost-saving (reimbursement) is divided by the number of total teams (including any HAT teams) in the particular league.
   3. If the league has a HAT team or the league itself is a HAT league, the cost-saving (reimbursement) per team is divided by the number of individuals on the team to determine the individual registration credit/refund.
2. Junior Programs and Leagues:
   1. The refund/credit is based on the number of weeks missed due to the mandated shut down and the program's cost per week (all Junior leagues and programs have a cost/week of ~$15/week).

Details of the refund/credit amount per league or program are provided below:

Dear Fellow Members,

Over the past week, TUC Leadership has been closely monitoring the pandemic, following press conferences, attending Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries meetings, Ontario Trillium Health Partner webinars, reading bulletins, and discussing and creating what-if plans based on the Government of Ontario’s additional restrictions, and the surging case counts and infection rates.

In response to Premier Doug Ford’s announcement on Friday regarding additional restrictions due to the surge in daily COVID-19 cases, namely indoor venue capacity limits, TUC worked with our venue providers to clarify what, if any, impacts there are to TUC programming. Our venues advised that capacity limits per field would be approximately 40 to 45 people (depending on the facility).

TUC also set up our own evaluation system to determine whether we feel comfortable running, and unfortunately, we have now surpassed those thresholds. While the City of the Toronto, and the Ontario Provincial Government have not banned sports, Dr. Moore, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health and Toronto’s Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr. Na-Koshie Lamptey are recommending that “we reduce in-person contact and limit gathering sizes” to slow the spread and allow more time for Ontarians to get fully vaccinated or those eligible to get their booster dose”.

In our eyes, running ultimate leagues and programs is not a risk we are willing to take at this time. We are so close to the holidays and do not want to see anyone forced into isolation.

We’ve also had a number of players, teams, parents and coaches inform us that they are not comfortable playing in this current climate.

Considering all the above, TUC Leadership has made the difficult decision to cancel all programming effective today, through to the end of 2021.

This will therefore conclude all programming planned ahead of the Holiday Break. This is not the way we wanted to close out the 2021 calendar year, but it has been a tremendous joy to see everyone out playing and enjoying the sport from July through to now!

TUC wants to thank all of you, our members, for trusting us to make ultimate as safe as possible, and an extra big thanks to our captains and coaches for their time and taking the brave steps back to make our Summer, Fall Outdoor and Fall Indoor seasons to date, great.

We also encourage members, if you are eligible to book your booster dose.

TUC will continue to monitor the situation and will provide updates as appropriate.

Stay safe,


Jo Malisani
Executive Director

This week is Trans Awareness Week, and it culminates in today's Trans Day of Remembrance.

It is about celebrating and honouring transgender and non-binary people worldwide and within the TUC community; it is about remembering the lives lost from transphobic violence and raising awareness around the continued adversity faced by the trans community as society progresses towards equity and justice. It is also about living TUC's value of inclusion by renewing our commitment to educate ourselves on transgender issues and raise our voices against transphobia in all its forms.  

ACTIONS TUC HAS TAKEN TO CREATE SAFER SPACES FOR OUR TRANS COMMUNITY

In our efforts to create a safe space for our transgender and non-binary members, TUC adopted an Inclusivity Policy. The Inclusivity Policy included launching an Incident reporting form that allows any TUC member to report behaviour or actions that they feel are transphobic, which TUC leadership will investigate and address. In addition to the adoption of a policy and reporting mechanism, TUC leadership has taken steps to further educate themselves, by attending diversity, equity and inclusion focused seminars.  With feedback from community members, we have also updated our Player Account/Profile to be more inclusive.

RESOURCES:

Check out TUC's Inclusivity Policy as well as these great resources from our friends at Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES), GLAAD, PFLAG, the 519, and Egale Canada.

• TUC:
  • Inclusivity Policy
  • Incident Report Form
• CCES:
  • Creating Inclusive Environments for Trans Participation in Canadian Sport
• GLAAD:
  • Tips for Allies of Transgender People
  • GLAAD blog posts about transgender issues
• PFLAG:
  • Guide for Parents of Transgender and Gender-Expansive Youth
• The 519:
  • Being an Effective Trans Ally
• Egale Canada:
  • Pronoun Usage Guide 
  • Inclusive Language Guide
  • LGBTQI2S Allyship Guide