By suppressing speech?
There’s a global controversy brewing around the University of Toronto right now. It all started on November 16th when a group of radical feminists, anarchists, and some students (who said they were sent by their Women’s Studies class) showed up to blockade people from entering an auditorium.
On the other side of the situation was a man named Warren Farrell, and a crowd of people who paid for tickets to enter the event. Farrell is a writer and activist who has written seven books on the subject of men’s & women’s rights. He was one of the most vocal men in support of second wave feminism, and was also on the board of the NYC chapter of National Organization for Women (NOW) from 1971-1974. Over time, NOW became more radical, and Farrell fell out with them. He later became recognized as a major figure in the Men’s Movement.
Farrell is a controversial figure- particularly with people in Canada’s Old-Left- the anarchists and (fringe) feminists have no patience for this guy. What they did gives us a very good example of the world they’d like to see in the future. And, I can assure you, it’s a future that very few of us want to see…
The radicals, as they do, were yelling out accusations that Farrell promotes and celebrates rape, and that the people who were going to attend his speech were sexist ‘rape apologists’. They blocked the doors, yelled bad words and insults while aggressively (and physically) confronting with the police- and some of the Old-Lefties began targeting and insulting the ticket holders.
It’s a scene we’ve seen many times before in Vancouver and Toronto- an act of mob bullying…
There were many familiar faces in the mob. Currently, the most prominent is someone identified as Vanja Krajina- one of the people arrested at the G20. According to a story in the McGill Daily, Krajina was a ‘legal observer‘ at the G20 who was improperly arrested (as many people were thanks to the presence and actions of the anarchists). She had a bottle of saline for her contact lenses, and a vinegar soaked bandanna to protect herself from tear gas. She was charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence and conspiracy to use explosives.
Obviously, if the charge was based on what she was carrying on her person, she didn’t have any explosives. We don’t know what information the police had, so we can’t judge whether she was part of a conspiracy. She has, however, commented on this site before defending Alex Hundert- a convicted G20 ringleader who is currently in prison for teaching Ontario’s youth how to ‘de-arrest’ people from the police. On a side-note, Hundert has been steadfastly supported by well known feminist Judy Rebick.
Krajina has also been actively fighting with Member of Provincial Parliament Jonah Schein’s beloved Ontario Coalition for Poverty (OCAP)- a ‘militant’ group who are closely tied with the unions, Common Cause, and the city’s ragtag groups of anarchists. Here you can see her having a temper tantrum after City Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam refused to accept an audience with anarchists whose home burned down on anarchist “Flagpole” Alex Balch’s beloved George Street.
(Click to expand- then click again)
It’s not that hard to imagine why Wong-Tam didn’t want to include the anarchists in the meeting- they have a history of causing disruptions, breaking things, and disrespecting everyone around them.She’s obviously learned the lesson that politicians like the NDP’s David Eby, Jonah Schein and MP Andrew Cash still need to learn. This is not the sort of behaviour that’s conducive to building a solid and civil society.
Anyhow, back to the incident at UofT. There was a video taken during this debacle (at the bottom of this article), and it’s caused quite the stir in the online world. Krajina is one of the major stars of the video- she was obviously there for more than just blocking the doors. Instead, she started stalking some of the ticket holders, swearing and yelling insults at them.
Here’s what she said to some poor ticket holder:
“You should be ashamed of yourself- you’re fucking scum. Fucking rape apologist, incest supporting, women hating, fucking scum.”
She then displayed that she has an abysmal understanding of logic:
“Why do you pay money to to fucking for, a fucking rape apologist if rape apologist if you aren’t, fucking, one!”
At 1:21 on the video you will see Marque Brill from the Ontario Coalition of Poverty (OCAP)- he’s a leader with ‘Black Bloc’ types who busted Toronto up during the G20. According to CausePimps.ca, Brill is a paid protester, he’s OCAP’s webmaster, and he was involved in the contemptuous takeover/shutdown of Ryerson University’s CKLN radio. There’s also an interesting story about his dodgy use of someone’s credit card. CausePimps also says he’s a close associate of Andy Lehrer– a man who followed me on Twitter shortly before I published this story, then unfollowed me shortly after.
He didn’t respond- guess he’s feeling shy now…
At 2:08, on the far-left side of the video, we can see Julian Ichim – he’s one of Toronto’s least savoury anarchists who recently participated in interrupting Remembrance day with a couple of Afghani radical women. Canada’s radical website rabble.ca promoted the two women after they did this. Judy Rebick was a founder of Rabble.ca- they’ve been known to publish outright slander.
