- The Vancouver Public Library sent a letter to organizers of a January 10 event — Gender identity ideology and women’s rights: A talk and Q & A with Feminist Current’s Meghan Murphy — demanding the event time be changed to 9:30PM (after hours) and that organizers pay $2000 in additional security fees. The Justice Centre has responded on the organizers’ behalf. In a press release they say:
“The Justice Centre’s letter, sent on December 14, 2018, notes that the Library is a government-run institution that is subject to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including an obligation to protect and uphold section 2(b) – freedom of expression. As a government entity, it was improper to issue a statement taking sides in a societal debate, and publicly stating that the Library disagreed with Ms. Murphy. That is not the role of the state or of any public body such as the Vancouver Public Library.
The letter further explains that the Library is not lawfully permitted to limit expression except in accordance with the hate speech provisions contained in section 319 of the Criminal Code, or if the expression is so obscene or indecent as to cause harm incompatible with society’s proper functioning. The Library has acknowledged that there is “no indication” that Meghan Murphy will engage in criminal hate speech during her event.”
- The 2017 UK Femicide Census, put out by Women’s Aid, reveals that 76 per cent of women killed last year knew their attacker. A woman was killed every four days in England and Wales by a current or former male partner.
- A UK millionaire, John Broadhurst, has been sentenced to less than four years in prison for the brutal beating death of his girlfriend, Natalie Connolly. He was charged with murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter, claiming that the 40 injuries she suffered were due to consensual “rough sex.”
- In Spain, the murder of Laura Luelmo — a 26-year-old teacher who went missing last week — has sparked a social campaign against male violence.
- In India, a group of 30 women from Chennai are preparing a trip to the Sabarimala temple of Lord Ayyappa in Kerala to protect the right granted to female worshippers of menstrual age by the Supreme Court to worship alongside male devotees.