Open letter to The Royal Canadian Legion regarding their coerced response to hosting Vancouver Island Speaks

We will not accept being libeled, censored, and bullied at every turn, simply for defending the rights of women and kids

Disappointly but predictably, following last month’s Vancouver Island Speaks event in Victoria, local activists launched a harassment campaign against our venue, The Royal Canadian Legion (Trafalgar/Pro Patria Legion Branch 292). The pattern of capitulation is unacceptable, and functions to silence free and fair speech in Canada. We will never stop fighting, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to host events in Canada when venues cave to the bullying and libel of a small but loud minority of activists. Please consider supporting our fight and speech by signing onto our open letter to the Legion.

To sign your name to this letter, go to: www.vancouverislandspeaks.org/about

~~~

The Royal Canadian Legion
National Headquarters
86 Aird Place
Ottawa, ON K2L 0A1
October 3rd, 2024

To whom it may concern,

On Saturday, September 14, 2024, Vancouver Island Speaks! (VIS) hosted their fifth event in B.C., discussing the debate and issues surrounding gender identity ideology, women’s rights, free speech, and kids’ safety. These events aim to bring a much suppressed, misrepresented, and censored conversation out into the open, and allow Canadians of all stripes to learn more, hear from other community members, and share their views and concerns. All five events have been well-attended, peaceful, and inspiring. In this case, after having lost our first venue, the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 292 in Victoria hosted us.

The women who speak on these panels draw from their experiences growing up female in this world, as well as from research, data, and news reports. Most of us never expected to have to fight for our rights and spaces in 2024, as women, nor our right to free expression, as Canadians. We never anticipated having to stand up publicly and insist men not be given access to women’s sports, prisons, shelters and change rooms. We certainly never imagined being protested, vilified, harassed, censored, libelled, and threatened for doing so, painted as criminals by our own “feminist” governments, but here we are.

Holding these events has always been a challenge. In every single case, the venues who
agree to host us are subject to harassment campaigns, threatened and bullied into
cancelling and denouncing our group and message, often without any real understanding of what our message is, and why these small but loud groups demand we be cancelled.

While our September 14th event went off without any issue, a small group of local activists sought to pressure the Legion into denouncing us, using fear-mongering and manipulative language, aimed at instilling fear by painting us as “hateful” and dangerous. A sample letter offered by an individual going by the name Lin Robinson-Young as a template for activists read:

To the Royal Canadian Legion, its Members, and its Leadership:

I am writing to you as a member and/or ally of the 2SLGBTQI+ community. I was
deeply hurt to hear that on Saturday, September 14th, 2024, the Victoria branch of
the Royal Canadian Legion hosted a panel focused on perpetuating hateful
anti-transgender rhetoric at an event hosted by “Vancouver Island Speaks” called
“Surgeries, Sports & Speech in Tranada”. This panel represented yet another attack
on the rights of our transgender community members, and the Legion’s decision to
host this event fails to align with your June 3rd, 2019 commitment to not affiliate with groups that promote hatred or violence toward protected groups including on the basis of gender, or your website’s core values, which include being “supportive,
inclusive, courteous and fair to all”.

The allowance of the Legion for this panel to be hosted at the Legion’s Victoria
Branch betrays the trust of 2SLGBTQI+ people in Victoria and in Canada overall.
How are we meant to trust an organization that is willing to host a panel promoting
hate speech against our transgender siblings, parents, and children? Transgender
people remain a deeply vulnerable population – even in Canada, transgender people
experience more physical and sexual violence and report worse mental health
statuses than cisgender people (Statistics Canada 2018). Even the Canadian
Security Intelligence Service warned us in February of this year that “extremists could “inspire and encourage” serious violence against the 2SLGBTQI+ community” (Tunney 2024).

The featured panelists at the hateful event hosted at the Victoria Legion building
included Meghan Murphy, a transphobic internet personality who was banned from X for violating rules prohibiting hate speech against trans people; Mia Hughes, founder of “caWsbar”, an “advocacy group” which is “focused on one issue: denying trans people rights” (McArdle 2023); Linda Blade, who says that trans athletes “harm […] female athletes” and pose an “almost existential threat” to cisgender athletes (2021); Bryony Dixon, who “publicly stated transitioning threatens queer youth, specifically gay children, and that medically prescribed hormone blockers to ease gender dysphoria “castrates” children” (Morton, 2023); and Magdalena Huston, who is associated with Murphy and characterizes transgender people’s self-realizations as “social contagion” (Huston 2024).

Our 2SLGBTQI+ community must assume that by hosting this event, these fair-right, anti-transgender viewpoints must align with that of the Royal Canadian Legion unless otherwise indicated. In fact, one of our Victoria community members called the Victoria branch yesterday while the panel was taking place and had a conversation that seemingly endorses this:

“The guy on the phone says he was a bartender. I told them that they are hosting a
hate group. Guy said ‘no, we are renting out a room – whatever they do up there is
not our business.’ I asked ‘Would you rent out to Nazis?’ and he said ‘Sure, if they
were paying.’”

