FREDERICTON — The new leader of a New Brunswick First Nation said he’s proud to be elected as the first openly LGBTQ chief in Atlantic Canada — though he said he’s more well-known in his community for his leadership skills and creativity.

Allan (Chicky) Polchies Jr. identifies as two-spirited, an umbrella term referring to Indigenous people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or someone who has both a masculine and a feminine spirit.

“I’m proud of who I am. I always have been and I always will be,” he said during a phone interview Sunday. “Our community has risen the bar when it comes to diversity.”

Polchies was elected as chief of St. Mary’s First Nation last week, unseating incumbent Candice Paul, who had held the position for 14 years.

St. Mary’s is the second-largest Wolastoqiyik or Maliseet community in New Brunswick with a band membership of about 2,000 people.

For Polchies, his recent appointment points to progress within their society, saying that he hopes the outpouring of support during and after the election can help reassure young people who may be struggling with their sexuality or identities.

“This sends a message to all those young people that may think that it’s not OK to be who you are: to be two-spirited, to be however you want to label yourself,” he said. “But I know that I’ve inspired people to be who they want to be, and know that they have a voice and they have a purpose.

“That makes me so, so, so excited.”

Polchies and his partner of eight years are the foster parents of a toddler.

As he lays the foundation for his new role, he pinpoints health-care access, economic development and community opportunities as top-of-mind issues within the First Nation.

Access to mental health care in particular is a challenge, said Polchies, who was born and raised in the community and previously worked as an event organizer and a band councillor.

St. Mary’s First Nation has a mental wellness worker who services the community every two weeks, but Polchie said he would like to hire full-time mental health staff and build community programs to help those grappling with mental illness.

“In this day and age, there’s lots of folks struggling with mental health, and PTSD, and addictions,” he said, adding that problems with accessibility is widespread across the country.

“This is a shame that our governments do not focus highly on these issues.”

Plans to invest in youth, elders

Polchies also said he wants to invest in the community’s young and old. By working with youth, he said he’d like to build mentorship programs that would encourage them to succeed and excel in their school, work and personal lives.

On the other hand, St. Mary’s First Nation doesn’t have a senior’s home, which is something Polchies said he’d like to change.

“They’re folks that we hold highly, and in regard,” he said of the community’s seniors and elders. “We all get older, so it’s going to affect us all.”

Reconciliation and environmental causes are also at the top of mind for Polchies.

While Canada has taken strides in recent years to address issues in Indigenous communities, Polchies said that there’s still a long way to go in terms of reconciliation and respecting Indigenous land.

He said education is the key to Canadians understanding who Indigenous people are and what they advocate for, adding that misunderstanding and misinformation is what’s keeping reconciliation from moving forward.

“Indigenous people are the landkeepers, and when we champion an environmental issue, we’re just protecting your children, your grandchildren, their grandchildren,” he said.

“It’s not just about us: it’s about everyone.”

Twelves band councillors were elected last week as well, with the new chief and council taking office next month.

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OTTAWA — Fissures have appeared inside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s youth council after a group of current and former members publicly urged the Liberal government to reverse its decision to buy Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline.

The request was made in a letter to the prime minister signed by 16 past and present members of the council and released to the public on Monday, in which signatories expressed “our immense disappointment” with the planned $4.5-billion pipeline purchase.

“The decision to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline project calls into question your commitment to young Canadians,” the letter reads, adding that youth will be “disproportionately affected” by climate change.

Yet the letter has generated surprise and frustration inside the council, with other members saying they do not agree with its position and at least one expressing concern that it became public.

“I thought it was very partisan and that is not the role of the prime minister’s youth council,” said council member Sara Wheale, who has worked for more than seven years in Alberta’s oil industry.

“We’re supposed to be non-partisan. … We haven’t seen a letter go out like this and I don’t think it was appropriate the way this was handled at all.”

The Liberals’ plan to purchase the Trans Mountain pipeline has been a political hot potato since it was announced in May amid fierce opposition from the B.C. government, environmental groups and Indigenous communities.