Amanda Lickers is on the video at 2:18. More recently, she was a speaker at Zach Ruiter’s anti-nuclear meeting over the GE-Hitachi plant in West Toronto. That’s the anarchist-led meeting MPP Jonah Schein and MP Andrew Cash attended together.
Anarchist CUPE leader and schoolteacher Ashleigh Ingle shows up on the video (for real this time, I promise) yelling out at a cop at 3:14 in the video, later, at 3:31 she yells out “fucking pigs” to the cops. In-between you will see her right up-front as the lines of radicals pushed their way into the police. It’s my understanding that she’s a PhD student at the UofT- it looks like she is going to have some explaining to do. (She also wrote an interesting article about the Canadian Federation of Students recently).
It seems that may just happen. The UofT’s Provost’s office published a letter about this incident today– it appears that he’s frowning about the events that occurred at the university that night. Here’s what he had to say about them:
“The vast majority of the University of Toronto community understands that freedom of expression is vital to the mission of universities and cannot be reserved for those with whom one agrees. It is therefore heartening that many members of our community with otherwise divergent views have recognized that the disruption of this event by protesters was a threat to free speech.”
And they’re right. The entire premise of the protest was to shame and stop people from going into Farrell’s speaking engagement. The people behind the protest feel that Farrell doesn’t have the right to speak his mind. If you watch Farrell’s lecture, there’s nothing he said that matched what the protesters said about him. There was nothing said that could be construed as hate speech- at least, not inside the auditorium.
The Old-Left dominated University of Toronto’s Student Union made a statement about the event- framing Farrell as a monster, and the protesters as heroes. They labelled the protesters as conducting an ‘information picket’ in-front of the event- despite the fact the video shows they were (admittedly) blocking people from entering the event. Their level of misrepresentation has only been beaten when the Quebec student union KLASSE lied about the number of people at a student protest (a lie brought to us through Rebick’s beloved Rabble.ca).
One of the reasons that this story has become so big is because it was picked-up by a popular Men’s Movement website called A Voice For Men. They were, justly, disgusted by what happened at this protest- they, as well as the Provost’s office and most reasonable people understood that there was an injustice here, and they’ve shared the story with the world. This site is very popular.
There’s a very heated discussion going on in the comments for this article- and it appears that many people are out for blood. There are some good, and some bad assumptions and plans being made. One of their reader’s natural instincts is to make an example of Vanja Krajina. It wound’t be the first time this happened.
Probably the most well-known instance of this was with Vancouver Schoolteacher Sasha Wiley-Shaw (Why is it always teachers? Should we be concerned about that?) in Vancouver. Wiley-Shaw first came to public attention misrepresenting the injuries she sustained while being arrested at the Casseroles protests in Vancouver where they ‘marched in solidarity’ for the Quebec student strikes. More recently, she was caught on a video cutting-down positively worded Men’s Right’s posters on the side of a construction site in Vancouver. (The posters were placed with permission)
A video was made about Wiley-Shaw by Myerku Media– he assigned her the nickname Creepy Bittergrrl. The video made a number of very valid points, and was right on-the-money in many ways. It was a very well-produced video too- with the exception that it includes a couple of animated dildos. So, it was a bit controversial. Wiley-Shaw is now a globally known name. People are speculating that Krajina is about to suffer the same fate.
Personally, I believe that would be energy misspent. Yes, there should be a discussion about the individuals involved- they were engaged in a public demonstration where there were dozens of people taking pictures with cameras and cellphones. But, overall, the focus should be on the core problem- the bullies who have been terrorizing people on the streets of Toronto. This was not an isolated incident- it’s an ongoing pattern.
The University and City of Toronto has a serious problem on it’s hands- and, it’s not just this city, the same thing is happening in Vancouver, Montreal and universities across the country. The people behind this, and similar, events have been getting increasingly bold in their attempts to ‘Rabble’ up trouble in our cities. They’ve been causing immeasurable harm to Canada’s indigenous communities, nuclear power activism, Gay Pride marches, Israel/Palestine marches, Remembrance Day ceremonies, the G20, The 2010 Olympics, the Quebec Student strikes, and so much more.
What happened at the UofT that day is just one side of how this group of bullies operates. Their violence extends long past the protest. They engage in coordinated character assassinations, cyber bullying, calls to friends and family, and physical attacks. People who disagree with them are often left having to literally watch their backs while they walk through Toronto’s streets.