In these times where Canada’s social progress is threatening to reverse itself, we as
allies and members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community look to organizations such as
yourselves to not only refuse to aid and abet hateful rhetoric against our community, but to actively include us and fight for our right to exist, just as our veterans fought for. I therefore urge you not only to denounce the Sept 14 event and its organizers and to formally apologize to the 2SLGBTQI+ community for hosting a group that promoted hate toward us, but to make and announce a public donation to the Victoria Pride Society as a gesture of support and good will.

Sincerely,
[Name]

Sources:
www.them.us/story/megan-murphy-terf-twitter-lawsuit
www.meghanmurphy.ca/p/never-give-up-never-surrender
www.transgendermap.com/issues/topics/media/mia-hughes/
www.maelys.bio/2023/06/anti-trans-mob-in-ottawa/
https://thediscourse.ca/nanaimo/nanaimo-fringe-festival-director-steps-down
www.threads.net/@magdalenahuston/post/C-s-cLSSvuw
www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2020001/article/00009-eng.htm
www.cbc.ca/news/politics/csis-lgbtq-warning-violence-1.7114801
https://web.archive.org/web/20240323014905/https://legion.ca/news/2019/06/03/legion-r eleases-hate-group-policy
https://web.archive.org/web/20240829103013/https://rcl292.ca/our-branch/about-page.php?id=32
www.facebook.com/JodieGastel/postspfbid028FZFyJYLWStqQNqmRTM2Fx6

This letter, and others like it, including one from an activist named Tressa Brotsky, asked the Trafalgar/Pro Patria Legion to apologize for having hosted our event in order to “show compassion to and for trans people and their families and communities.” In her letter, Brotsky claimed that the aim of VIS is to “limit the rights and health of vulnerable people, and specifically to try to stop access to life-saving healthcare for children and youth of all sexes and genders.”

This is a wildly defamatory statement. In truth, we aim to protect the health of children and vulnerable people and aim to raise the alarm about the wide-ranging harms of so-called “gender medicine” and surgeries on minors who are not able to consent to such life-altering decisions, nor are they fully informed of the irreversible consequences of these treatments. Brodsky cites previous unwarranted cancellations of our bookings at other venues as justification for the Legion to cancel this one and to reject future bookings, writing:

A number of business [sic] have cancelled their booking with Vancouver Island Speaks once they discovered that the charisma and half-disclosures of Meghan Murphy and organizers mask their fundamental belief that trans people should not be allowed equal healthcare or to exist in Canada.

Not only are the letters and public statements made about our group, directed at the Legion and other venues, defamatory, but they are chock-full of medical misinformation; ideologically driven, with no basis in fact or science; and hyperbolic, inserting motivations that only exist in the imaginations of the authors. The aim of these activists is to frighten people into compliance by implying we aim to harm rather than help (and to simply have open, honest debate), bullying organizations into cancelling our events, denouncing our group, and refusing future bookings. This behaviour is authoritarian, undemocratic, and insulting to our veterans and the aim of the Royal Legion of Canada.

The truth is that no venue has cancelled VIS events because they disagree with our views or beliefs. Venues have cancelled or denounced us because they have been terrorized, threatened, harassed, bullied, and, in the words of our last venue managers, “abused” by these activists and their supporters. Venues and staff are confused and reasonably frightened.

In response to Brotsky’s letter, the Branch Manager of the Trafalgar/ProPatria Legion, Lorrie Weston, wrote via email :

I am Deeply ashamed and distraught over the group that was in attendance on Saturday, September 14th, 2024.

I understood this group to be a non-profit focusing on current woman’s issue. There is in NO Way that the Legion supports the beliefs of this group.

We have been and always will be here to support all military and all those who serve or have served.

There are not enough words to convey our deep sadness over this and apologize profusely to those who were hurt by this.

Activists took this private email and began sharing it as a “public statement” from the Legion about the “anti-trans event held at their venue.” When one of our organizers called the legion to ask for clarification on the statement, she was told that the branch manager “had repercussions from the Navy base, as well as from our head, BC Yukon command and Ottawa.” Weston told us she had been ordered to “issue an apology that if we’ve hurt anybody’s feelings as a result, like, that I am completely distraught and ashamed that people would think that of our Legion.”

The immediate capitulation of the Legion to the activists’ J’accuse! is emblematic of these activist tactics, which have been used to assail us for years — to censor our speech, libel us, and to ensure that the Canadian public does not hear our concerns, or is misled and misinformed about our just, fair, and reasonable concerns and views.

We support and advocate for the rights and protections of women and girls in Canada and across the globe. We are Canadians committed to human rights and the values of a liberal democracy. We support free speech, child safeguarding, and ethical, evidence-based, approaches to health care. We advocate for compassionate, ethical treatment of all Canadians, especially of minors who struggle with body image, mental health issues, and the natural and often distressing experience of puberty.

We are grateful to the Royal Canadian Legion for hosting our event. Every member of our volunteer security team are veterans. Holding our event at a Legion has profound
significance to them. They fought for the rights we now enjoy in liberal democracies and know all too well what happens to women and girls in places that do not enjoy those rights.

Our security team — again, veterans — supports our work by protecting us from activists like those who contacted you, as they seek to cause us harm. Not emotional harm — real, physical harm.