Trudeau spokeswoman Chantal Gagnon said Monday the prime minister “always appreciates input from the youth council” adding: “It is heartening to see young Canadians engage on political issues that affect them and become involved in the democratic process.”

At the same time, she defended the government’s decision to purchase the Trans Mountain pipeline while noting that it was investing more to protect marine safety.

Some members disappointed

The prime minister sat down in June to talk about the Trans Mountain purchase with the youth council, which was established in 2016 as a non-partisan advisory board comprising up to 30 young Canadians between the ages of 16 and 24.

Nmesoma Nweze, a neuroscience and psychology student at the University of Toronto and council alumna, said some members were disappointed by the lack of consultation before the decision given that Trudeau’s meeting came after the deal had already been announced.

That is when she started to draft the letter, which says many young Canadians supported Trudeau during the 2015 federal election because of his promises on reconciliation and climate leadership, and that he subsequently promised to listen to — and honour — the concerns of young people.

The letter specifically asks Trudeau to: protect the environment and respect Indigenous rights by cancelling the purchase, condemn calls to crackdown on peaceful protests against the pipeline and organize roundtable discussions with youth representatives.

Letters to PM rarely shared with media: former council member

Nweze defended the decision to release the letter, saying the council wants to start doing more outreach and “we know we’re not the only young people who feel this way.”

Fellow alumni Chris Zhou acknowledged having been surprised when he saw that the letter had been distributed to the media.

“When we send letters to Trudeau, those tend to not be released to the public because we do want to retain a certain relationship with the prime minister in which we can both be candid and genuine with each other,” Zhou said. “This letter is not the case.”

Zhou nonetheless said that he wasn’t opposed to releasing the letter.

But Wheale took issue with some members using their roles on the advisory council to publicly advance their positions on such a politically sensitive issue, and worried about the long-term impacts for the board as well as her own career.

“The way the letter is being presented, it’s being presented on behalf of the youth council,” she said.

“And there are other people on the youth council, either alumni or current members, who work in the oil and gas industry as well. And it’s very concerning as to what sort of impact this is going to have on our careers.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this Canadian Press story said Chris Zhou was surprised the letter to the prime minister about the government’s involvement in Kinder Morgan was released to the public. In fact, Zhou was surprised the letter was sent to media.

OTTAWA — Federal privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien says he is investigating Statistics Canada’s request for private banking information on 500,000 Canadians.

Therrien said Wednesday that numerous people have complained to his office about the agency’s effort to gather detailed information on transactions held by Canadian financial institutions, from cash-machine withdrawals to credit-card payments to account balances.

The formal investigation will include an examination of the requests Statistics Canada has made to businesses in multiple industries for data they collect on their customers and business partners, he said.

Earlier: Watchdog weighs in on privacy laws, Facebook, and political parties

Canada’s chief statistician, Anil Arora, said traditional methods of gathering data aren’t good enough to measure Canada’s economy and changes in society.

“More than 75 per cent of purchases are conducted online by Canadians and Statistics Canada has to have access to these data in order to provide all Canadians with the timely and quality statistics they need in areas such as housing and debt and the impacts of transitioning to a gig economy,” Arora said.

Therrien’s last report to Parliament mentioned Statistics Canada’s growing reliance on “administrative data sources,” mainly information collected by businesses about their customers. Many of those businesses have contacted the privacy commissioner to make sure that sharing it is OK, his report said.

Therrien suggested that wherever possible, Statistics Canada should tell the companies involved to strip names and identifying information from the data before sending it over.

Statistics Canada says ‘personal information is carefully protected’

“To ensure transparency, we recommended StatCan let the Canadian public know how and why it is increasing its collection of data from administrative and other non-traditional sources,” the report said.

Arora said the privacy commissioner was consulted as Statistics Canada planned its pilot project on financial data, but added he has asked Therrien to take a second look.

Statistics Canada can compel businesses to supply a wide range of data.

