A Canadian college invited a trans-identified male to speak on violence against women in observation of the 33rd anniversary of an act of mass femicide.
Fae Johnstone, a trans-identified male, gave a keynote address today at Durham College in North Oshawa, Ontario as part of the school’s National Day of Remembrance Ceremony marking the anniversary of a massacre that left 14 women dead.
Johnstone, who describes himself as “trans feminine and non-binary,” is the Executive Director at Wisdom2Action, an LGBT-focused consulting firm. Johnstone’s website lists him as a “public speaker, consultant, educator and community organizer on unceded, unsurrended Algonquin territory.”
On Twitter, Johnstone announced his speech was part of the school’s “16 Days of Activism” to end “GBV [gender-based violence].”
The event Johnstone spoke at today is described on the Durham College website as commemorating the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women in Canada.
The Day was first inaugurated by Parliament in 1991 as a way to honor the lives lost during the École Polytechnique massacre, which took place on December 6, 1989 in Montreal, Quebec. On the campus of the scientific university, a man identifying as an “anti-feminist” targeted female students for slaughter.
Prior to shooting all of the women in a mechanical engineering class, Marc Lépine, born Gamil Rodrigue Liass Gharbi, told the male students to leave the room. He then told the women he was “fighting feminism” and expressed a hatred of women’s rights to an education.
“You’re women, you’re going to be engineers. You’re all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists,” Lépine said, before opening fire on the female students. Lépine later committed suicide on the campus after taking 14 women’s lives, and injuring 10 more people.
In total, Lépine murdered 14 women in an act that has since been recognized an act of terrorism.
After his speech at Durham College tonight, Johnstone was confronted by Jennifer Anne, a Canadian women’s rights advocate who has been working to secure the release of the analysis that was done on gender self-identification legislation in Canada.
Anne attended the event and recorded some of Johnstone’s address before proposing a question when given the opportunity by the event’s host.
“Today is the day we mark 14 women who were killed in Montreal by a man who subjected them simply because they were female. It is sex-based violence, not gender based violence. I am a female,” Anne is heard saying, before listing off examples where self-identification lead to the victimization of women.
“I am wondering why, on this day, we would have a man dressed in women’s garb to talk to us about sex-based violence and keeping women safe? How can women stay safe in this environment?”
Johnstone replies curtly: “Thank you. Next question!”
“Really? So you’re not going to answer it because you know I’m right?” Anne responds. The host of the event, as well as other administrators, are then heard trying to discourage Anne from continuing to assert her question.
Anne uploaded the recordings to her Twitter account.
Johnstone’s consulting firm, Wisdom2Action, marked the anniversary of the women’s deaths by posting an infographic titled “Queering GBV,” which asserted that “gender based violence disproportionately impacts 2SLGBTQ+ people who are BIPOC, transfeminine, bisexual, youth, newcomers, disabled, homeless, and/or involved in sex work.”
For Canadian Women’s History Month in October, Johnstone was “honored” by a Government ministry for his work with “2SLGBTQI+” people.
Johnstone had previously slammed the Canadian Femicide Observatory for “retweeting TERF and TERF rhetoric.” TERF is a derogatory term most frequently applied to women who acknowledge two distinct sex groups.
He also claimed the Declaration on Women’s Sex Based Rights was a “roadmap for erasing trans people from public life, denying our rights and restricting our healthcare.”
Johnstone is not the first trans-identified male be given a platform to speak on the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women.
Last year on December 6, the Prince Edward Island Advisory Council on the Status of Women invited Anastasia Preston, a biological male who identifies as a woman, to speak on “gender-based violence” at a vigil honoring the women murdered in the École Polytechnique massacre.
Preston, a “trans community outreach coordinator” at a sexually transmitted disease resource service, became the subject of widespread outrage on social media after he was interviewed by the Prince Edward Island branch of the CBC and claimed that trans-identified males were not given enough opportunities to speak on violence against women.
“For decades, trans women have been kept out of the conversation around gender-based violence,” Preston was quoted as saying, going on to assert that he intended to “speak about some of [his] experiences of harassment on P.E.I.” at the event memorializing the 14 women who were murdered.
After the article began to circulate, CBC P.E.I was so inundated with backlash they had to turn off their Twitter comment section. Johnstone defended Preston at the time, calling him a “hero and a champion.”
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