Meghan Murphy, for example, has been threatened with violence for nearly a decade for speaking out in defense of women’s sex-based rights. She has received death threats, been stalked, and has been attacked in public. She requires bodyguards, security, and a police presence almost every time she speaks in public as a result. This is not an uncommon experience for those of us who are critical of gender identity ideology and its harms. It is the norm and it is shameful.

Tactics employed by these activists include: intimidation, threats of violence, threats of sexual assault and rape, targeting employment, actual physical attacks, and criminalization.

They target women in particular, knowing we are vulnerable.

Women and girls remain a deeply vulnerable population globally — even in Canada. Women experience physical and sexual violence at disproportionate rates (Statistics Canada 2018). Female inmates are particularly vulnerable, often with histories of trauma, poverty, addiction, mental health issues; they come from marginalized communities and harsh backgrounds, yet are now being incarcerated with violent male sex offenders, with no way to advocate for themselves.

The letter template used by some of the activists who contacted you cites a statement
published on June 3rd, 2019, with regard to “hate groups.” The letter argues that “your
decision to host this event fails to align with your June 3rd, 2019 commitment to not affiliate with groups that promote hatred or violence toward protected groups including on the basis of gender, or your website’s core values, which include being ‘supportive, inclusive, courteous and fair to all.’”

Surely, women and girls fall under the category of “all.” Surely we deserve to be treated fairly and with the same rules and respect as any other group. Surely the Legion stands for women’s rights, and wouldn’t cave to pressure from bullies who threaten our rights, safety, and wellbeing. Surely, the Legion supports women and community members in their efforts to gather and discuss their concerns about the impact of something as controversial as gender identity ideology on women and kids — the most vulnerable among us.

VIS events are inclusive — everyone is welcome, provided they don’t endanger or disrupt. Ironically, we are accused of being exclusive, while being excluded ourselves.

What we do is dangerous, but we continue to fight, at our own risk, with no institutional, corporate, or government support, in the face of constant threats, harassment, and censorship, because preserving women’s rights and protecting kids, as well as defending free speech in Canada is of pivotal importance. More important than our jobs, safety, comfort, or income.

The defamation in these letters and social media posts collapse in the face of VIS’s demonstrated value of reality-based analysis, direct communication, and transparency. We invite The Royal Canadian Legion, your members and allies, as well as all interested and concerned Canadians to see for themselves what we have to say, openly, proudly and clearly. We are not ashamed of our words.

We urge you to review the footage of our Vancouver Island Speaks events, and determine for yourself whether or not they constitute “hate” and should be cancelled and censored.

Sincerely,

Meghan Murphy, VIS Organizer, Writer and Podcaster, Founder of Feminist Current

Bryony Dixon, VIS Organizer, Director of Development and Events at Civilization Works

Niki Fortier, VIS Organizer and Royal Canadian Legion member

Linda Blade, PhD Kinesiology, Co-founder of the International Consortium on Female Sport (ICFS) and Board Member of Canadian Women’s Sex-Based Rights (caWsbar)

Mia Hughes, Director of Genspect Canada and Director of Gender at Civilization Works

Michelle Mackness, Vice Director of Genspect Canada

April Hutchinson, Canadian powerlifter, founder of Keep Female Sports Female XX

Janayh Wright, VIS speaker and businesswoman

Magdalena Huston, VIS speaker

Kim Zander, Women’s Space Vancouver

Individual signees:

Matthew Foxcroft, Business Owner
Christopher Shaw, UBC
Stuart Parker, Los Altos Institute
Kim Goldberg, Author/Poet
John Thompson, C.D. Canadian Forces Decoration
Kevan Hudson
Ingrid Berg, Attendee
Scott Geiler, LGB Alliance supporter
Sarah Rean
Syed Abbas
Eric Kaufmann, University of Buckingham
Elizabeth Ely, Retired Musician
Melanie Bennet
Rose Forte
Leslie MacMillan
Wilma Lawrence, Supporter of free speech
Harald Hewett, Attendee
Donna Schurman, Concerned citizen
Shawn Shirazi, Gays Against Groomers
Felicia Rembrandt, Lesbian
Suzanne Baril, Freedom
Pamela Buffone, Canadian Gender Report
Stella O’Malley, Genspect
Brian Driscoll
Gale Tyler, retired BC teacher
Margaret Sherlock
Karin Litzcke
Dr. Joan Russell, UELAC. RDB self-identified.
Michele Kofod
Savanah Wright
Lorraine Hepting
Linda Batten, Retired educator
Kate Macdonald, Duncan Businesses owner
Paul ORorke
Ruth Waddell, BScN
Bryant Kashmere
Jenniffer Millington
K Houtby
Frank Pluta, Freedom of Speech believer
Steven Lay, local business owner
Toni Vonk, Gender Dissent
Brenda Brooks, Descendant of WW1 and WW2 veterans/Writer
Sandra Currie, Women’s Space Vancouver
Kristine Anderson, Vancouver Island resident
Kelly Constabaris, Adult Human Female
Ian Glass, Friend
Linda Stone
Jacqueline Carstensen