Ashleigh Ingle’s ex-partner, Brandon Gray once described how one of these organizations worked like an obedience cult. They don’t just rip-up the people they are opposing- they are also continually mauling non-conformists within their ranks. These groups prey on the young, naïve, poor, indigenous, new immigrants- whatever’s the flavour of the day. They leave a long trail of damaged people in their wake.
The UofT has a number of organizations that have become toxic like this over time. Ingle was an officer in the radical CUPE 3902- a union representing UofT academic staff. The Graduate Student Union’s building has become a centre of activities for many on-campus anarchists. And, now, the undergraduate student union is writes a press release defending the people who were blocking free speech.
This is happening at universities across the country- there was a similar incident at Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University when some people wanted to open a Men’s Centre. Many people believe that the glue that holds the radicals together across universities is the Canadian Federation of Students. It’s common knowledge that their politics don’t match the will of the average student- the CFS has been accused of hijacking social movements for some time now.
The problem here is bigger than a few individuals who misbehaved at a protest. The problem is that Canada has many members of our government, academic faculty, mass media, and non-profits who have been aiding, promoting and/or encouraging people to behave this way.
If I’ve been a bit hard on people like Judy Rebick, David Eby, Sid Ryan, Professor David McNally, Professor Jim Deutsch, Antonia Zerbisias, Andrew Cash and Jonah Schein it’s because I so desperately want to see one or more of them take leadership and stop all of the carnage. Bad things are happening, individuals are getting hurt, causes are getting hurt- truth and honour are becoming a thing of the past.
So, who’s going to take this on? Any volunteers? Who’s brave enough?
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And if anyone did the same thing in their Womens Studies “classes”, they’d be barred from campus for life. It’s a sick, twisted double standard. Something has got to give before Canada’s University system becomes more of a laughing stock than it already is. It’s doubly sad to me because I am a believer in the Liberal Arts and Humanities—but they’ve clearly been hijacked by people with a political agenda. I believe in Education, but the koolaid these kids are quaffing isn’t educational—it is anti-philosophical, violent trash.
Author
It certainly seems to be these days. Our universities have a big problem brewing. It’s time to universities and students to review the value of the CFS too…
Oh, the carnage! People practicing democracy! You’re the one who silences people. I’ve left dozens of comments on this blog and not once have they been approved for posting. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: hypocrite!! (also, misogynist, racist pig)
Author
I don’t normally approve Janell Jones’ postings- she’s a bit out there and abusive. But, considering the situation, I felt her comment is a good example of the lunacy to share with you all…
Greg, I am wondering why this person also didn’t include sexist? I thought that was standard operating procedure to include all of them. Oh, wait, that would have meant using too many big and intellectual sounding words in one sentence. Sorry, my mistake.
he/she did say misogynist. Don’t you know that’s the only type of sexism recognized by these people?
Right, only Misogyny, because that little boy getting the crap beaten out of him by his mother has all the power
Clearly she is just punishing a future rapist. You need to go internalize some feminist dogma, pal.
You mean a feminist writing a misanthropist comment isn’t sexist? BAHAHAHAHA. Just by writing “I hate all men”, that’s just a sexist as a man saying “I love all women”.equally but being branded a “potential” rapist.
Yes, this post is a troll but I haven’t said anything that is axctually sexist or racist. Yet.
Since when does democracy and free speech entail infringing on other peoples rights? Blocking people from entering a lecture and screaming obscenities in their faces, is not democracy. How do you know that you weren’t yelling “rapist” “rape apologist” “incest supporter” to the victims of those things? Just because someone does not agree with your viewpoint or wants to explore other viewpoints and think for themselves does not give anyone the right to be verbally and physically abusive. SHAME!
Author
In the world that these people want to create- this would be a part of everyday life. We’ve seen this happen too many times in history, it needs to stop now…
Standing Water –
“Practicing democracy” means exercising your free speech rights, no matter how controversial. Free speech applies to radical feminists, MRAs, and everybody else, BTW. “Practicing democracy” *does not* include preventing other people from exercising their lawful free speech rights.
I’m not sure what part of that you might be missing.
So some nutlers were nutlers. This didn’t even make any of the papers. I’m a U of T student and I heard nothing of this. There’s no huge calamity here. There were some radicals who were stupid. There is no underlying trend here.
Author
I’ve been watching this happen (often in-person) for a long time now. This sort of thing happens often at the UofT. Obviously, most students there, and most departments, aren’t this way. But, there is a distinct group of people who have been very actively doing this sort of thing for a long time. This sorts of things also happen at Ryerson, York, SFU, UBC, and other schools across the province. It’s also happening outside the schools. Many people have been hurt by this. Obviously not you, but others have.
