The Issues

Women and girls in Canada are five more times to be sexually assaulted than males, with 99% of sexual assaults being perpetrated by men (SASHA, Sexual Assault Centre, Hamilton). This disparity in terms of vulnerability and safety is the primary reason for why sex-segregated spaces have been considered a necessity (and, one could argue is a fundamental right for females, under the Canadian Human Rights Act), when it comes to facilities used in public and private sectors, including washrooms, change rooms, and hospital rooms. During the last few years, however, the number of sex-segregated spaces have been reduced, with the introduction of “gender-neutral” (or gender-inclusive) facilities, (i.e., spaces which are not exclusive to either sex, or to any “gender identity”). Those women-only spaces that continue to exist are being rendered meaningless, as any male who decides that they identify as a girl or woman may now use girls’/women’s facilities. Gender-neutral washrooms (and, in some cases, change rooms) can be found throughout Canadian elementary, secondary, and post-secondary schools (e.g., University of Toronto, McGill University, University of Winnipeg), as well as swimming pools (e.g., University of Guelph, Halifax’s Canada Games Centre, UBC Acquatic Centre), shopping malls (e.g., Yorkdale Shopping Centre), as well as other institutions (e.g., CNE, ROM). In November, 2019, Charlottetown, PEI, announced plans for all city-owned buildings to have gender-neutral washrooms. Of great concern to girls’ and women’s basic rights to privacy and safety is the switch to having only gender-neutral facilities. Montreal, for example, intends to open up a city swimming complex in 2020, with only one “universal change room”. Nova Scotia will soon have the first campground (Kejimkujik) with Parks Canada that will only have gender-neutral washrooms. While each of their washrooms will be single room (with a shared hallway), many other gender-neutral facilities in Canada are not similarly designed. Beginning this year, for example, a Winnipeg middle school implemented a 15-stall, gender-neutral washroom for its students, with an open area to wash hands. At the Yorkdale Shopping Centre, the gender-neutral washroom is also multi-stall. Elsewhere, at UPEI (University of Prince Edward Island), multi-stalled, gender-neutral washrooms were recently opened. One could argue that if a man is determined enough, he will be able to assault a girl or women in a traditional, female-only space. A quick Google search on male voyeurism in public washrooms, for example, is proof of that, with one incident this year occurring in Kelowna, BC, with a man hiding a camera in a staff washroom, and another in Saskatoon, where a man hid a device in a gas station washroom. That said, there are also ample examples of men disguising them as women, and entering women’s spaces. In 2013, a Toronto man (dressed as a woman), was charged for looking under washroom stalls at a mall. In 2015 in Edmonton, a man dressed as a woman was also charged, after recording women changing at a recreation centre. To assume other men will not follow suit, pretending to be a woman, now that anyone who “identifies” as a woman may enter a women’s facility, is obtuse. To assume other men will not follow suit, in “gender-neutral” facilities, is also obtuse. More importantly, the fact that there are men who have always violated girls’ and women’s spaces, should not be used as a valid reason for opening up these spaces to them (whether by allowing them to “identify” in female spaces, or to keep creating gender-neutral facilities). Each option allows (perhaps, encourages?) such individuals to have easier access to those most vulnerable, whose rights are being encroached upon. While many claim otherwise, evidence that such changes are problematic has already occurred. In a gender-neutral bathroom at UofT, for example, two different reports of voyeurism were made by female students in 2015, who were showering in stalls. Concern over recent changes have occurred elsewhere. According to a 2018 article by Andrew Gilligan in the UK’s Sunday Times, “The majority of alleged sexual attacks at Britain’s public swimming pools and sports centres occur in unisex [gender-neutral] changing rooms … Nine out of ten change-room sexual complaints relate to incidents in unisex facilities—although they make up less than half of all provision." Human Rights Codes across provinces have now declared that deciding upon which washroom or change room one enters (with even hospital rooms mentioned), must be based upon one’s gender identity, even if one's identity is not “binary” (i.e., male or female). According to the Ontario Human Rights Commission: “Everyone has the right to define their own gender identity. Trans people should be recognized and treated as the gender they live in, whether or not they have undergone surgery, or their identity documents are up to date … Trans people should have access to washroom, change rooms, and other gender specific facilities based on their lived gender identity.” According to The Manitoba Human Rights Commission, their Human Rights Code perceives it to be discriminatory if a hospital places a patient in a ward that is their “sex” but not their “gender identity”; if a swimming pool only has male and female changing facilities (because: nonbinary); or if a trans employee wants access to a washroom they identify with, despite not having transitioned. In Quebec, the CDPDJ (the Commission), provides a specific example of a transwoman’s experiences, as a cautionary tale (photo included): “Kim [a male] is a member of a fitness club with two locker rooms, one for women and the other for men. The director has forbidden Kim, who is a trans woman, to use the women’s locker room because she says she wants to respect the privacy of other women. Instead, the director should have worked with Kim to find a solution the respected her gender identity.” Such examples of placing gender identity ideology over the rights of girls and women are not unique, nor are they painting a cautionary tale. This is what is happening. NOW. Girls and women, despite the Canadian Human Rights Act, despite being at high risk of sexual assault by males, are being ordered to open their spaces and their rights, when it comes to their most vulnerable spaces, to include males. Damn the consequences. Links to supporting documentation of this issue. 