On being brave

Courageous people are not born, they are made

People often ask me why I am the way I am. That is to say, they want to know what it is I have in me that has led me to speak out, and continue speaking out, in the face of attacks, punishment, libel, harassment, protests, gangs of Antifa men attempting to chase me down and kill me…

I wonder too. I have never been able to provide a great answer to this question.

I have always been rebellious, that’s for certain. Argumentative to be sure. Invested in justice. I have never been one to take nonsensical orders sitting down. I don’t know where that came from. I had a political, difficult father, who taught me not to respect authority (unless it was him, ironically and problematically, though I did not acquiesce…). I also have always been someone who wanted answers. I wanted the why not just the “do it, accept it, it is what it is.”

I remember seeing a reel online — a clip showing a man explaining that a man who says “It is what it is” is the most dangerous man in the world, because you can’t rattle him or something I guess. He accepts whatever comes his way in life. I didn’t like that. Apathy is not something I’m impressed by and while, yes, it’s worthwhile to accept reality and be flexible enough to roll with the punches, a man who responds with “It is what it is” to everything that happens around him struck me as a man with a serious attachment disorder.

“It is what it is” is precisely how Canada ended up where it is. Men are women? Ok. It is what it is, what can you do. Stay in your house, don’t see your family, take your medicine? Ok. It is what it is, what can you do.

When Canada introduced Bill C-16, Canada’s gender identity legislation, in 2016, I knew I had to stop it. I had spent enough time — many years at that point — thinking about the concept of gender identity ideology, studying women’s history, and learning about the importance of women-only spaces (via OG feminists like Lee Lakeman, Janice Raymond, Lierre Keith, and Sheila Jeffreys) to know that this bill was dangerous. I knew that the result would be a complete and total destruction of women’s rights and protections.

I spoke and wrote about my concerns, I pitched Canadian news media on the topic, I tried to organize women to speak out, I interviewed women on my podcast, the only one in Canada covering the attack on women’s rights via gender identity ideology at the time, I tried to convince those around me of my concerns. But few wanted to bother with the issue. Even many of the feminists who were critical of gender identity ideology privately seemed not to believe a loss of women’s rights was possible. But we can lose any right at any time if we don’t fight for it. We saw this happen during Covid, as our Prime Minister (the same Prime Minister proud to announce, on International Women’s Day, that “transwomen are women”) revoked our constitutional rights despite the illegality of it, because he thought he could. Because he trusted Canadians to say, “It is what it is,” and roll over.