Just Not Ready: Canada’s Male Politicians Are Clueless About Women’s Issues

On Tuesday, it came to light that Regina police saw "no indication of foul play" after a 29-year-old Indigenous sex worker was found dead at the foot of a ten-storey laundry chute.

That's the only comment they've made, and when she died nine months ago, they used police speak and vagaries to attempt to bury their lack of investigation.

Police claimed in a statement that the investigation was still open, and yet there is still no toxicology report, and the final autopsy report is not yet complete.

Violence against women, especially Indigenous women, is pervasive in this country, and yet Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau made no mention of that just the day before, when he was asked why so many young men are so misogynistic. Instead, it seems he relied on what Toronto journalist and Toronto Star columnist Desmond Cole calls "well-worn stereotypes about black people."

"There is a lot of misogyny in certain types of music," Trudeau said, adding that there are "a lot of communities in which fathers are less present than they have been or than they might be in the past, and there's more need to have engaged, positive role models." He also vaguely referenced "the prevalence" of pornography.

Not only did he dig up harmful old tropes about Black communities (though he later denied he was referring to any community in particular), but he also failed to answer the question in any meaningful way.

This is especially disturbing given the fact that Trudeau uses reproductive rights of uterus-bearing people as a pawn to get votes, claiming that he will ensure all of his MPs vote pro-choice when the topic comes up. But we've already seen this blatant hypocrisy exposed because those pro-choice votes don't have any impact on the provincial level, which governs abortion access: it's still officially impossible to access abortion services on Prince Edward Island, and next to impossible for many people in New Brunswick.

Though his answer was criticized as both racist and tone-deaf, the floppy-haired cherubim did (albeit insufficiently and indirectly) manage to touch on the correct answer: better role models are needed. They're needed both at home and in our schools, and they need to be teaching children the importance of consent and tearing down the "male-as-aggressor" concept. It's so incredibly tired, and yet in Ontario, we have parents yanking their kids out of school to protest the teaching of these tenets of very basic human decency. He might have addressed that had he wished to be cogent and/or relevant. Or, if he was so desperate to talk about issues Black Canadians face, he could have proposed working with women of colour to determine their specific needs in the aftermath of violent crimes perpetrated against them, or addressed the heightened risk of violence trans women of colour are likely to face.

But he missed the point entirely, failing to recognize the real reasons why young men have no fear of being violent against women. Other leaders, and I'll get to them in a second, are also missing the point. Young men are violent toward women because they are living in a space that uplifts a systemic undervaluing of women's lives. They're not taught any better. And so when they grow up, they know there will be few, if any, consequences for abusing women. Examples abound. Have you heard of Cindy Gladue? She died from an 11-centimetre wound in the wall of her vagina, made by the sharp edges of a glass bottle puncturing her. A man, who paid to have sex with Gladue and in whose hotel room her body was found, was acquitted by arguing that the injury was the result of consensual fisting. Then there's Jian Ghomeshi: How long did it take the CBC to cut ties with him despite his reputation as, at the very least, a harasser? And how many women did it take for the claims of assault to be taken seriously?

Trudeau flubbed his chance to address any of this, but it's really no wonder. What did we expect from him? Canada has not had a federal leaders' debate on women's issues in over 30 years—the last one was in 1984. Harper and Mulcair refused to participate in one this year, so the parties' views on women's issues were delivered by pre-recorded interview Monday. (That format didn't do anyone any favours either as the video clip of Trudeau's answer was edited to make it appear as the Liberal leader was answering a different question, when he was actually asked this.)

As Elizabeth May said in her interview, "Here we were on the verge of having a debate on women's issues for the first time since 1984 and the woman party leader who wants to do it is me, and because two men decide they don't want to participate, it doesn't happen."

Harper has always steadfastly refused to acknowledge violence against women is even an issue. Many Canadians and even international groups such as the UN have been begging him to hold an inquiry as to why there are well over 1,000 missing and murdered Indigenous women in this country, and he repeatedly just says "naw." And earlier this year, the Conservatives literally voted against a plan to end violence against women.

And while Mulcair is trying to tackle this issue, his promises are making gendered violence seem more simple than it is. Like, he's going to eradicate violence against women entirely. That's a wonderful thought. And it's important that we have a party willing to try. But how committed can he be if he can't be bothered to show up to a debate centred on the very problem he's claiming he wants to fix? Further, the steps to get there are small and nuanced and they will take time. All children need to be taught about what constitutes violence and consent, and police need substantially more in the way of sensitivity training than they receive now. Violence against women won't cease simply because a federal leader says it should.

What we need our leaders to focus on is creating more awareness surrounding just how prevalent violence against women is in this country. Half of all women in Canada have experienced physical or sexual violence at least once. Every six days, a woman is killed by her intimate partner. If women die violently, our deaths are not usually taken seriously unless we are white. If we are women of colour, Indigenous women, trans women or sex-working women, there is this sense that our deaths are either our own fault, or are completely inconsequential.

Because of the dangers, shame and stigma in reporting these crimes, about seven in ten don't report them to the justice system, but go through "informal" sources of support instead. One in ten sexual assaults goes unreported in Canada because we know police don't believe us. And so we tell other women about our rapes, and out the rapists on shit lists created in private Facebook groups, on bathroom walls, and in our living rooms, surrounded by candlelight, wine, carrots and hummus. They nod, say they're sorry, and usually, they respond with "Me too." Women are the ones policing our own communities.

Violence against women is not born out of any type of music, any type of family. We are all living in a collective culture that fails to value women's lives. It's everyone's fault. If "certain music" is misogynist, it's a reflection of our culture at large. It does not exist in a silo. This culture is the reason women don't report their rapes.

I never thought I'd say this—and don't misread me, I'm no fan of Harper—but his attack ads are right. Without learning all of this, Trudeau just isn't ready. And from what I've seen, neither are the other two leaders in the running.

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