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Defending freedom of expression in discussions about sex-based rights, policy, and public debate. Freedom of Expression The Issue: Enforced Language The women’s movement for equal rights has had its share of pushback over the decades. But perhaps in no recent time has the need to express ourselves and maintain our rights, in our own words, been under more threat than in this early part of the 21st century. There is a clash of rights between women’s sex-based rights and gender identity rights (both ‘protected classes’ under the Canadian Charter of Rights). Gender identity activists—backed by some Canadian academics and politicians—have created a narrative that states that any expressed concerns about our female sex-based rights and needs for things like single sex spaces for women and girls (change rooms, prisons, and spaces on sports teams), constitutes a form of ‘hate’ speech. This constant ‘shape shifting’ around the word ‘woman’, and now, the questioning of even the material reality between female and sex classes, is moving women’s hard-won rights backwards. Why does enforced language matter? Language is power, and powerful. People who wish to undo the rights women have fought for over a century, understand this and are trying to re-define—or trying to have no objective, scientific recognized definition at all--around the meaning of the word ‘woman.’ Section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms establishes our right to freedom of expression, on issues like gender and sex. The Supreme Court of Canada has interpreted this right in a very broad fashion. What false narratives do: Go against our Freedom of Expression rights; Attempt to shut down our ability to debate openly and express counter arguments to new ideologies, which we would base on critical thought, material reality, reason and science; At its base, attempts to strip us of our agency as Canadian women and citizens What can we do about enforced language? Women’s Space Vancouver has written a letter to the BCCDC and multiple politicians in response to the BCCDC Language Guide . We can all refuse to use the new language. We can refuse to accept it, and let people know why. We can boycott products sold by companies that use the new language and let them know why. Resources Women are human Pronouns are Rohypnol

Overview of the Cass Review and its findings on gender identity services for children and youth. The Cass Report Kamran Abbasi, Editor of the British Medical Journal provides an overview of the Report’s key findings. A key finding after a four year study is “the evidence base for interventions in gender medicine is threadbare, whichever research question you wish to consider — from social transition to hormone treatment.” In her report, Hilary Cass, sums up the major problem with affirmative care; "a too narrow focus on gender dysphoria, neglected other presenting features and failed to provide a holistic model of care." BMJ Review of the Cass Report The Full Cass Report Talk TV UK, April 10 2024 Bombshell Gender Report with NHS GP and CEO of LGB Alliance (UK) Talk TV UK, April 12 2024 with KJK (Kelly Jay Keen) on the Cass Report UK: Implementation of ‘Cass report’ key to protecting girls from serious harm, says UN expert

WSV members and allies took to the street to celebrate International Women's Day 2022 with a rally to raise awareness of the impact of gender self-id on women and girls. A courageous and brave collection of our members, allies, and supporters took to the street to celebrate International Women's Day with a rally to raise awareness of the impact to women and girls of the BC NDP Government's administrative change allowing anyone by simply filling out a form to self-identity as the opposite sex. Download our brochure on Gender Self-Declaration. International Women's Day Rally March 12, 2022

Tools and guidance to contact your MP or MLA about policies affecting women’s rights in Canada. Contact your BC MLA Abbotsford-South - Liberal bruce.banman.MLA@leg.bc.ca Abbotsford-Mission - NDP pam.alexis.MLA@leg.bc.ca Abbotsford-West - Liberal mike.dejong.mla@leg.bc.ca Boundary-Similkameen - NDP roly.russell.MLA@leg.bc.ca Burnaby-Deer Lake - NDP anne.kang.MLA@leg.bc.ca Burnaby-Edmonds - NDP raj.chouhan.MLA@leg.bc.ca Burnaby-Lougheed - NDP katrina.chen.MLA@leg.bc.ca Burnaby-North - NDP janet.routledge.MLA@leg.bc.ca Cariboo-Chilcotin - Liberal lorne.doerkson.MLA@leg.bc.ca Cariboo-North - Liberal coralee.oakes.MLA@leg.bc.ca Chilliwack - NDP dan.coulter.MLA@leg.bc.ca Chilliwack-Kent - NDP kelli.paddon.MLA@leg.bc.ca Columbia River-Revelstoke - Liberal doug.clovechok.MLA@leg.bc.ca Coquitlam-Burke Mountain - NDP fin.donnelly.MLA@leg.bc.ca Coquitlam-Maillardville - NDP selina.robinson.MLA@leg.bc.ca Courtenay-Comox - NDP ronna-rae.leonard.MLA@leg.bc.ca Cowichan Valley - Green sonia.furstenau.MLA@leg.bc.ca Delta-North - NDP ravi.kahlon.MLA@leg.bc.ca Delta-South - Liberal ian.paton.MLA@leg.bc.ca Esquimalt-Metchosin - NDP mitzi.dean.MLA@leg.bc.ca Fraser-Nicola - Liberal jackie.tegart.MLA@leg.bc.ca Kamloops-North Thompson - Liberal peter.milobar.MLA@leg.bc.ca Kamloops-South Thompson - Liberal todd.stone.MLA@leg.bc.ca Kelowna-Lake Country - Liberal norm.letnick.MLA@leg.bc.ca Kelowna-Mission - Liberal renee.merrifield.MLA@leg.bc.ca Kelowna-West - Liberal ben.stewart.MLA@leg.bc.ca Kootenay-East - Liberal tom.shypitka.MLA@leg.bc.ca Kootenay-West - NDP katrine.conroy.MLA@leg.bc.ca Langford-Juan de Fuca - NDP john.horgan.mla@leg.bc.ca Langley - NDP andrew.mercier.MLA@leg.bc.ca Langley-East - NDP megan.dykeman.MLA@leg.bc.ca Maple Ridge-Mission - NDP bob.deith.MLA@leg.bc.ca Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows - NDP lisa.beare.MLA@leg.bc.ca Mid Island-Pacific Rim - NDP josie.osborne.MLA@leg.bc.ca Nanaimo - NDP sheila.malcolmson.MLA@leg.bc.ca Nanaimo-North Cowichan - NDP douglas.routley.MLA@leg.bc.ca Nechako Lakes - Liberal john.rustad.MLA@leg.bc.ca Nelson-Creston - NDP brittny.anderson.MLA@leg.bc.ca New Westminster - NDP jennifer.whiteside.MLA@leg.bc.ca North Coast - NDP jennifer.rice.MLA@leg.bc.ca North Island - NDP michele.babchuk.MLA@leg.bc.ca North Vancouver-Lonsdale - NDP bowinn.ma.MLA@leg.bc.ca North Vancouver-Seymour - NDP susie.chant.MLA@leg.bc.ca Oak Bay-Gordon Head - NDP murray.rankin.MLA@leg.bc.ca Parksville-Qualicum - NDP adam.walker.MLA@leg.bc.ca Peace River-South - Liberal mike.bernier.MLA@leg.bc.ca Peace River-North - Liberal dan.davies.MLA@leg.bc.ca Penticton - Liberal dan.ashton.MLA@leg.bc.ca Port Coquitlam - NDP mike.farnworth.MLA@leg.bc.ca Port Moody-Coquitlam - NDP rick.glumac.MLA@leg.bc.ca Powell River-Sunshine Coast - NDP nicholas.simons.MLA@leg.bc.ca Prince George-Mackenzie - Liberal mike.morris.MLA@leg.bc.ca Prince George-Valemount - Liberal shirley.bond.MLA@leg.bc.ca Richmond-North Centre - Liberal teresa.wat.MLA@leg.bc.ca Richmond-Queensborough - NDP aman.singh.MLA@leg.bc.ca Richmond-South Centre - NDP henry.yao.MLA@leg.bc.ca Richmond-Steveston - NDP kelly.greene.MLA@leg.bc.ca Saanich-North and the Islands - Green adam.olsen.MLA@leg.bc.ca Saanich-South - NDP lana.popham.MLA@leg.bc.ca Shuswap - Liberal greg.kyllo.MLA@leg.bc.ca Skeena - Liberal ellis.ross.MLA@leg.bc.ca Stikine - NDP nathan.cullen.MLA@leg.bc.ca Surrey-Cloverdale - NDP mike.starchuk.MLA@leg.bc.ca Surrey-Fleetwood - NDP jagrup.brar.MLA@leg.bc.ca Surrey-Green Timbers - NDP rachna.singh.MLA@leg.bc.ca Surrey-Guildford - NDP garry.begg.MLA@leg.bc.ca Surrey-Newton - NDP harry.bains.MLA@leg.bc.ca Surrey-Panorama - NDP jinny.sims.MLA@leg.bc.ca Surrey-South - Liberal stephanie.cadieux.MLA@leg.bc.ca Surrey-Whalley - NDP bruce.ralston.MLA@leg.bc.ca Surrey-White Rock - Liberal trevor.halford.MLA@leg.bc.ca Vancouver-Fairview - NDP george.heyman.MLA@leg.bc.ca Vancouver-False Creek - NDP brenda.bailey.MLA@leg.bc.ca Vancouver-Fraserview - NDP george.chow.MLA@leg.bc.ca Vancouver-Hastings - NDP niki.sharma.MLA@leg.bc.ca Vancouver-Kensington - NDP mable.elmore.MLA@leg.bc.ca Vancouver-Kingsway - NDP adrian.dix.MLA@leg.bc.ca Vancouver-Langara - Liberal michael.lee.MLA@leg.bc.ca Vancouver-Mount Pleasant - NDP melanie.mark.mla@leg.bc.ca Vancouver-Point Grey - NDP david.eby.MLA@leg.bc.ca Vancouver-Quilchena - Liberal andrew.wilkinson.MLA@leg.bc.ca Vancouver-West End - NDP s.chandraherbert.MLA@leg.bc.ca Vernon-Monashee - NDP harwinder.sandhu.MLA@leg.bc.ca Victoria-Beacon Hill - NDP grace.lore.MLA@leg.bc.ca Victoria-Swan Lake - NDP rob.fleming.MLA@leg.bc.ca West Vancouver-Capilano - Liberal karin.kirkpatrick.MLA@leg.bc.ca West Vancouver-Sea to Sky - Liberal jordan.sturdy.MLA@leg.bc.ca Contact your BC MP Abbotsford - Conservative ed.fast@parl.gc.ca Burnaby-North Seymour - Liberal Terry.Beech@parl.gc.ca Burnaby-South - NDP Jagmeet.Singh@parl.gc.ca Cariboo-Prince George - Conservative Todd.Doherty@parl.gc.ca Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola - Conservative Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca Chilliwack-Hope - Conservative Mark.Strahl@parl.gc.ca Cloverdale-Langley City - Conservative tamara.jansen@parl.gc.ca Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam - Liberal Ron.McKinnon@parl.gc.ca Courtenay-Alberni - NDP Gord.Johns@parl.gc.ca Cowichan-Malahat-Langford - NDP Alistair.MacGregor@parl.gc.ca Delta - Liberal Carla.Qualtrough@parl.gc.ca Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke - NDP Randall.Garrison@parl.gc.ca Fleetwood-Port Kells - Liberal Ken.Hardie@parl.gc.ca Kamloops-Thompson Caribo o - Conservative cathy.mcleod@parl.gc.ca Kelowna-Lake Country - Conservative Tracy.Gray@parl.gc.ca Kootenay-Columbia - Conservative Rob.Morrison@parl.gc.ca Langley-Aldergrove - Conservative Tako.VanPopta@parl.gc.ca Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon - Conservative Brad.Vis@parl.gc.ca Nanaimo-Ladysmith - Green Party Paul.Manly@parl.gc.ca New Westminster-Burnaby - NDP peter.julian@parl.gc.ca North Island-Powell River - NDP Rachel.Blaney@parl.gc.ca North Okanagan-Shuswap - Conservative Mel.Arnold@parl.gc.ca North Vancouver - Liberal Jonathan.Wilkinson@parl.gc.ca Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge - Conservative Marc.Dalton@parl.gc.ca Port Moody-Coquitlam - Conservative Nelly.Shin@parl.gc.ca Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies - Conservative Bob.Zimmer@parl.gc.ca Richmond-Centre - Conservative alice.wong@parl.gc.ca Saanich-Gulf Islands - Green Party Elizabeth.May@parl.gc.ca Skeena-Bulkley Valley - NDP Taylor.Bachrach@parl.gc.ca South Okanagan-West Kootenay - NDP Richard.Cannings@parl.gc.ca South Surrey-White Rock - Conservative kerry-lynne.findlay@parl.gc.ca Steveston-Richmond East - Conservative Kenny.Chiu@parl.gc.ca Surrey-Centre - Liberal Randeep.Sarai@parl.gc.ca Surrey-Newton - Liberal Sukh.Dhaliwal@parl.gc.ca Vancouver-Centre - Liberal hedy.fry@parl.gc.ca Vancouver-East - NDP Jenny.Kwan@parl.gc.ca Vancouver-Granville - Independent Jody.Wilson-Raybould@parl.gc.ca Vancouver-Kingsway - NDP don.davies@parl.gc.ca Vancouver-Quadra - Liberal joyce.murray@parl.gc.ca Vancouver-South - Liberal Harjit.Sajjan@parl.gc.ca Victoria - NDP Laurel.Collins@parl.gc.ca West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky - Liberal Patrick.Weiler@parl.gc.ca

Highlights and reflections from International Women’s Day 2022 events and advocacy efforts in Vancouver. International Women's Day 2022 - Letter to BC Legislative Assembly Dear Member of the Legislative Assembly, Happy International Women's Day! We are Women's Space Vancouver, writing on this important day of international solidarity for women to raise a concern with you regarding women's safety. Recently, the BC Government implemented a change to allow men or women to identify as the opposite sex (or neither) on official government documents . This change was enacted without consultation or consideration of its consequences on the safety of women. Women have good reasons to have safety concerns. In Canada, one woman dies every three days at the hands of an abuser. Rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and violence from men are prevalent in the daily lives of many women, particularly in the lives of Indigenous and Asian women. The government may have had good intentions, but this change in government policy has given sex offenders and predatory men a welcome mat into women's intimate spaces. The threat posed now is that any predatory male who feels entitled to women's bodies can access all spaces reserved for women by a simple self-declaration. There are solutions to ensure the safety of everyone, such as providing gender neutral as well as male and female designated washrooms. The government's change of policy is not acceptable because their effort to provide safety for some has resulted in a lack of safety for many others. We enclose our brochure outlining other problems inherent in this ill-conceived policy change that affects the rights, needs, safety and sensibilities of women. We would like to discuss this situation further and request a meeting with you at your earliest convenience. Download our brochure on Gender Self-Declaration

