From the moment the Canadian government introduced Bill C-16, which became Canada’s gender identity legislation, dissenting women have been silenced, erased, and kept out of the conversation. It is women and girls who are most affected by gender identity legislation, as some feminists pointed out early on — we stand to lose our spaces, sports, safety, rights and protections, and free speech. This is of course already happening. We are now seeing men competing as women in sport, and winning as a result. We are seeing men accessing women’s and girls’ changerooms, being transferred to women’s prisons, and speaking on behalf of “women,” as “women.” What may have seemed unimaginable just a decade ago is happening.
Despite the fact it is the most vulnerable women — women in prison, women escaping domestic abuse and seeking shelter in transition houses, women struggling with addiction, homeless women — as well as female athletes (who only have the ability to compete at all on account of those who fought for that right as part of the women’s movement), and of course all women and girls needing safety in bathrooms and change rooms, we have been sidelined in the debate.
This is the new misogyny, and it is the worst, by far, we’ve seen in the Western world in years. The backlash against women and the women’s movement has been disguised as progressive — “feminist” even. But the reality is that it is endangering women and kids in very disturbing ways.
Those of us in Liberal or NDP ridings know firsthand how our political representatives respond to our concerns: either by ignoring us or vilifying us.
Last September, the unions shipped in busloads of protesters to bully, harass, threaten, and intimidate the women speaking at the One Million March for Children in Victoria, B.C. Women and their families in the crowd were equally as afraid as protesters surrounded the speaker area and pushed past the barrier, hurling themselves at the stage, using physical aggression to shut down our free speech. Thanks to an FOI, we now know that the police knew that protestors were being brought in to outnumber us and shut down the event, but did not prepare accordingly. As a result, our event was shut down shortly after it began, on account of the situation getting quickly out of hand and becoming too dangerous to continue.
Myself, some local women and community members then took it upon ourselves to organize an event in Nanaimo, where we lost a venue last minute on account of harassment from protestors, and had to scramble last minute to find a new space. The event went ahead at the new location with a great turnout and conversation. We also booked the Cowichan Community Centre for an event, scheduled to take place shortly thereafter, but received an email two days before the event was scheduled to take place, explaining they were cancelling our booking, citing the B.C. Human Rights Code in a pre-accusation of “hate speech.” We moved the event to Parksville, where, again, the event went ahead peacefully and with very fruitful discussion.
We are not backing down this year either. We refuse to be erased and silenced. We — the independent women fighting this our own risk, with no institutional support and minimal financial support, have taken it upon ourselves to organize a safe space for Vancouver Islanders to have this conversation in Victoria, where we were silenced last year — to meet others who share their concerns, to organize, to speak about the thing they have been told they may not speak about.
Please join us on Thursday, May 30th in Victoria, BC for a panel event discussing all these issues and more!
I will be speaking alongside brilliant UK-based feminist journalist Julie Bindel; founder of Detrans Alliance Canada, Kellie-Lynn Pirie; and Bryony Dixon, who was forced to resign as director of the Nanaimo Fringe Festival after she spoke out about gender identity ideology.
Tickets for the panel discussion and Q&A, moderated by Erin Graham, are $30. We will also be hosting a meet and greet/cocktail hour after the panel event, from 9:00-11:00PM, so guests who purchase a $75 ticket can meet the panelists, chat, have a drink, socialize, and relax after the event. The $75 ticket includes access to both the panel event and the meet and greet.
We are keeping the exact location of the event secret (for now) to protect the venue from attacks, harassment, and vandalism, and will release the address to ticket holders closer to the date. We can say the event will be held in Downtown Victoria.
Click here to purchase tickets or use the QR code below:
If you can’t attend in person, we greatly appreciate donations to support our work and organizing!
We hope to see you all on TERF Island 2.0.