What’s Current: ‘I heart JK Rowling’ billboard erected in Vancouver

  • A billboard* stating, “I heart JK Rowling” was erected in Vancouver on Friday night to commemorate the author for standing up for the rights of women and girls. Trans activists have already vandalized the billboard and begun sending threats to the organizers.
  • Two violent sexual assaults prompt mass demonstrations in Pakistan. The New York Times reports a five-year-old girl was raped, beaten, and set on fire, and a woman was dragged from her car and sexually assaulted on a major highway in front of her children.
  • A group of women in policing fly a banner over the Greater Toronto Area calling for an end to police sexual violence against women.
  • The Advertisements Standards Authority is considering banning social media advertisements that sell cosmetic surgery to teenage girls.
  • A poster saying, “I love JK Rowling” was removed from an Edinburgh railway station, despite no complaints from the public, The Times reports.

*Update, September 12, 2020: PATTISON Outdoor Advertising has taken the billboard down after receiving a complaint from a trans activist.

Meghan McCarty

Meghan McCarty is an undergraduate student and aspiring journalist living in the United States.