Information and commentary on UN Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem and her work on violence against women. Reem Alsalem on the definition of woman The definition of woman is common sense and been used for hundreds of years without a concern or question as to its meaning, legally or otherwise. However, in the era of gender ideology and its effort to insert new definitions to our language, adding confusion and uncertainty to the rights of women and children, sadly, such an assertion had to be made by the UN Rapporteur, Reem Alsalem. In fact, she went back into the history of the development of women’s rights at the UN level to find multiple sources to support the biological definition of women. Women worldwide are grateful for her vigilant work. Here’s her statement: April 4, 2024, Position paper on the definition of “woman” in international human rights treaties, in particular the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

Examining concerns about sexual boundaries, education, and safeguarding children in school environments. We Are Failing Our Kids: A Wake-Up Call. From a retired public-school teacher with 35 years of experience. Photo: Duy Pham - Unsplash For several years I have been following the evidence of rape culture* in our public schools in British Columbia. The evidence is being mostly revealed by female secondary students and they have gone public; holding protests outside their high schools and demanding meetings with school board officials. In 2022, several protests and at least one petition were reported in local media. Parents are also involved . The Parent Advisory Committee (PAC), in the Comox Valley school district drafted comprehensive resolutions to the 2022 British Columbia Parent Advisory Council (BCPAC) convention to address the ongoing sexual harassment and abuse experienced by female students in high schools. The Comox PAC realized that this serious issue needed to be addressed at all levels of the education system; the Ministry, districts, schools, and the British Columbia Teacher’s Federation (BCTF). Their resolutions at the BCCPAC carried almost unanimously – it appears that nothing has happened since. The sexual attack of a grade 7 girl by grade 8 boys on the playground of her Victoria school was reported in the Times Colonist . The article describes how at every level this child was betrayed. School employees, the police, the school district, all seemed to lack the knowledge or have the processes in place to deal with the sexual attack of a child at school. The girl’s parents were left to figure out what to do to support their child and to get her justice. They have confronted all who were involved and demanded answers and action – it’s unclear if there will be a satisfactory resolution. The attack left the girl traumatized. It should shock us all. Something is seriously wrong. It must be addressed. Children are being exposed to and influenced by pornography at younger and younger ages. Teachers in elementary schools are aware but aren't equipped to deal with the issue. One elementary teacher commented. One of my great concerns about the socialization of boys and girls today is the impact of pornography on their developing brains. I see evidence of porn culture in the classroom often, and it's really disturbing. I think many kids don't even know what they're joking and laughing about, but it's far more adult than what my peers and I were exposed to at the same age. Sex Ed, as we knew it, has taken second place to the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) curriculum. Notably -- there is no mandatory curriculum that deals with pornography, rape culture, healthy sexual behaviour, or responsible sexual relations. The issue of consent is not understood. The coercion in sexual power relations and lack of sexual knowledge, beyond what kids are watching on porn, makes it impossible for consent to be the determinant of whether sexual activity is freely given or coercively obtained. The behaviour described by the protesting female students reveal abuse and coercion is what they are experiencing. No one is stopping it. Pornography, social media, cell phone use, bullying, rape culture, and the confusion some students experience with the concept of identity as promoted in the SOGI curriculum , all contribute to an unhealthy and even dangerous sexual environment. It’s clear our public schools are not prepared to deal with what is an increasingly problematic rape culture developing across all age groups. We are failing our children by not equipping them with the information and emotional strength to protect themselves. We are failing by not providing the age-appropriate curriculum to address serious social issues regarding sexuality. And we fail them by not putting in place policies, procedures, and protocols to be used to address student concerns and reports of sexual harassment and abuse in our schools. The Ministry of Education, school districts, the BCTF, and teacher training institutions must provide teachers with the knowledge, training, tools, and confidence to tackle the hard issues that today’s kids are confronting. Share this article with your friends and family. Write a letter to your local paper, and post it on your social networks, if you use them. Mail this article to your local School Board, the Minister of Education, and your MLA with a cover letter of your own. Copy the Premier. Ask for a meeting with your MLA. If you are a teacher, or a parent, raise this issue and call to action with your staff and/or Parent Advisory Committee. Lobby the BCTF to develop an action plan to address rape culture in our schools. Links to media reporting about rape culture in our schools: Explainer: What is rape culture and what does it look like in B.C.? Debate erupts over sexual harassment, rape culture at NWSS Kelowna high school students launch coordinated protests against sex assault B.C. students protest school district’s sexual violence policy B.C. students, parents call for better public school education about consent and sexual violence New Westminster students rally against high school rape culture * Rape culture is a complex of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and supports violence against women. It is a society where violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violent. In a rape culture, women perceive a continuum of threatened violence that ranges from sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself. A rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism against women as the norm. In a rape culture both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life and inevitable. This violence, however, is neither biologically nor divinely ordained. Much of what we accept as inevitable is in fact the expression of values and attitudes that can change.

