It's all happening: Our cancelled Cowichan event is taking place this weekend!

The Cowichan Community Centre has allowed us to rebook, at long last — please join us this Saturday, June 8

Some of you may recall that last October, our planned event at the Cowichan Community Centre (CCC) was cancelled after pressure from local activists. We moved the event to Parksville last minute, and held a wonderful discussion regardless, but we did not give up on Cowichan!

We went back and forth with the CCC over the past year with the help of our legal team at The Democracy Fund, and got some good news late last week! The CCC very kindly offered us the opportunity to rebook this Saturday, June 8th.

This is of course very short notice to plan an event, but we have scrambled to pull it together and are looking forward to a fruitful and galvanizing discussion about the conflict between trans activism, women’s rights, lesbian rights, parental rights, and kids’ safety.

This conversation is desperately needed across Canada and has been silenced and suppressed for too long.

Cowichan in particular showed its desire to push back after a man entered the girls’ change room at the Cowichan Aquatic Centre earlier this year, brazenly declaring his right to be there on account of gender identity policy. The community pushed back and said “No” to predators in girls’ and women’s spaces.

We are so inspired by the courage of this community, and are thrilled to be able to host this conversation — giving space where space has previously been denied.

Unfortunately, since we announced the event this afternoon, activists have already begun organizing both to pressure the CCC to cancel and to protest the event. We are hoping to get as much support as possible to demonstrate that these conversations are important and valuable to the Vancouver Island community, and would love to have some of you there with us!

Please join us on Saturday for “Pushing Pride: When activism conflicts with women’s rights, gay rights, and the safeguarding of kids.” This event will take place from 6:30PM-8:30PM at the Cowichan Community Centre, in the Heritage Hall room — 2687 James St, Duncan, B.C. (Doors at 6:00PM — please arrive early to ensure we can start on time!) Contact vancouverislandspeaks@proton.me with any questions.

You can purchase tickets online by donation ($5 minimum) or pay with cash only at the door. If you cannot attend but wish to support our work and offset costs from the event, we very much appreciate donations!

I hope to see many of you this weekend! Let’s gooooo Duncan!