Oh, and they were violent- how is that not a problem?
Besides, the right to free speech is a fundamental part of the trust students and the public put in their universities. What happened in this instance was much more public than many things that have happened. If you want an interesting story on UofT bullying, read about Antonin Mongeau and his experiences being group-bullied while he was the head of the French club.
Simply put- something needs to change…
Why not just ignore them and let the police do their job? If we don’t give them a voice by even pointing out how stupid they are, then they will get nowhere.
I did my undergrad at UBC and never recall anything there either.
Author
Because this is a pattern- not an isolated incident. Because people are being hurt. Acquiescence is one of society’s greatest dangers…
This stuff happened in 2001 when I made the mistake of joining a lfetist group’s mailing list.
Though I did do the right thing by posting more often on my blog, but I’m not ready to write about my experience in detail because 10 years isn’t long enough to get that brave.
Even posting here does not make me feel like I have people watching my back, but rather that I have enemies waiting t o cyberbully me on twitter.
Thankfully they are too shy to even bother to lead ad hominem attacks on me at GooglePlus.
However, I’m readying myself by meditating on my past experiences.
In short, all I can say is the amount of creational drugs and alcohol that the far left social activists consume is certain to lead to subtle forms of psychotic behavior as Greg and others have experienced, just by being an apoltical documenter.
For example, xhile Vancouver new left people were calling it a night on Sunday after a weekend of partying with their UVic comrades, the UVic radicals were still going out partying.
Oh yes, don’t forget my comments about chronic drug use and alcohol use among the new left as “freedom” in their books means being a ‘decadent hedonist’. If you are going to argue with them, then it’s best to use such a term as it is also used by Communists and even Marxists, including Muslim intellects.
This was a terrific and informative post.
I think the Provost’s statement was too little too late. A month later they decide to make a statement. That statement identifies the root cause of the problem. Had they made this statement on November 17th, instead of ignoring the issue for a month, there is a very good chance this incident would not be the issue it is, or that the participants would need to be outed by a website.
I think the Provost and the University have been negligent in their duties.
Author
Thank you!
I agree with you on the Provost and the university. But, I’d go a little bit further back than November 17th- people from the CFS have been doing this across the country for some time now. This is a problem of many Provost’s and many universities. A good sight to check out would be UndercoverKitty’s. Kitty has been researching and reporting on the CFS and radical elements within universities for some time now and has done a stellar job uncovering them.
I am curious if or how Jesse McLaren fits into your group.
Jesse McLaren is apparently a physician, and socialist, and near as I can tell, just about the only other outside person to write about Warren Farrell. He wrote about Farrell and the pre-speech protest by UofTstudentsagainstSexism prior to the speech.
http://socialistworkercanada.com/2012/11/07/why-mens-rights-groups-are-wrong/
Well, here’s to hoping Dr. McLaren provides better health care than political philosophy or journalistic endeavors.
Author
I don’t know Jesse McLaren- but, he sure seems to create a lot of budgie paper at Rabble.ca. He’s definitely worth looking into. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
“and it appears that many people are out for blood” – Just to clarify to anyone who misunderstands this point, at AVFM – they don’t tolerate violence or threats of violence. They get pissed off but violence is never the way, and never has been with AVFM. They out criminal bigots like the one featured in this article and let society judge them as is. Which Is why I am proud to be a visitor and commenter there.
Author
I was speaking figuratively of course- there are a lot of people commenting who would like to see individuals and organizations exposed and corrected. That said, there are people out there who are as off-the-wall as this group and could do something stupid. We must remind them that the best way to deal with people who behave this way is to simply expose them.
A bit of satire can help from time-to-time also…
One observation I should have made is that all of the ticket holders in the video were exceedingly patient and reasonable seeming people. It’s hard to tell from a short clip- but, their behaviour was much more respectable the the people on the other side…
WOW, you really dug up a good one here, WELL DONE :-) I see all the usual suspects here , doing what they do so well, sadly. I will comment on this in more detail a bit later on as this goes, I think well beyond what we saw here in this video. i think there is also another video of this event online I would like to dig up as part of what i am working on. LOVE you work …. meow
Author
Thank you- I can’t wait to see what you have to write about this. Looking forward to it…
Good for Kristyn Wong-Tam. I always admire politicians who walk their talk as there are so few of them. Wong-Tam is a far left member of city council who is very much anti-Rob Ford. It is good to see she has not drifted into the machiavellian trap so many others have fallin into.