Response to Employment Equity Act review and its implications for women’s sex-based rights. Employment Equity Act Review The aim of the Employment Equity Act is to remove systemic barriers for individuals in the 4 designated groups under the Act in federally regulated workplaces: women Indigenous peoples persons with disabilities, and members of visible minorities The Employment Equity Act Review Task Force , among other topics, seeks to redefine equity groups, as they say "How to modernize and define EEA designated groups". This is our group's submission to the Employment Equity Act Review Task Force - you are free to use this in whole or part for your own communication. Via email: EDSC.LEE-EEA.ESDC@labour-travail.gc.ca April 27, 2022 Regarding: Submission to the Employment Equity Act Review Dear Task Force members: Please accept this letter as our submission in response to your Employment Equity Act Review. As this submission also speaks to the Government of Canada’s government-wide directive to default to the collection of gender rather than sex, we copy the Prime Minister’s office on this as well. We confine our response to the first question in the consultation guide: defining equity groups. In general, we urge the task force to define the category of ‘women’ as adult female persons. This is consistent with the way Canadians understood the definition of women in 1986, based on science and medicine, and it is the way the vast majority of Canadians understand it today. It is also the reality of why women experience sex discrimination at various levels of society, in addition to assault and violence. As your consultation guide notes, “the names and definitions of equity groups have not changed since the EEA was passed in 1986. There have been changes in the language that the Government of Canada and key stakeholders use to describe designated groups.” We agree that the Government of Canada has recently introduced new language and concepts, specifically the addition of gender identity into human rights law and the administration of programs and data collection. Significantly however, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has not changed. Sex, as in the sex of a person, defined by government is a protected characteristic. Equality rights set out in section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are clear: “Section 15 of the Charter makes it clear that every individual in Canada – regardless of race, religion, national or ethnic origin, colour, sex, age or physical or mental disability – is to be treated with the same respect, dignity, and consideration. This means that governments must not discriminate on any of these grounds in its laws or programs.” While government has noted that sex and gender are different concepts, government has yet to define gender, gender identity, and gender expression in law, and there are multiple definitions in use. In fact, government often conflates sex and gender in data collection by defaulting to gender identity as a way to include the small minority for whom this is a meaningful category and as a proxy for sex. This creates myriad problems, not least of which is the (perhaps unintended) erasure of women and lesbians. We do not “identify” into our sex. This conflation of the two terms also means that those who are not women may end up speaking for or representing women when they should not. While some Canadians understand themselves to have a gender identity, the vast majority, as evidenced by the recent 2021 census report, do not. In addition, many people think the term ‘gender’ is a polite euphemism for ‘sex.’ While a small minority of Canadians use the new term “cisgender” to identify women and men, we believe this term is inappropriate, unscientific, and is not used as a self descriptor by those it supposedly represents. Using gender-identity related language in questions where sex is the central inquiry poses the real problem of obscuring a person’s sex in data collection and subsequently in accurately measuring employment equity as it relates to women and the specific barriers to employment they face. At best, data conflating sex and gender is inaccurate, at worst it is a violation of women’s sex-based rights set out in the Charter. As you consider modernizing definitions, we encourage you to ensure the Act maintains the category of women for female people to: ensure integrity in data collection and analysis for women; meaningfully measure progress towards eliminating discrimination and other barriers experienced by women; design programs and initiatives that will address employment barriers experienced by women; and respect the right of Canadians who want the government to collect accurate information that reflects the composition of our society as it relates to sex in particular the right for women to be counted as female. Thank you for your consideration. Below are letters written by our members and allies - you are free to use them in whole or part for your own communication. To Whom It May Concern With regard to your recent EDSC post on an active federal consultation regarding Canada’s Employment Equity Act, I am writing with extreme concern about the possible redefinition of an identified group within your policy framework: that of the category of ‘women.’ There must be NO tinkering with the science and definition of the word ‘woman’: that of an ‘Adult Human Female.’ No ‘update’ or ‘modernization’ required, thanks. People born as males and who wish to self-identify as ‘women’ should not act as qualifiers within the category of women or as a definition changer, either as part of the category, or a sub-category of the word ‘woman.’ And women, as a sex group, should not be considered a ‘gender identity’ or a sub-group within our own category. If you wish to create a new ‘gender’ listing for those who self-identify, fill your boots. You cannot change sex biology markers, however. It is dishonest, anti-science and goes against our sex-based rights, still protected under the Canadian Human Rights Act. It is illiberal in every sense of the word. In other words, any movement to replace the category of ‘sex’ for employment equity purposes, or place it in another category such as ‘gender.’ is invalidating us, and unlawful. Women as a sex class—regardless of ethnicity, race and class--are already at a disadvantage with lack of substantial affirmative actions ,when it comes to employment, equity and diversity. You must not muddy the waters by including natal males in our ‘category.’ Further, changing definitions and designations in this way will have immediate deleterious effect in other areas: in spaces like the pay equity act, in sports, in the correction system, and wherever women have struggled to gain equity, security, safety and privacy. To Whom It May Concern, We are writing regarding the federal government's consultation regarding Canada's Employment Equity Act (EEA). "Defining equity groups" is our main concern, specifically, defining who women are. Section 15 of Canada's Charter ensures the equal protection and benefit of the law “without discrimination […] based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.” Section 28 guarantees that all rights covered in the Charter apply equally to men and women. The Canadian Human Rights Act of 1977 states that all Canadians have the right to equality, equal opportunity, fair treatment, and an environment free of discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, marital status and family status. In recent years, unfortunately, many organizations, institutions, and levels of government have muddled the difference between "gender" (which describes societal stereotypes) and "sex" (which is an immutable characteristic). And at least one federal government website references "The Yogyakarta Principles", which undermine the sex-based rights of women and girls and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women. This document also provides a rationale for some governments to adopt "self-ID", which I believe is already seriously undermining the rights of Canadian women and girls, e.g. in prisons. Yet Professor Robert Wintemute, one of the original Yogyakarta authors, now says that "women’s rights were not considered during the meeting where the principles were written and the authors “failed to consider” that fully intact males would seek to access female-only spaces." (https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/yogyakarta-principles/ ) Mixing sex with gender leads to many confusions, contradictions and even outright absurdities, e.g. the document at https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p3Var.pl?Function=DEC&Id=410445 states, "The concept of gender is also different from that of sexual orientation, which is an umbrella term that includes a person's sexual identity, sexual attraction and sexual behaviour." Then it contradicts this statement by mixing sex, gender, and sexual orientation: "The variable 'sex at birth of person' can be used where information on sex at birth is needed, for example, for measuring some demographic and health indicators. It can be used in conjunction with the variable 'gender of person' to estimate the transgender population. These two variables can also be used, together with the variable 'sexual orientation of person', to estimate the gender and sexual diversity populations, which are often represented by the LGBTQ2+ acronym (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, Two-Spirit or another identity of gender or sexual diversity)." This document also uses the absurd phrase, "sex assigned at birth", as does this one: https://www.justice.gc.ca/socjs-esjp/en/women-femmes/Definitions Activists have appropriated the term "sex assigned at birth" from literature concerning the extremely rare number of intersex people who now prefer the term Disorders of sexual development (DSD). Everyone knows that sex is observed, not assigned at birth, and in recent decades can be observed before birth. Defining equity groups on the basis of contradictory, circular, confused and absurd terminology and concepts, and especially legalizing self-ID, will undermine the sex-based rights of women and girls. We already witness this in Canadian prisons, where male offenders can "identify" as female to be housed in women's prisons instead of in men's prisons. Indeed, the Department of Justice's own definition is facilitating this travesty: "Women: All people who identify as women, whether they are cisgender or transgender women." We urge you to reject the intrusion of "identities" into any legislation and policies, and to retain a definition of women based in material, immutable, biological reality, such as "adult female human being." (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/woman ) If you want a more detailed definition, here is one from Heather Heying, a biologist: "Females are individuals who do or did or will or would, but for developmental or genetic anomalies, produce eggs. Eggs are large, sessile gametes. Gametes are sex cells. In plants and animals, and most other sexually reproducing organisms, there are two sexes: female and male1. Like “adult,” the term female applies across many species. Female is used to distinguish such people from males, who produce small, mobile gametes (e.g. sperm, pollen)." (https://naturalselections.substack.com/p/iamawoman?s=r ) Employment Equity Act Review Task Force C/O Employment Equity Act Review Secretariat (mailstop # 911) ESDC, 140 Promenade du Portage, Phase IV Gatineau, QC, K1A 0J9 Email: EDSC.LEE-EEA.ESDC@labour-travail.gc.ca

Learn how to support Women’s Space Vancouver through advocacy, events, and community involvement. How you can help Familiarize yourself with women’s sex-based rights under: The BC Human Rights Code The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Get involved: Write to your MLA Talk to your family, friends, schools, Parents Advisory Councils Join our mailing list for educational events, email us at womenspaceyvr@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter @womenvancouver Distribute our brochure on Gender Self-Declaration