1) Government of Canada (has a section of washrooms/change rooms): 2) Ontario Human Rights Commission (everyone having right to access washrooms, change rooms, or other facilities, based on gender identity): 3) The Manitoba Human Rights Commission (mentions hospital rooms!): 4) Quebec (CDPDJ): 5) City of Toronto Policy: 6) Toronto schools (including unis), back in 2017, already have many gender-neutral (including multistall, "universal") washrooms: 7) City of Hamilton, in 2017 (when they established protocol that anyone could use public washrooms and change rooms based on "gender identity): 8) Ottawa's french language public school board, in 2016: 9) Mall Washrooms (Yorkdale Shopping Centre) 10) Winnipeg middle school, has a 15-stall gender neutral washroom--everyone washes hands together: 11) Montreal city pool ("universal change room" only, opening in 2020): 12) UPEI (University of Prince Edward Island)--has mutli-stall, gender-neutral washrooms): 13) Parks Canada (Nova Scotia national park that will only have gender neutral washrooms--will be single stall):

The term "gender-based violence" has recently eclipsed the well-established concept of violence against women (VAW) in Canadian public policy. This shift in focus away from sex-based toward gender-based services – in effect, denying women's sexual reality in favour of gender self-identification -- has resulted in troubling outcomes for women seeking refuge in rape crisis centres, domestic violence shelters and women's addiction recovery facilities in Canada. One of the most shocking instances, so far, of the cruelty inherent in the new gender-based policies is that of Kristi Hanna. In 2018, she was forced to share a room in a Toronto women's addiction recovery shelter with a pre-operative male-to-female trans person. Kristi, a victim of sexual assault and a recovering drug addict, suffered for two nights in the shelter on high alert. “It’s affecting everyone in the house. This can completely ruin your recovery, let alone your safety, let alone your life,” Kristi said in an interview with the National Post. When she complained about having to share a room with a male-bodied person, Kristi was asked to leave the shelter. When a friend inquired about Kristi's rights at Ontario's Human Rights Legal Support Centre, the representative abruptly ended the call when her friend used male pronouns to refer to the subject of the complaint. This new interpretation of VAW as gender-based, rather than sex-based, also has wider ranging consequences for women's shelters in their ability to operate effectively. In early 2019, amid trans rights activists' accusations of "transphobia", Vancouver Rape Relief (VRR), Canada's longest-running rape crisis centre, lost its city funding (representing $34,000 of its $1 million budget). The centre has a policy of accepting only biological females into its core programs – peer-to-peer counselling and shelter services. As the last remaining rape shelter in Canada which accepts women only, the defunding of VRR represented a particularly harsh blow to women's rights and protections. These types of actions by trans rights proponents – which have included nailing a dead rat to VRR's doors and scrawling misogynist slurs on its windows – have served to create a chilling effect on the community which serves female victims of male violence. It's been reported to caWsbar that women's centre workers feel unable to voice their very serious concerns for fear of losing their jobs, and worry that their centres could lose funding and be targeted for abuse by trans rights activists. It should be noted that while VRR acknowledges -- and caWsbar wholeheartedly agrees -- that transwomen also experience sexual violence and fully deserve care and support, biological women (including female-to-male trans people) have uniquely female life experiences and socialization from birth. These factors make the need for provision of sex-segregated spaces crucial to assist vulnerable women in healing from the trauma of male-pattern violence. Links to supporting documentation on this issue. Kristi Hanna's Human Rights complaint Vancouver Rape Relief under scrutiny for holding firm on woman only policy Vancover Rape Relief is vandalized by Trans Rights Activists. Vancouver Rape Relief stripped of funding for refusing to change its women only policy

caWsbar strongly advocates for the segregation of girls and women from boys and men in competitive sport. We recognize the physiological advantages that men permanently hold in comparison to women, by having gone through male puberty. Such advantages include (but are not limited to) speed, strength, and size differences. We are appalled by the changes in policy which have been occurring in sport, with athletes being segregated according to "gender identity", rather than sex. Such changes have trickled down to the school level, with provincial school athletic associations having enacted policies permitting boys and girls to participate in sport according to the gender they identify with (e.g., Alberta Schools' Athletic Association, Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations, Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association). We believe that such policies place girls and young women at potential risk, in terms of their physical safety and injury (both on the field and in the change room). We also believe such policies unfairly place females at a disadvantage with regard