Who We Are
Canadian Women's Sex-Based Rights – caWsbar – is a cross-Canada, non-partisan coalition of women and male allies working together to preserve the rights and protections of women and girls, as enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Section 15).
These sex-based Charter rights and protections are currently at risk in Canadian public policy due to confusion between sex and “gender identity or expression” as a result of the passing of Bill C-16 into law in 2017.
We call on all Canadians, regardless of political or religious affiliation, to join us in standing up for women's and girls' fundamental sex-based rights to bodily privacy, dignity, fairness and security.
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caWsbar is a proud signatory to the Women's Human Rights Campaign's Declaration on Women's Sex-Based Rights along with over 350 international women's organizations.
Our Mission
We believe that protecting women’s and girls’ sex-based rights is the most pressing social issue facing us today.
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Although sex is a protected characteristic within our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in 2017, the Canadian Human Rights Act was amended to include “gender identity or expression” as a category protected against discrimination (Bill C-16).
This amendment was adopted without substantial due diligence or meaningful consultation with women's advocacy groups.
The reality of such an amendment -- which does not precisely define what “gender identity or expression” means, instead relying on a vague concept of "internal sense" of oneself -- is that a male may simply declare himself to be a woman (gender self-identification), and demand he be granted all of the hard-won rights and protections women have fought for over the decades. This includes the right to access female-only spaces, services and resources.
Such an amendment also means that “woman” is reduced to a meaningless, equally undefinable concept. The harmful outcome of having "woman" or "girl" no longer accurately defined in public policy as "biological female" is that women's and girls' sex-based rights and protections will be lost forever.
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As members of caWsbar, we are committed to demanding that Canadian women's sex-based Charter rights are upheld uniformly and consistently from coast to coast to coast.
Our Vision
We envision a Canada where women and girls can be assured that their sex-based rights to bodily privacy, dignity, fairness and security are upheld both in law and in public policy.
Where women are free to assemble and discuss women's issues without the threat of being silenced, censored, harassed or assaulted.
Where children are told they are perfect just the way they are, and are not treated with dangerous drugs, hormones or surgery because an adult told them they were "born in the wrong body".
Where all men and boys make space for effeminate males, in order to honour the biological reality of the need for women's and girls' sex-segregated spaces.
Where all women and girls make space for masculine females, in order to honour the biological reality of the need for men's and boys' sex-segregated spaces.
Where all Canadians can freely express their identities, orientations, preferences and personalities while at the same time acknowledging material, biological reality.
Indeed, where all Canadians are liberated from gender ideology -- an ideology that reinforces gender stereotypes while denying our sex-based Charter rights.
"The Constitution says that the Charter takes priority over all other legislation in Canada because it is part of the 'supreme law of Canada.' It applies to all government action, meaning to the provincial legislatures and Parliament, and to everything done under their authority."
Department of Justice, Government of Canada website