Our letter to the BC CDC addressing public health policy and its impact on women and children. Our Letter to BC Centre for Disease Control Please use any part of this letter for your own use. November 2, 2020 Re: BCCDC COVID-19 Language Guide “New language guide helps to destigmatize COVID-19” We of Women’s Space Vancouver are concerned about the new language guide, which purports to address issues related to the pandemic, but in fact violates the rights of women and children, repudiates decades worth of work in reducing shame and ignorance about female bodies, and threatens the safety of children. Very little of it addresses issues related to the pandemic. This ill conceived guide must be revoked. The Guide was created without the knowledge of or input from the public. Rather, a small group of people with what appears to be gender identity bias were invited to participate in the development of the guide. It presupposes science, medicine, law, and public opinion agree that sex is not binary. The BCCDC does not have the right to make such a call. This kind of politic does not belong in medicine or our healthcare system. The Guide uses political language that perpetuates stereotypes and misinformation. The Guide purports to serves as a tool for “writing about COVID-19 and its effect on people”. Rather, it asks the reader to replace specific and objective medical and scientific language with language it says is politically correct. This has serious consequences. The Guide conflates sex and gender. Sex is a material biological reality. Sex is not “assigned at birth”, as the guide would have us think. It is observed and confirmed. It is because of that material reality that women face discrimination, violence, and oppression. Girls grow up in that oppression and endure a society that forces gender role stereotypes on them daily, including grooming them for sexual objectification by and for men. Sex is not something we choose or anyone chooses for us. Sex has caused women and girls to be treated differently in healthcare, and not always in a positive way. Women have asserted for decades our right to access objective information and appropriate treatment, and to make informed health and medical choices. We’ve welcomed studies and research that will collect data to better analyze the unique needs of women. Gender, on the other hand, has no medical or biological definition. It is purely a set of sexist stereotypes designed to confine the sexes to traits that are considered female or male. The Guide says gender is something you think, feel, and express. Thoughts and feelings can change minute by minute and day by day. Thus, so can “gender”. This is scientifically untenable for a healthcare system – gender can’t be studied and researched when it has no definition beyond the thoughts and feelings of and individual on any given day. Gender stereotypes are harmful to women. To children. And to men. The Guide misinforms, and dismisses women’s material bodies and functions. It skews material reality and alienates the vast majority of people from what they understand of science and medicine. Women have fought for many decades asserting our bodies be spoken about with correct, respectful language in medicine, law, and in the public realm. We’ve demanded our children be taught objectively, positively, about their bodies and respect for their right to physical boundaries. Misinformation and politically skewed language is the antithesis to this goal. Girls need to be able to speak of vulva and vagina in order to understand their reproductive systems, sexuality, appreciate their bodies, and when needed, speak of being sexually abused. “External genitals” and “internal genitals” has no useful meaning. Both men and women have external genitalia. Telling your doctor you have a concern with your “external genitals” will not help a physician provide an assessment. A physician speaking to a woman of her “external genitals” will not help that women understand the medical assessment being made. Further, only women – not people and not men - have female reproductive systems, are childbearing, get pregnant, and nurse children with their breasts, not their chest. Women get pregnant through intercourse with men, not “insertive sex”. Most, if not all, health and medical issues are influenced by our sex. That’s why women have asserted our right to have science and medicine recognize and research our unique needs and treatment, accurately and objectively. This requires accurate statistics be gathered upon which to analyse those needs. This Guide makes a mockery of that critical work by encouraging people to ignore objective medical terms and physical processes and replace them with vague ‘politically correct’ language. “Gender violence” hides the fact that what we are talking about is violence against women. When gender violence is used to replace violence against women, an increasing and disturbing epidemic in the pandemic, it’s not just offensive, it’s harmful. Violence against women, domestic violence, is perpetrated by men against women because we are women. Women need transition services and housing. Women and children need supportive services to flee violence and address the harms. “Gender violence” obfuscates reality and hides the harms to women. It’s shocking that a guide that proports to want to address the pandemic encourages the realities of the pandemic be masked. Language is a powerful tool. It can be used to inform or manipulate. As Dr. Réka Gustafson, vice president of public health and wellness for Provincial Health Services Authority and deputy provincial health officer said, “We don’t want how we say things to perpetuate harms and marginalize individuals…”. The Guide says, “When we write or speak, the words we choose have the power to respectfully and accurately represent people...Words also have the power to perpetuate ignorance and bias.” This Guide will do just that. It will perpetuate stereotypes and discrimination and remove medically objective language. What has happened in the UK is a cautionary tale. Their healthcare system is under serious scrutiny for ignoring medical ethics and letting political pressure influence the treatment of children, creating potential life long damage for many. They also realized that women’s sex based rights were in jeopardy because the distinct needs and services for women were being dismissed. Our women-only organization works to defend women’s sex-based rights. We act to ensure women’s voices are heard, our unique life experiences are understood and respected, and that actions are taken to address