to competition (e.g., obtaining medals and membership on future teams, acquiring university athletic scholarships --particularly important for young women who may otherwise be financially unable to attend). Changes in policy have been occurring outside of schools, as well, instituted at regional, national, and international levels. On a national level, The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport have urged that athletes in competitive sport be permitted to compete in whichever "gender" they identify, without qualifiers. Disturbingly, in their 2016 document, "Creating Inclusive Environments for Trans Participants in Canadian Sport", they state: "...it is recognized that transfemales are not males who became females. Rather these are people who have always been psychologically female but whose anatomy and physiology, for reasons as yet unexplained, have manifested as male.” The EWG [Expert Working Group] therefore, in parallel with the Dutee Chand decision, opt against any ruling that might render a female ineligible to compete due to intrinsic factors that are beyond their control..." They go on to state: "The Expert Working Group felt that trans athletes should be able to participate in the gender with which they identify, regardless of whether or not they have undergone hormone therapy..." and stress that because trans athletes "face much higher than average instances of discrimination, harassment and exclusion" in society, sports organizations should include such athletes "into sport in a way that is neither discriminatory nor disproportionately burdensome to them". Alarmingly, in 2018, U Sports (an organization that governs 56 Canadian universities) instituted a policy permitting trans athletes to compete in varsity sports in whichever "gender" they choose. U Sports stipulated that an athlete may only choose one "gender" per academic year, a condition which some individuals have actually found restrictive. On the international stage, in January 2016, the International Olympics Committee (IOC) officially changed their previous requirement that transwomen athletes undergo reassignment surgery, followed by two years of cross-hormone therapy, prior to competing in the women's category. The new IOC policy states that male athletes are merely required to have declared themselves to be female for at least four years, and to have maintained a lower testosterone level for one year -- a regulation that has not been proven to dramatically alter any of the physiological advantages accrued from male puberty. Interestingly, it should be noted that transmen (biologically female) athletes are able to compete as males without restriction. Several high-profile women athletes have voiced considerable concern with regard to males competing in women's sport, including Martina Navratilova, Sharron Davies, Kelly Holmes and Paula Radcliffe. According to British swimmer and silver medal Olympic winner Sharron Davies: “I believe there is a fundamental difference between the binary sex you are born with and the gender you may identify as. To protect women’s sport, those with a male sex advantage should not be able to compete in women’s sport.” (Twitter, March 1, 2019) As members of caWsbar we demand that previous sex-based policies in all levels of women's sport be reinstated, and that any upcoming changes be halted, until regulations are grounded in solid, evidence-based research. To find out more about the "transwomen" competing in womens sports, please see Save Women's Sports' extensive list. Links to supporting documentation on this issue. 1) International Olympics Committee 2016 guidelines for transgender athletes (in particular TWAW): 2) Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport ("Creating Inclusive Environments") 3) USports policy on trans athletes (they govern 56 Canadian universities): 4) This is the Toronto District School Board (pg. 7 discusses sports & going on team you "identity" with--this is from several years ago): 5) A Canadian coach speaks out against biological males in women’s sports

In the recent past, a major step forward occurred when the Canadian government and various organizations recognized that girls and women had been consistently disadvantaged when it came to accessing various resources. Funding for programs, university scholarships, and financial aid started to become available, geared exclusively to women. Since Bill C-16, however, what was exclusive has become inclusive, with girls and women once again placed at the bottom of priority lists. University Scholarships & Grants The Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW/FCFDU) is a non-profit organization with national, provincial, and local chapters. Their “Vision” is to “ensure that all girls and women have equal opportunities and access to quality education…” CFUW funds a range of scholarships and grants, many of which are geared to more vulnerable populations, who might otherwise be incapable financially to further their educations, including: CFUW Aboriginal Women’s Award ($10,000-$25,000) CFUW Dr. Alice E. Wilson Awards (4 in total), for a mature student returning to graduate studies (each $5,000) CFUW 1989 ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE commemorative awards ($5,000 for an MA student, $7,000 for PhD). It must be emphasized that any student who identifies as a woman is eligible to apply, thus substantially limiting the aid available to the students such scholarships were initially intended for. It is worth noting that transwoman Stacey Piercey is a member of the standing committee on advocacy with the CFUW. University-based scholarships/awards also exist, specific to campuses themselves, some providing aid to just one female and one male student. In small universities such as Brandon University (Manitoba), or Algoma University (Ontario), the possibility of aid being taken from worthy women applications is considerable. In describing aid