“I understand the concerns that Canadians have and want to assure them that their personal information is carefully protected and never shared publicly,” Arora said.

Elon Musk and Grimes. Two names one might not naturally associate together. Until now.

That’s right, Musk, 46, the multi-billionaire founder of Space-X and Tesla, and Grimes, 30, the critically acclaimed musician and artist whose work defies classification, stepped out together at the Met Gala on Monday, moments after Page Six reported the two have quietly been an item for weeks.

Of course, the internet couldn’t believe its eyes. Gifs and zingy comments about the pair sprouted up faster than you can charge up your Tesla electric car. And speaking of Tesla, one sharp observer pointed out that the choker Grimes was wearing was shaped like Musk’s company logo:

We can’t blame Musk, really — Grimes is a bit of a phenom. The Vancouver-born artist (née Claire Elise Boucher) had breakout hits in 2012 with her songs “Genesis” and “Oblivion.” She has been nominated for the Polaris Prize and has won Junos, including one this year.

Apparently, her music indirectly brought the new couple together. Page Six reports that Musk was pondering a tweet that referenced AI — in particular, a thought experiment, Roko’s Basilisk, which ponders a future where evil artificial intelligence punishes those who did not help bring it into being.

Musk was going to get punny and merge the term with “rococo” for his tweet, as one does (Rococo is a design style that dates back to 18th-century Paris). But Grimes had beaten him to it — back in 2015 when she created a character named Rococo Basilisk for her video, “Flesh Without Blood.”

“Elon was researching the idea of joking about Rococo Basilisk, and when he saw Grimes had already joked about it, he reached out to her,” an insider told Page Six. “Grimes said this was the first time in three years that anyone understood the joke. They were both poking fun at AI.”

Now if that isn’t a meet-cute for the ages, we don’t know what is.

Perhaps another thing bonding them together are their shared Canadian roots — Musk’s mother, Maye, was born in Saskatchewan, has a handful of university degrees and a thriving modelling career at age 70. Her multi-billionaire son is no slouch either — Musk has plans to launch a mission to Mars in 2022 via his SpaceX spaceship and rocket, currently in development.

So what’s next for the reportedly newly minted couple? The sky’s the limit, as they say.

I’m Sima, I’m 23 and I’m a pretty casual Shia Muslim. I was born in Toronto, have lived in various parts of Canada and come from an Iranian background. I did not fast this year but I’m wishing a Happy Eid Al-Fitr to all my fellow Muslims who did!

I’m Farah, I’m 35 and I’m a casual Sunni Muslim. I was born in Toronto, raised in Markham and come from an in Indian-Pakistani background. This year, for the first time in years, I challenged myself to keep almost every fast in Ramadan and succeeded! Please, come eat with me!

So, it’s done. Ramadan has come and gone, and gone with it are the early mornings of rising to eat before dawn, persistently empty stomachs and a solid case of daily “hanger” as you struggle to keep your fast throughout the Holy Month. It may not seem like we’ll miss very much, but as the long days passed, we two mediocre Muslims — that is, Muslims who consider ourselves fairly casual and relaxed in our practice — sat down to talk about what makes this month extraordinary — not just this year, but every year. The lessons we’ve learned have changed our views on food, religion and most importantly: life.

Solidifying your relationship with God

A Muslim’s relationship with God is of utmost importance year-round, but Ramadan is an ideal time to focus within yourself and strengthen that relationship. Despite being pretty casual in our practice of Islam — neither of us wear hijab, we don’t pray five times a day, the list goes on — we both agree that we value our relationships with God more during the Holy Month. How could we not? We’ve watched our parents go through tough times and pull themselves out with the strength of their unwavering faith and dedication they pour into Ramadan.

Farah: As I’ve grown older, I think I’ve gained more of a spiritual connection to Islam, and appreciated the values — like discipline, patience, generosity, compassion, and kindness — more than the exact readings or the exact practice of praying five times a day … The element of discipline comes back in there where I think our lives are so cluttered and busy that something like [fasting during Ramadan] slows you down and allows you to focus in and I think that’s really the appeal to it for me.