the harms that arise as a result of the oppression created by patriarchy and misogyny. We oppose stereotypes and ideology that attempt to confine and define women into “gender” roles, silence us, or make us invisible through manipulated language. CC: BCCDC – Language Guide Project Leader, Harlan Pruden, harlan.pruden@bccdc.ca and admininfo@bccdc.ca Provincial Health Services Authority – CEO, Benoit Morin c/o Manager, Communications Ben.Hadaway@phsa.ca PHSA Patient Quality Review Board - contact@patientcarequalityreviewboard.ca Doctors of BC – Dr Kathleen Ross,President president@doctorsofbc.ca , Dr Jeff Dresselhuis ChairOfBoardOfDirectors@doctorsofbc.ca College of Physicians & Surgeons – President, Bruce C. Bell, by standard mail Provincial Minister of Health – Adrian Dix HLTH.Minister@gov.bc.ca Provincial Health Officer - Dr Bonnie Henry, by standard mail BC Association of Community Health Centres – Chair, Piotr Majkowski majkowskip@douglascollege.ca BC Pediatric Society – President, Dr. Stephen Noseworthy bcpeds@cw.bc.ca

Analysis and response to positions from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives on women’s issues. Our Letter to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) Please use any part of this letter for your own use. October 17, 2021 Dear Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, We are writing this open letter on behalf of Women’s Space Vancouver to CCPA Board Directors, Steering Committee Members and senior staff members regarding a political position recently taken by the CCPA. In June of this year, 2021, the CCPA signed onto a document called, “ An Affirmation of Feminist Principles .” Individuals and groups, by signing, indicate support for a list of “key feminist principles and their alignment with issues pertaining to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics.” As several members of our group are decades long sex-based rights advocates and are also contributors to the CCPA, we are very concerned about the position the CCPA has taken to “align with issues” that leave out the issues of discrimination against women based on their sex. By signing the document, you have taken a position in support of changing Canadian laws to legalize prostitution, that drastic experimental and physical interventions on the bodies of children and teens seeking help with gender dysphoria is not to be questioned and, even more disturbing, that the CCPA agrees that “sex, gender and sexuality are social constructs like race, class and caste.” Does the CCPA actually agree that biological sex is a social construct? Does the CCPA believe that race is a social construct? Does the CCPA believe that homosexuality is a social construct? Is the CCPA not convinced by massive global UN data that women are an oppressed class, based on their immutable sex? Has the CCPA forgotten that patriarchy around the world oppresses, terrorizes and murders women and girls based on their biological sex, a reality they cannot identify out of or deconstruct? The CCPA is a highly respected organization that has gained the trust of many Canadians for the high quality of research done, for the depth of coverage you provide on issues of social and economic importance to Canadians. The Institute describes itself as “an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social, economic and environmental justice.” However, by signing this document, which is clearly a statement of gender credibility. For this reason, we ask that the CCPA withdraw its endorsement of the Affirmation of Feminist Principles. We suggest that the CCPA do some research into the money supporting the gender ideology movement worldwide and the money several of these “philanthropists” stand to make through their pharmaceutical interests. Ask who benefits when children are convinced they need to become medical patients for life in order to be their “true selves.” Homophobia runs rampant when children are told they “must be affirmed as the opposite sex” because they do not “identify” with the stereotypes ascribed to their birth sex. In order for the CCPA to live up to its reputation for independence, we challenge you to provide space in the Monitor for the expression of alternate points of view on the issues of trans rights in relation to sex-based rights, laws regarding prostitution, and the consequences of irreversible medical interventions promoted for children who may identify with the opposite sex or with stereotypes associated with the opposite sex. Finally, the CCPA has signed a statement that includes this: “We recognize that there is no common human experience, including in the experience of gender.” Women’s Space Vancouver regards this as a dystopian, neoliberal fallacy that undermines the solidarity of shared experience in the workplace, home and communities, among women and men, across national boundaries and among the oppressed. We look forward to your response so that we may share it with our members. Sincerely, Women’s Space Vancouver These letters have been written by allies in support of our actions. They have allowed us to share them here. Please feel free to use the content of these letters for your own submissions. CCPA re: An Affirmation of Feminist Principles To Whom it may concern, I am cancelling my monthly donation to the CCPA. As a radical feminist, I no longer believe that the CCPA is committed to working toward equality for all women. When the CCPA signed the document called, “An Affirmation of Feminist Principles,” you signed on to a statement that seeks to change Canadian laws to legalize prostitution, that supports experimental interventions to sterilize children and teens and you agree that sex, gender and sexuality are social constructs. You have become advocates for and proponents of Gender Identity Ideology, that conflates sex and gender, privileges gender over sex, ignores human biology, says we are born with an internal gender, and that makes the sex based category, women, meaningless, thereby undermining women’s protected sex based rights as stated in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The CCPA would have shown an intent to address the category women, an oppressed class, if you had instead signed onto the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 1979. In the recent BCSOLUTIONS Shanon Daub writes to celebrate 25 years of research for hope and change. What is missing from the list of struggles she says the CCPA