specific to female students, Brandon University’s website indicates that all applicants must be “women-identified students”. Resources & Programs The Canadian government’s Status of Women Canada (recently changed to “Women and Gender Equality Canada”) now incorporates the GBA+ (gender based analysis +) approach, and, in fact, has a GBT+ module that is recommended on their website, with a quiz (you can obtain a certificate if you obtain 80%). The newly-named Women and Gender Equality Canada now includes transwomen as women in terms of any program given or aid provided. Not surprisingly, Stacey Piercey is also a Co-Chair for the sub-committee on human rights for the organization. Women and Gender Equality Canada provides ample government funding for women’s programs, the assumption being, of course, that transwomen are also eligible to apply. Recent grants include: $288,219 to a 36-month project, addressing the needs of women who are victims of sexual exploitation in the Saguency-Lac-Saint-Jean region. $399,977 to a 36-month project, seeking gender equality for women in Quebec City and the Bas-Saint-Laurent regions. $450,000 to a 36-month project, engaging collaboratively with urban Indigenous women across Alberta regarding violence against girls and women. $50,000 to aid communities in Nova Scotia regarding cyberviolence against girls and young women. Elsewhere, large, national non-profit organizations such as the Canadian Women’s Foundation (CWF) have also subsumed transwoman under the woman umbrella. CWF receives funds from the government, private foundations, and major corporations, including Always, CIBC, TD, Scotiabank, and Winners. In June, 2019, the federal government announced that it will provide CWF with $3,000,000 over the next two years, and will “apply a gender lens throughout, using GBA+”. In their program funding section, the CWF state: “We prioritize programs that are designed for women, girls, Two-Spirit, trans, and non-binary peoples who face multiple barriers”. As changes in who is eligible for academic scholarships, funding for programs, or other aid meant for females continue to widen to include males, the future outlook for vulnerable girls and women seems bleak, indeed. Links to supporting documentation on this issue. 1) A list of scholarships/grants/awards given by Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW), which of course includes transwomen. Here's a link to the CFUW brochure (very colourful!): 2) Link # 1 to the Status of Women Canada website (they provide ample aid to programs, and they include trans, nonbinary for "women"-and you can do their fun quiz and get a certificate for GBA+ training!) Link # 2 to the SoWC website 3) Financial awards for LGBTQ students (of course TQ is included with LGB--sigh!) 4) Infomation re Stacey Piercey, the transwoman mentioned in this section 5) Ontario's Ministry of Community and Social Services, which considers transwomen AS women, funds employment programs for women (and we assume there's a cap for each program, the obvious implication here being that women spots may be filled by MALES):

Since 1999 the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) has, on a case-by-case basis, allowed males who have had their penises surgically-removed accommodation in women’s federal correctional facilities. A 2001 ruling by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal determined that CSC’s policy denying male offenders access to “sex reassignment surgery” was discriminatory on the basis of both sex and disability. Until 2017, CSC maintained a policy requiring that males who maintain that they are women but have not surgically removed their penises be accommodated in men’s facilities. This policy was changed overnight after Prime Minister Trudeau was asked a question regarding transgender prisoners during a town hall in Kingston, Ontario, on January 12, 2017. The Prime Minister responded that “yes” he would address this issue despite having never “thought” of it before. The next day the CBC announced that the policy had been changed to allow males accommodation in women’s prisons on the basis of their self-declaration that they are women. The justification for this change is Bill C-16 which amended the Canadian Human Rights Act making gender identity and expression a prohibited ground for discrimination. An Access to Information request that asked for data on the number of males in women’s federal correctional facilities was initially denied by CSC citing “no records”. This response was appealed and CSC provided a transfer list which shows that 7 of 8 offenders who transferred from men’s to women’s federal facilities between June 2017 and December 3, 2018 are violent offenders. Self-declaration of gender is adequate justification for opposite sex accommodation not only in federal correctional facilities but also in many provincial facilities. Male offenders who have been accommodated in women’s prisons in Canada include dangerous offenders Patrick Peasall and Adam Laboucan as well as serial pedophile Matthew Harks. This is of the utmost concern as many incarcerated women have a history of being abused by men. Forcing them to be imprisoned with violent male predators constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. In addition to this the presence of violent male offenders is also inappropriate due to the existence of mother-child programs in women’s facilities. These programs allow young children to stay with their mothers in designated living units. Links to supporting documentation on this issue. 1) The 2001 ruling by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal 2) What happened when Prime Minister Trudeau was asked a question regarding transgender prisoners during a town hall in Kingston, Ontario on January 12, 2017. 3) Some of the male offenders who have been accommodated in women’s prisons in Canada; Patrick Peasall, Adam Laboucan, and serial pedophile Matthew Harks.

