Demand Safety for Women & Girls from Your MP Candidate

The more we write to our MP candidates, the less this will appear to be a fringe issue.

I’ll make no bones about it, I’m voting Conservative in the federal election. Among other reasons, I feel like we have the best chance of getting some improvements on gender ideology front with the Conservatives. I understand however that people have a range of reasons to vote for a candidate or a party. Regardless of who you’re voting for in the federal election, from the PPC to the Greens, consider writing to them to give them the straightforward goods on your opposition to the impacts of gender ideology. While I think we can start to close this chapter quicker with more conservative representation, I think eventually all roads lead to reestablishing safeguarding for women and girls, fair sport, and single sex prisons. There is only so long the media can downplay assaults in women’s shelters and disturbing incidents in rec centre changerooms. The spell of trans ideology is bound to wear off eventually, right? But we have to keep writing and calling to make sure politicians know this is still an issue and that women don’t consent to this boundary erosion. To borrow from New Hampshire Democrat Jonah Wheeler, the consent of one woman does not stand for the consent of all women.

Video of Frank Caputo, Conservative MP for Kamloops-Thompson in BC, speaking about sexual predator Adam Laboucan (Tara Desousa) being housed in a women’s facility in BC with a mother and baby program.

In case anyone needs ideas for how to go about writing to their MP, I’ve included a letter below, which is an edited version of what I sent to my local Conservative candidate. My aim was to encourage the Conservatives to strengthen their position on protecting women and girls and suggest where to focus. It’s a straightforward statement about the changes we need to see. Perhaps even more effective would be a personal story about how gender ideology and its legal framework has affected you personally or someone close to you.

Letter

I would like to emphasize my concerns with the impacts of the legal confusion between gender identity and sex on women and girls in Canada. While the effects are broad and wide ranging, the most critical ones to mention are unfairness in sport and safeguarding conflicts for women and girls. I think the Conservatives are on the right track by calling out men being placed in women’s prisons (such as MP Frank Caputo bringing attention to Adam Laboucan in BC), however I would like to see the scope of discussion expanded, as many women of all walks of life are being harmed. The framing of the issue is also extremely important as the last thing this country needs is more division. Many left leaning voters who care about this issue feel maligned and abandoned by their parties. Concerns and potential changes should be introduced in such a way to bring as many Canadians alongside as possible. Many others who don’t care about this issue yet have either not been personally impacted, don’t understand it very well, or been told that having negative opinions would be “transphobic” or “homophobic”. They will need gentle nudging to understand how this could impact them, their family, or their neighbours.

I have thoughts on how best to approach this issue while minimizing controversy. I suggest emphasizing the importance of sex, which is immutable and concrete, over gender identity, and showing why this is important in certain situations. Examples should show how the entanglement of gender identity and sex has led to illogical and unsafe practices. These are the three main issues as I see them:

1. Specific spaces need to be separated by sex. There is a reason that changerooms, washrooms, and domestic abuse shelters are (or were) separated based on sex. Women and girls are vulnerable to predatory men in enclosed spaces, particularly in a state of undress. Women who have experienced abuse deserve single sex shelters where there is no threat of further abuse. Allowing males to enter these spaces gives predatory men an opportunity to take advantage and denies women safety and privacy when it’s needed most. This has to end. Grievous examples, among many, of why men should not be allowed into these types of spaces are the recent attack at an Edmonton women's shelter and a sexual assault in a women’s bathroom at a school in the US. Male sex offenders are also being placed in women’s prisons where they literally have a captive audience for their abuse. Government policies need to be strict and clear that men, no matter how much they may look like or claim to be women, are not women. While people with gender dysphoria deserve equal rights like the rest of us, those rights should not include infringing on the privacy of women and girls and eroding our safety. Sexes need to be separate in certain situations.

2. Sports need to be fair and the female category protected. Most people think it's illogical and unfair to allow men in women's sports, however individual sports bodies are not equipped to deal with pressure campaigns and human rights cases should they try to exclude males from female category. In the US, the majority of all voters across party lines support sex segregation in sports. However, it is such a hot potato issue that only a few Democrats have spoken up. Rules allowing males to play in the female category, at any age, are robbing women and girls of fair and safe sport and spots on teams. An example of what can happen if this is left unchecked is a “women’s” soccer team in Australia which has ended up with about 5 men on it. This has not only taken roster spots from women but has ruined fair and safe sport in that league. This needs to be nipped in the bud.

3. Save children from hasty medical transition. Another aspect of safety which should not be overlooked is ensuring that our medical system is helping and not harming young people. Provincial health ministries should be persuaded to do a thorough review of the Cass Report from the UK, or perform their own evidence reviews of gender affirming care. The organization which supplies the relevant standards of care, WPATH, has been fully discredited. The motivation for allowing so-called sex changes in minors, that it supposedly saves the lives of suicidal youth, has been debunked by the advocates themselves in the U.S. vs. Skrmetti case. Every day that this treatment is provided, more minors and young adults are put on harmful drugs which can have permanent impacts (including infertility) and are convinced that the only way they can be their “authentic selves” is to mutilate their bodies. In BC, nearly 3,000 women, including minors, underwent double mastectomies 2018 and 2024, in order to “treat” their gender dysphoria. Moreover, people with gender dysphoria are robbed of effective counselling due to overreach by the conversion therapy ban, which forces therapists to blindly affirm a client’s professed gender dysphoria instead of helping them to resolve it.

These are the three main issues that the Conservatives should commit to addressing. I believe the Canadian public would generally support these if explained in a factual and compassionate way. Policy change should not dismiss the needs of trans people but also should not compromise in any way on the rights and safety of women and girls. And while it may appear that the public would be against limiting access to gender affirming care for youth, at the end of the day, it is the responsibility of government to ensure that treatments are helping, not harming. The risks of treatment should not outweigh the benefits, particularly when we know that counselling for gender distressed children helps to resolve gender dysphoria in most cases.

I am not sure of the legal tools that can be used to restore protections for women and girls, but I do know that local sports organizations, non-profits, and businesses will not change their policies until they are essentially told to do so or given strong legal protections. At present, policies meant to protect women, such as excluding males from changerooms, would expose organizations to human rights complaints which can cost tens of thousands of dollars in fees and would likely not resolve in their favour.

Thank you for your work so far on this issue and please continue to work for policies which are in the best interest of safety, well-being, and equal rights of all Canadians.