Sima: I like the idea of a God and a higher power. I like believing in that, it gives me comfort. There are a couple verses of the Quran that I’ve memorized because my dad taught them to me when I was little and it’s these two verses that I actually know and can always recite when I need to … I was never drawn to the super-rigid rules of Islam, but I feel like the spirituality and the overall values of our religion have really resonated with me my whole life. And that’s what I hold onto, and what I would like to keep holding onto as I grow older and that’s why I like to use Ramadan as a time to learn more about Islam every day.

Patience is the most important thing

Ramadan is about patience. Patience for your body when the hunger pangs wrack you in the first couple of days, patience for yourself when you make mistakes, patience when things don’t always work out, and, patience for your fellow humans.

Sima: There are days when something happens and I want to snap at a person or complain about something and then in the moment I manage to calm myself down. I’m like “No, it’s Ramadan … try to have more patience.” It’s hard and obviously God doesn’t expect anyone to be perfect, so it would be foolish for me to expect myself to be. But when I can, I remind myself to be a little more patient and careful with the people around me, whether it’s not snapping at my mom for asking about my life choices or letting my dad ramble on about whatever contrary opinion is on his mind.

Farah: Because our lives are so fast-moving, even things like when people don’t message me back fast enough grates me. I’m like, “Really, you read my message three hours ago but you can’t message back?” I’m trying to be more chill about it when it’s Ramadan.

Every Muslim is unique and that’s OK

There are 1.8 billion Muslims in the world — obviously there’s no way every single one of those people would practice the same way, and they shouldn’t have to. Non-Muslims need to understand that no two Muslims are alike, but we also need to understand our fellow Muslims come in all shapes and sizes, and that all the major internal divisions are usually caused by fairly minor differences — who believed what 1,400 years ago, what position we should pray in, etc. — when it comes to the bigger picture of life, none of that should matter.

Farah: I don’t wear a hijab, but I have family members who wear hijab and I have family members who wear niqabs too and they’re all very interesting in their practice. I can see their reasons why they do it. They feel they’re closer to God with a covering, if they take the attention off themselves, they’ll have that much more energy to devote go their practice of Islam.

Sima: My dad is a lot more stick-to-the-rules — prays five times a day, reads the Quran often, does Ramadan every year, goes to the mosque when he can … He’s very traditional, whereas my mom stopped wearing her hijab years ago. I don’t think I’ve really ever seen her read a Quran except for during specific spiritual things like at a mosque or if she’s looking for positive energy for something like someone’s first day of school.

Farah: The whole idea of Islam is you have your relationship with God and nobody really stands with you in that sense. I always feel kind of sad because sometimes I don’t think people understand that. Which is ironic, because one of the major things in Islam too is not to judge other people, so it’s a shame.

Sima: It’s not my business to judge how somebody else acts or reacts or interacts with God. The only thing that’s my business is to deal with how I want to communicate with God or feel connected to God.

It’s not about the food

Once the final slivers of sunlight dip beneath the horizon, it’s easy to stock up your plate when you’ve been dreaming of Iftar — the moment at sundown when Muslims break fast — all day. But then something strange happens, you take a single bite, savour it, and … you’re full. It’s a travesty of gastronomical proportions — a stomach shrunken from a lack of food can only handle so much.

Farah: For my mom, it’s all about setting up Iftar. There’s certain foods we won’t see all year — like her special egg rolls — except for during Ramadan. She goes all out, lays out the table cloth, sets up the moment we can eat. And then, we don’t eat all of it.

Sima: My dad is not a feast person. He says, “I just need some dates and tea to break my fast and I’m good.” He’s not about the giant meal, he thinks it’s oppositional to the spirit of things. He’s really simple, he’ll have some bread and cheese.

You realize during Ramadan the payoff isn’t the food itself — it’s the people you share it with, the deep roots of tradition and how you can use your struggle to help others.