Transgender ideology creates particularly harmful consequences for lesbians in its insistence that gender identity take precedence over sexual reality. Lesbians, by definition, are homosexuals. They are exclusively same-sex - not same-gender - attracted. However, trans rights activists insist that transwomen are women and, therefore, that a transwoman's penis is a "female penis." (Here, it should be noted that approximately 80-97% of all transwomen retain their male genitalia.) Transgender activists began gaining support for their agenda from mainstream sexual health organizations as early as 2012, when Planned Parenthood Toronto held a workshop entitled "Overcoming the Cotton Ceiling". Borrowing language from Second Wave feminism (i.e., the "glass ceiling" which represents the invisible barrier preventing women from advancing their careers), the workshop's goal was to examine how male-to-female trans people could "overcome barriers," hence the reference to cotton underwear, and gain access to lesbians as sexual partners. Thus, transgenderism's ideological assertion that gender identity trumps biological reality effectively serves to erase homosexuality. Further, it creates an attitude which encourages coercion of lesbians to accept male-bodied sexual partners -- an insidious new form of "corrective rape" and, ironically, even conversion therapy. Lesbians who object to having transwomen as sexual partners are vilified as "transphobes" and silenced by the very organizations which purport to advocate on their behalf. UK lesbian advocacy organization Get the L Out states: "The LGBT community, including Pride events and marches, are denying the definition of lesbianism, defining lesbianism’s exclusive same-sex attraction as hate-speech. The LGBT community is coercing lesbians to accept penises as female organs and heterosexual intercourse as a lesbian sexual practice." In 2019, as a result of trans ideology having fully captured policy at leading LGBTQ advocacy organization Stonewall UK, a breakaway group was formed. This new organization, the LGB Alliance, recognizes that transgender ideology is working at cross-purposes to the life experiences and aspirational aims of the lesbian, gay and bisexual communities. Kate Harris, a former volunteer fundraiser for Stonewall and signatory to the LGB Alliance position statement told The Telegraph: "The main difference is that lesbians, gays and bisexuals have something in common because of our sexual orientation, that has nothing to do with being trans." caWsbar rejects that notion that lesbians can be attracted to gender identities (trans-identified males). We support same-sex attracted women in their rights to openly and proudly acknowledge their homosexuality, and to set their own sexual and cultural boundaries, free from guilt, coercion or harassment. Links to supporting documentation on this issue. The vast majority of male-born transwomen still have a penis Planned Parenthood - Overcoming the cotten ceiling Get the L out UK website LGB splits from Stonewall in the UK The cofounder of Stonewall on why the LGB split

As of January 2019, the sex of criminals, and victims of crime, are no longer recorded in Canada. Statistics Canada in collaboration with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) have replaced the variable ‘sex’ with self-declared ‘gender’ in the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey. The UCR is compiled from police data and it is a vital tool for researchers and policy makers who seek to understand the frequency and characteristics of crime in Canada. By making this incoherent change, the Government of Canada has undermined the reliability of crime statistics. Labeling male-perpetrated crime as female-perpetrated crime is not only inaccurate, it is obscene. No woman, under any circumstances, should have to endure the criminal justice system referring to her male rapist as a "woman." In addition to allowing criminals to self-declare they are male or female, the new Statistics Canada definitions have created a third category labeled ‘gender diverse’. Gender diverse denotes people who label themselves either both male and female, neither male nor female, or unsure whether they are male or female. Importantly, the government has not publicly announced the removal of "sex" from crime statistics, nor made this information readily accessible to the public. If you want to independently verify this, you may do so by contacting Statistics Canada or the CACP. It would also be useful to contact your local police department and inquire as to whether they intend to adhere to this guideline To see proof of this travesty, check out the great investigative work April Halley has done.