No Space for Hate: Queer Activists Plan Counter-Demonstration in Response to Planned TERF Protest at Grand Valley Institute for Women Kitchener

We are a group of 2Slgbtqia+ activists who are counter-protesting CaWsbar’s anti trans protest at Grand Valley Institute for Women on Saturday, Oct 17th, 2026, 1-3pm.

CaWsbar is a TERF (trans exclusive radical feminist) organization that promotes hatred towards trans Women. They believe in the scientifically disproven notion that there is a strict sex/gender binary. They are opposed to Bill-16 which protects against discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender based hate speech.

Ex-prisoner and caWsbar Steering Committee member, Heather Mason, heads up a campaign to see trans women incarcerated in men’s prisons. Mason and CaWsbar negatively stereotype trans women as a threat to the safety of cis-women (someone whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth). What is true is that in a patriarchal society where sexism is prevalent, all people are capable of causing harm regardless of sex or gender identity; that is to say, there is no pattern of harm against cis women that is exclusive to trans women.

As abolitionists, we understand the prison as a site of colonial oppression where “rehabilitation” exists as another source of coercion. The vast majority of people in prison are from backgrounds of poverty, many are disabled, have experienced profound trauma, been unhoused, and are disproportionately Indigenous and Black. The most entrenched form of violence in prisons is from the institution itself: from police violence and the(in)justice system to the administration and guards who harm, manipulate, traffic drugs, and sexually abuse prisoners with impunity. This toxic culture engenders instances of lateral violence among prisoners, including sexual coercion and violence among cis women.

Facts are:

• Trans women comprise a tiny minority of the prison population (.4%)
• The majority of trans women in women’s prisons are post-op
• CaWsbar represents a minority view on trans women in women’s prisons: most prisoners are unconcerned about this made up issue
• The most dangerous place for sexual abuse of all women and girls is the gender/sex
  binary culture of the nuclear family
• Trans women are disproportionately subject to discrimination and violence in society and this carries over, at an escalated level, in prisons for women and men.

CaWsbar’s denial of the existence of trans women and their demand to place Trans women in a men’s prison exacerbates and justifies violence against trans women. CaWsbar claims that they are “non partisan,” but their anti-trans position is core to far right ideology, their members hold parallel far right beliefs, and they are funded by far right organizations such as the Democracy Fund. For these reasons the Canadian Anti-Hate Network understands caWsbar as the hate group it is.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Develop an individual or group public platform in solidarity with trans prisoners and their rights to do their time in women’s prisons and free from, discrimination, harassment and violence.
• Identify CaWsbar as an anti-trans far right hate group and include CaWsbar as a target for anti-fascist organizing
• Donate to Joint Effort so we can provide gender affirming pen-packs for Trans prisoners

*This statement is written in consultation with Métis Trans elder, Fallon Aubee who has lived experience as a Trans woman in both women’s and men’s prisons.