Trans Activists Crash Maxime Bernier, Meghan Murphy’s Transphobic Party

Three dozen protesters engaged We Unify at the Mosaic Oaklands Chapel in Victoria to counter its latest speaker series event featuring two notorious transphobes, namely Maxime Bernier and Meghan Murphy.

The protest was organised by 1 Million Voices For Inclusion, which has scuffled with We Unify and Vancouver Island Speaks! multiple times already, the latest a demonstration at the Royal Canadian Legion’s Victoria branch office against Murphy holding a completely unhinged conference denouncing queer activists’ ‘woke imperialism’ and comparing them to the Nazi and the KKK.

Wary of venue cancellations and protests which are to be expected at controversial events, We Unify only revealed its location less than two days in advance, and fell back to the Oaklands Chapel as it probably is the only facility in town that will not bow to outside pressure. Nevertheless, they may not have been expecting us to come back since they erected a tent on the lawn outside, most likely intending to hold some kind of reception there, although they obviously had to abandon the idea the moment they saw us coming.

By ‘us’ I actually mean some black bloc anarchist faction which arrived ahead of our group, without coordinating with us, and their plan, or lack thereof, was a significant departure from our own. While we had prepared for a peaceful protest along the lines of our previous encounter at the Chapel, these folks were so angry that they wanted to just barge in. I told them that while I am the kind of guy that would indeed barge in and disrupt the event (which was the plan at the We Unify conference), our group would not do so without the right plan, while another member expressed concern their actions could be a stain on the queer community’s reputation.

There was a brief standoff between the ninjas and the event’s security, at the conclusion of which the latter called the police. Five police officers did arrive at the scene, but by then the group had stepped back from the lawn to the sidewalk and there was nothing the cops could do about it, so they left shortly afterwards with minimal interaction.

While Meghan Murphy was nowhere to be seen tonight, People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier did engage with us, regurgitating the sugarcoated party line that transgender minors shouldn’t be indoctrinated into gender affirming therapy by ideologues such as ourselves. The attendance attempted in vain to educate him about the treatment options, while being unimpressed by his grasp of the rudiments of human biology.

Reactions from the guests was mixed. Some would engage in civil discourse with us, whereas a few were openly hostile. One even threatened retaliation against whoever filed a sexual assault complaint against Shawn Shirazi at the We Unify conference in June, while another’s bizarre rant included the words “chopped you all into little pieces.”

As with last time, there were some guests who had come to listen to COVID stuff and had no idea some of the speakers were notorious transphobes. One was an old lady who had come to listen to Dr. Charles Hoffe for his opinion on vaccine injuries, and knew nothing about Meghan Murphy’s Vancouver Island Speaks! events. She stated she didn’t like division and demonstrated genuine interested in our point of view, even approaching the protesters dressed in black; some in their group were in the impression We Unify folks could only be reasoned with drastic disruption but changed their mind after this encounter. Of course we at 1 Million Voices For Inclusion knew this much already from experience, and we had come prepared accordingly.

I would like to add on this topic that people within We Unify obliviously aren’t in agreement with each other even on core topics, something I knew since the beginning. I chatted with several of them tonight and I bet if they talked to each other they might actually jump at each other’s throat. For example, one of the organisers flat out expressed that he didn’t believe in freedom nor bodily autonomy, statements that would be sure to rile the pandemic freedom fighters who paid fifty bucks a ticket to the speaker series tonight. The best way to defeat them might actually be to divide them, rather than merely butting heads with them every single time, because their alliance may prove just as fragile as that of the Republican Party in the US, and without common enemies to unify them they will break apart on their own.