This blog was written by WSC’s Executive Director, Anuradha Dugal
Does it sound intense to you when I say 14 women were killed because they were women? Because of an idea. Because of misogyny. To me, it sounds like the conversations I have every year explaining why a gunman murdered 14 women 36 years ago at the École Polytechnique in Montreal.
That gunman believed it was okay to kill and harm feminists. He separated the women from the men before shooting the women, claiming he was “fighting feminism.” The idea that it is okay to trash feminism is on the rise again. If it ever really went away. It isn’t far-fetched to imagine that, had it been available to him, the École Polytechnique gunman would have found community in today’s Manosphere.
A significant factor for the rise in anti-feminist sentiment in Canada has been online radicalization, with men – often young men – gathering on platforms to vent misogynistic beliefs and conspiracy theories blaming feminism for what is going wrong in their lives. They blame feminism and especially feminists for what they say is going wrong in society. This rise in anti-feminist sentiment presents serious safety challenges for people across our networks and movements. Online harassment targets feminist advocates, shelter staff, and survivors alike, which creates additional risks. Doxing and sharing confidential information about shelters online puts the safety of survivors in those shelters at risk.
We can see a direct correlation in the rise of anti-feminist movements online and the shrinking space and safety for feminist organizing. For us here at Women’s Shelters Canada, we are constantly balancing the need to advocate for better supports for frontline staff – funding, training, and research – with longer-term systemic change through policies, legal changes, and social change.
All male violence is part of the system we want to change. A system that is built on Canada’s histories of colonialism and gendered violence. Canada as a nation is a colonial project using control and power over territory through any means, with violence – particularly against Indigenous peoples, especially women. It is gender-based because it disproportionately affects women, trans, Two-Spirit, and non-binary people and their children, and because the perpetrators are disproportionately men.
Every time feminist movements are constrained, as we are seeing today, inequalities deepen and further constrain Indigenous, 2SLGBTQ+, and POC voices and solutions. Every time feminist voices are denigrated and silenced, the reality that this violence is gendered is questioned and eventually deliberately erased.
Today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. I’ve lived in Montreal since I came to Canada in 1997, just a few years after that massacre, and my time here has always been marked by the memorials I attend year after year, the talks I have given, the schools I have visited, and the blogs I have written. To remember – and name – the 14 women killed that day and those killed since. But this day has two parts. It is about remembrance, and action. And so, I urge everyone reading this today to take action to counter this anti-feminist ideology. Donate to your local shelter. Ask your brother-in-law to explain why his sexist joke is funny. Write to Prime Minister Carney to tell him why feminism is still so important. Together, we can build movements that support equality and continue to work towards a world that is safe for everyone.