Sima: When I was in Iran, it was almost celebratory. Every night, we’d go to a different relative’s house, and we’d have a giant spread for Iftar. By the time we broke the fast everyone was super excited. It was such a fun atmosphere.

There are always people who cook a lot of food during Ramadan — even while fasting — and give it to charity. That goes back to the core values of restraint and discipline in Islam, and that’s really what it’s all about.

How to give what you can’t have (Thanks, Mom and Dad)

Our parents grew up in predominantly Muslim countries — Iran and Pakistan — where the entire society shifts to accommodate fasting during Ramadan: stores open later and work starts in the middle of the day. When the call for prayer rings out, everything and everyone goes still. It’s a wonder, then, that our parents, after immigrating to Canada, didn’t get lost in the frenzied pace of the Western world; that they continued to fast in the face of early hours, late nights and calls for prayer drowned out by the noise of bustling cities and screaming kids.

Especially as we, their second-generation kin, struggled to follow their lead.

Farah: I always thought, “How am I going to get through the day?” Around 3 p.m., I’m ready to take a nap.

Sima: I gave up fasting because I had a lot of jobs in university serving food and I couldn’t fast while serving sandwiches all day. It felt like too much of an exercise in self-flagellation to be on my feet all day, making the most delicious-looking lunches, not even able to get a sip of water or nibble on a tomato myself.

One of the most humbling sights during Ramadan is watching your parents cook for you, while you absolve yourself of the fast because it’s just “too hard.” In the absence of their own sustenance, our parents sustain us.

Sima: We always say, “You don’t have to make food,” but my Dad says, “You guys are my kids, it’s part of discipline, of course I’m going to cook for you.”

Farah: It’s a gift, a form of giving back, which is key to the spirit of Ramadan.

Sima: It comes back to the concept of mind-over-matter, and carrying on your normal life. You would still feed your kids if it wasn’t Ramadan. It’s not about putting your life on hold, it’s about forging through.

The gift of time

As a kid, rising before the crack of dawn to eat for Ramadan was exhilarating. You could steal back the minutes lost from an early bedtime and read an extra chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with a flashlight under the covers. Eating wasn’t the priority, prolonging the moment was.

As an adult, the burden of the day’s responsibilities looms and you crave extra minutes in bed, yourself out for a full breakfast at an obscene hour.

The beauty of Ramadan is it gives you back the gift of “the moment.” It feels like a curse in the first few days — the minutes are long, the hunger pangs seemingly never abating. But all that time normally spent thinking about food, preparing food, and eating food – is now yours for the taking. Food is a joyful and abundant blessing, but we don’t think about the mental and physical hours it takes up, until it isn’t a part of the day. It’s another chapter read, an extra phone call, or a quiet moment for yourself. It’s the choice, the option, the chance.

It’s the most freeing feeling during Ramadan to look up at the clock and be gifted with what we all crave: just a little more time.

Born And Raised is an ongoing series by HuffPost Canada that shares the experiences of second-generation Canadians. Part reflection, part storytelling, this series on the children of immigrants explores what it means to be born and raised in Canada. We want to hear your stories — join the conversation on Twitter at #BornandRaised or send us an email at [email protected].

TORONTO — Gerald Major goes out on the back balcony of his condo several times a day, leaning against the wall and smoking or vaping medicinal cannabis to ease the pain and other symptoms of severe arthritis.

But the looming legalization of recreational marijuana may put his daily ritual in jeopardy, as condominium corporations and apartment buildings across the country scramble to enact rules that would ban pot smoking inside units, on balconies and in common areas used by residents.

“I don’t use inside my dwelling, I have a seven-year-old. I don’t think it’s healthy, nor is it necessary,” said Major, 46, who has had eight surgeries in the last eight years related to ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis, which he began developing at age 14.

“So I discreetly go about my business and try to respect everyone around,” he said. “The solution I have right now is fine because all the vape goes away from anyone and it’s not going in anyone’s windows.”

Major and his family moved into the Oakville, Ont., condo about five years ago, a couple of years after his medical condition forced him to give up his job running hedge-fund services for a major North American bank.