is committed to addressing, is any mention of sexism, misogyny or the Patriarchy. I am sorry to withdraw financial support from the CCPA. As a long time supporter, and, who has made a portion of my estate willed to the CCPA, I will instead donate to organizations that I know support women’s sex based rights. I find untenable that the CCPA has signed on to an Ideology that undermines these rights. CCPA re: An Affirmation of Feminist Principles Dear Shannon Daub and the BC office, I was a dedicated supporter of the CCPA. I worked with teachers in Burnaby (as union President) in 1996-98 to become members of the CCPA just as the BC office was getting off the ground. I am a monthly supporter and attended many fundraisers over the years. I have included a substantial donation to you in my will. But my disappointment with your endorsation of the document, “Affirmation of Feminist Principles” has brought me to a new understanding of how far you have strayed from being a research organization. Your silence regarding the letter from Women's Space Vancouver was truly disappointing. Surely I thought, if they are going to sign a letter that denies the existence of sex based rights, they will have a rationale or some research that seeks to justify this action. Nothing. I understand it is a strategic response in a world that now punishes anyone who questions gender ideology. Powerful forces have aligned to make it impossible for organizations like the CCPA to raise questions or examine actual research that might identify problems with gender identity ideology or prostitution as a normalized form of work. You must conform or be attacked as transphobic or uncaring of women’s safety. Sometimes our work and our positions take courage. I am truly sorry that you have chosen the least line of resistance. I have been here before. The political left had huge problems when women asserted their rights to address their oppression and not just that of the working class as a whole. Once again, women are being told that someone else’s rights, needs and sensibilities are more important than ours and we must adjust to a new reality—sex is just a social construct—gender is the more modern approach. The worst part is that my “research” organization has now told me that too. So I choose to assert my sex based rights because understanding my own oppression in a capitalist world is how I understand racism, homophobia, colonization and class oppression. I can’t be a progressive feminist on the political left and accept your under researched position that panders to a fragile hold on reality and barely masquerades as analysis. You do good work in many areas. But in this instance, you cross a line—a core value—that means I can no longer support you. Please stop my monthly payments and membership. I will amend my will soon.

Information and analysis on women’s health, including the importance of sex-based data, research, and care. Women's Health The Issue: The medical system has historically discriminated against women The medical system has historically discriminated against women leaving them, misunderstood, mistreated and misdiagnosed. Over time, the limitations of a biomedical view of health as well as the concepts of sex and gender became central to advance our knowledge of women’s health, improve how research is conducted and make health research more impactful on the quality of life of women. Definitions of Sex and Gender Sex is defined as “biological and physiological characteristics that distinguish females from males” CIHR, 2010. Gender , on the other hand, describes “socially constructed roles, relationships, behaviours, relative power, and other traits that society ascribe to women and men.” The current gender ideology denies the biological reality of women, human adult females, by using language that deliberately creates confusion between sex and gender, as if they were interchangeable. This is harmful to women and girls in an alarming and growing number of ways. Why does women's health matter? By replacing sex with gender, the biological reality of women disappears as well as the social reality of being born women in a patriarchy and living our lives in societies designed and organized by men for men. Erasing biological sex, erasing women: language identifying female anatomy and biology no longer reflects the specific experience of women. We are menstruators, chest-feeders, uterus-havers, people who get pregnant and people who give birth. More and more health care institutions are using this language to signal “inclusion” when in fact they are promoting the gender ideology agenda that dehumanizes women. Replacing sex with gender, a concept, not a measurable and observable element, means that gathering and analyzing data will become impossible. Medical research is already biased against women, and now that anyone can identify with any gender they feel males will be able to participate in medical research and surveys as women. Without scientific rigor, based on biological realities, the physical well-being of women can be compromised and many of the gains made in the last decades in women’s health may be lost. Funding for women’s health research has always been lagging and will probably suffer more with the current push by governments and pharmaceutical companies to fund “inclusive” research. As women are gradually punished and chastised for using language describing their biological reality and for expecting female-centered care, the health care system is determined to impose the new policies and protocols. Women are expected to accept to share spaces with males who identify as women, or to accept intimate care from them. What can we do about women's health? Refuse language that dehumanizes us and takes away our biological reality. We are women, not menstruators or uterus-havers. Refer to yourself as a woman – not a cis-woman or a cisgender woman. We are not a sub-category, we are one of the two sexes, women (adult female human) or men (adult male human). We were not “assigned a sex at birth” our sex is observed and recorded. Read up on the differences between sex and gender to feel comfortable with the terms and be attentive to the ways that they are being used in society. Speak up and let people know how you feel about these issue – you can do it through discussion or by writing on social media, writing to politicians, newspapers, etc. Resources Our Letter to BC Centre for Disease Control