By: Olivia Visser, Copy Editor
Content warning: mentions of transphobia, sexual assault, violence, and death.
Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leader and electoral candidate Pierre Poilievre has resonated with reactionary right-wing voters since he first gained popularity in the public eye. A great deal of his campaign has been spent making ill-spirited remarks about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Indigenous communities, and 2SLGBTQIA+ people. Most recently, he’s been under fire for making transphobic statements about children and athletes.
On February 21, Poilievre told reporters that “female spaces should be exclusively for females, not for biological males.” His choice of language is no coincidence. Referring to trans people as their assigned gender is not just stigmatizing — it erases the identities and experiences people have fought hard to bring acceptance to. Of course, his message is even more troubling than his language.
Trans people have been the subject of multiple moral panics for decades now, with the bathroom debate being at the forefront of discussions. The idea that trans folks are somehow more likely to commit crimes in a bathroom than cis people is not just unfounded — it’s actually the opposite of what is true. Trans people are far more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrators. One study found that 36% of “trans and non-binary students” with “restricted bathroom or locker room access reported being sexually assaulted” in a 12-month period. The bathroom debate falsely labels trans people as sexual deviants, causing extensive harm to already stigmatized communities. Proponents may claim they aren’t transphobic, yet worry about cis men “pretending” to be trans to infiltrate women’s spaces. This has been disproven so many times that the argument is negligible. Moreover, why should trans people take the blame for cisgender sexual predators? These offenders should face consequences, but they have nothing to do with your average trans person, nor are they significant in number.
The bathroom debate largely revolves around ideas of “protecting” school-aged children, but it is precisely this demographic that bathroom bans end up harming. This February, Nex Benedict, a trans teen in Oklahoma, was violently attacked in a girls’ bathroom. The next day, he collapsed at home and died later on in the hospital. Police are currently saying Nex’s injuries were unrelated to the cause of death, which is yet to be determined. However, the correlation is hard to ignore. Regardless of the cause, this event is undoubtedly related to Oklahoma’s bathroom ban, which denies trans people the right to use the bathroom they identify with. Nex was bullied extensively for being trans, and forcing him to use the girls’ bathroom was beyond dangerous and unjustifiable. He deserved better. Protecting children includes trans children, and we are failing them by even considering bathroom bans.
Poilievre either doesn’t recognize or willfully ignores that restricting trans people from their preferred bathroom leads to violence — not the other way around. The debate doesn’t just include gendered bathrooms, either. Some parents have expressed concern over an increasing number of gender neutral bathrooms across schools in Canada. Gendered bathrooms are generally outdated, lack privacy, and can exclude non-binary folks. Alternatively, Simon Fraser University has gender neutral bathrooms on the bottom floor of the Student Union Building. The space has multiple large single stalls with doors that extend down to the floor, and thick walls that reach the ceiling with no gaps. The privacy is better than what’s found in most public restrooms, and is certainly nothing to complain about.
An electoral candidate is the last person you’d want to see pushing baseless, fear-mongering rhetoric. Yet, it’s unfortunately and unsurprisingly on-par with Poilievre’s strategy, among many other Conservative party members. Amid his hubris, he also forgets trans people aren’t a monolith. To assume the Conservative voting base has no trans folks or allies is ignorant in itself, regardless of your political views. Hannah Hodson, a trans woman, is a former CPC candidate who expressed disappointment with Poilievre’s recent remarks. “What he has said today just further extends the idea that trans people are predators,” she told CTV News. It’s clear Poilievre has decided to appeal to his most extreme supporters, which involves tossing aside any and all remaining 2SLGBTQIA+ voters. His popularity should concern anyone who cares about equity, considering he currently has 40.6% of public support, compared to 23.8% for the Liberals and 21.9% for the NDP. If nothing changes, we can expect to see a Conservative majority government in 2025.
If you have the capacity to vote in the upcoming federal election, don’t convince yourself that your vote is unimportant. Research tells us young people are generally less likely to vote, but they also have significant voting power. Young people in Canada make up 40% of the federal vote, which is enough to sway an election. Remember that your employers are legally mandated to provide time off work to vote, and you can apply to vote by mail if you’re unable to visit a polling station. The deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot for the federal election will be released once the election is called. Your vote holds power, and can make or break equitable policies in Canada.