Although there’s been no such notice circulated to residents, Major is worried what he would do if his condo corporation and the building’s board of directors decide to outlaw pot smoking and vaping on the property in the run-up to Oct. 17, when toking recreational cannabis becomes legal.

“If it does go that way, then my board will certainly take the most conservative approach. And then, I guess I’ll be looking for another place to live.”

Many condo corporations were focused on tobacco

Toronto condo lawyer Denise Lash said her firm has been kept hopping by clients putting new rules in place for their buildings before cannabis is decriminalized, often resulting in some residents objecting to the changes. Social media has been rife with complaints about condo boards being high-handed in banning weed.

Lash said that over the past few years, many condo corporations were focused on dealing with tobacco use within units and in common areas of their properties.

“So now that we have marijuana that’s going to be legalized, there’s a real concern that there’s going to be more (pot) smokers,” she said, noting that the pungent fumes from a joint can permeate nearby condo units, which non-using residents could argue is not only a nuisance but also a health risk.

Such a contention would be valid, as no building can be made completely air-tight, said Sandro Zuliani, president and CEO of Crossbridge Condominium Services, a property manager for about 80,000 units in the Greater Toronto Area.

“You can never wrap it in Saran Wrap, per se, to prevent that smoke from migrating,” he said. “Even someone going out onto their balcony, the smoke can make its way into an adjoining unit.

“What the solution is, you make the building completely smoke-free.”

Yet even going that route won’t necessarily mean a condo complex will be devoid of smoke: unit owners who already used tobacco prior to a smoking ban being instituted can seek to be “grandfathered,” meaning they would retain the right to continue puffing away.

Lash said in part it’s grandfathering that has lit a fire under many condo corporations to get expanded rules in place, to avoid residents using that loophole for recreational cannabis should buildings miss the Oct. 17 deadline.

Also of concern is residents cultivating marijuana plants — legislation will allow four per household for recreational users, six or more for medicinal users — because even such mini grow-ops can cause damaging moisture and mould in units.

“So we’re taking the position of no cultivation,” Lash said of drawing up rule-change documents for clients.

No-smoking bylaws in B.C. already

While condo corps in Toronto and many other cities across the country are rushing to get new rules passed by their building’s boards of directors, Vancouver and other West Coast communities have been able to take a much more mellow approach.

“It’s not really a new scenario in the sense that strata (condo) corporations across British Columbia have had no-smoking bylaws for probably five to 10 years already,” said Tony Gioventu, executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association of BC.

“And so with respect to any type of consumption of a combustible, whether it’s tobacco, marijuana or any other substance, there’s an extensive list of strata corporations that have already started prohibiting consumption,” he said from Vancouver.

“There was so much anticipation that this was going to be a bigger issue, and it turns out in British Columbia to be not that much of an issue because we already have built into our legislation a nuisance bylaw which applies to any type of nuisance created from one strata lot or a common area into another unit.”

Gioventu said some condo corporations will make special accommodations for residents authorized to smoke medical marijuana and to propagate plants for that use within their units.

Still, that could pit a medicinal pot smoker against a neighbour who complains about contamination of their living space, conceivably triggering a human rights complaint by either party.

“It becomes a human rights Catch-22,” said Gioventu. “Who has the greater rights of the two parties?

“Sometimes both rights are met. Some circumstances require modifications to the ventilation system in the building to accommodate both parties.”

May take case to human rights tribunal

As for Major, he would consider taking his case to Ontario’s Human Rights Tribunal if rules come into force in his condo that would prohibit him from smoking or vaping cannabis, along with the oils and tinctures he takes to control his multiple symptoms.

Otherwise, he’d likely have to give up the no-stairs, no-maintenance benefits of condo living and move again to a house.

“It would put me back to what I didn’t want to be doing, which is worrying about cutting grass, shovelling snow,” said Major, who has already fallen and broken a hip due to osteoporosis.

“Or then I get my wife to do it, and it’s just one more thing that she gets to do.”