I like that the destruction being done to aboriginal communities has been highlighted. Many people do not realize that most of the damage done to North American Aboriginal communities has been done by whites who appointed themselves to speak on behalf of the native community.
The concept of residential schools even came from a late 19th century activist group called “Friends of the Indian”. They also came up with the destructive Dawes Act which basically forced native to abandon their traditional communal farming structure and adopt free hold homstead farming.
Author
I don’t know much about Wong-Tam. That said, if these people are so dead set against her, it’s quite possible she’s a good egg…
Looks to me like they are trying to stifle democracy instead of practicing it. Protesting a speaker is one thing. Attacking people and trying to prevent them from from doing something legal is not democracy.
Author
They don’t want democracy- they want the world to be run under a hate-group dictatorship…
Well, she is a hardcore leftist who feuds a lot of Rob Ford and his allies. She is also an immigrant lesbian who grew up in regent park. She is the type who would typically support these groups. If they are attacking someone like Wong-Tam then these people are in trouble. This is the kind of politician these radicals need an an ally.
Author
Interesting. I had the feeling she was far to the left- let’s hope she’s one of the sensible ones…
Well, she is also very new to politics. Often the sensible ones are either corrupted or driven out.
Author
Well, if she’s a sensible one- let’s hope that she sticks to it and can push away those who corrupt…
This is madness. Good work Greg.
Author
Thank you! It most certainly is madness…
“We don’t know what information the police had, so we can’t judge whether she was part of a conspiracy. ” You don’t have to. The charges were dropped meaning she is innocent regardless of your smear.
Author
It’s my understanding that the charges were dropped, but the government still has the option to press charges again up until they expire under the Limitations Act.
As do citizens, as private prosecutors.
While I take issue with A Voice for Men, which has some genuinely creepy agendas and tactics (they make a point of not just outing but publishing addresses and like info on women they don’t agree with), I’m glad to see a non-MRA site taking this up. I hate to see them being the only group exposing the tactics of “social justice warriors” and extremist feminists, and I really don’t care to help them capitalize on it for their problematic ideology. That said, these kind of intimidation tactics have been endemic to the feminist blogosphere for years now, and it’s particularly unnerving to see it increasingly spilling from the virtual world into meatspace, as the above U of T demonstration shows, and the earlier incident in Vancouver. (No coincidence that feminist big blog Manboobz has declared its “solidarity” with the U of T idiots: http://manboobz.com/2012/12/12/man-boobz-readers-would-like-to-offer-support-for-a-voice-for-mens-doxxing-victims-in-toronto/ )
There is definitely a segment of feminism and social justice that’s increasingly resembling the nihilism of late SDS and its offshoots each day. That’s an issue a lot bigger than “MRAs” and their detractors.
Author
I’m completely against publishing addresses or other information being released like that- it opens opportunities for people with bad intentions to do bad things.
That said, I feel it’s important that we discuss when things like this happen. Unfortunately, many of the people involved won’t listen to reason. It seems, sometimes, the only way to get them to stop is to expose the behaviour.
We have a big problem with this type of behaviour here in Canada. And it isn’t reserved to activist circles- this is a symptom of what’s happening in our government too. Most of the people involved in these sorts of incidents are uncomfortably close to members of the government. In many cases, they’re exercising dirty tricks for unions, causes and government leaders.
These are interesting times…
To be clear, I have no problem outing people’s names and internet handles, basically, whatever identity they use to do public political work. If somebody like Vanja Krajina acts in abusive ways to further her agenda, it’s absolutely the right thing to put those actions on public record in a way that ties back to their other activism. Like you, it’s simply doxxing I’m opposed to. Then again, sites like Manboobz have been known to jump to accusations of doxxing, when all that’s taken place is negative publicity toward an individual.
I’m less knowledgeable on the how this relates back to Canadian politics, except that the Canadian left, going back to the 80s, has a reputation for militancy. That has its up and downsides, but definite downside in emboldening “social justice warrior” types to engage in outright harassment.
Quoting manboobz (feminist site) is hilarious. Register-her doesn’t post private information, nor did it doxx anyone at this horrific pro-hate protest. The three now added to Register-Her gloated at their abuse of men and boys publicly on twitter and other such social networking sites.
two of the manginas at the protest bullied me while I was at U of T.
Author
Sorry to hear that- it seems the bullies seem to gravitate to things like this…
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