Call it men's rights extremism because that is what it is -- What The Walrus got wrong in their article about CAFE

To ring in the New Year The Walrus magazine decided to run a rather long, and very odd piece about the Canadian Association for Equality (CAFE) and the attempts by its leader, Justin Trottier, to allegedly mainstream men's rights activism (MRA) in Canada.

CAFE, for those unfamiliar with it, and as I have written about several times before, is the Canadian front group for the broader MRA movement generally. While for years now CAFE has tried to portray itself as a benign, charitable organization that is supposedly attempting to help men and boys in crisis, it has overt and clear ties to anti-feminist extremists and to their ideological aims, a point to which we will return. 

The article -- which was penned by no less than The Walrus' editor Jonathan Kay and one of its editorial fellows Lauren Heuser -- portrays Trottier as somehow in juxtaposition to the extremists and as in some kind of struggle against them for the soul of the movement in Canada while acknowledging that, for all his words to the contrary, Trottier seems to not be doing a very good job of this. 

The article highlights this by pointing to some of the speakers at CAFE's recent 2016 conference in Ottawa that Kay and Heuser admit as 'problematic' (another point to which we will return) and by also acknowledging that some of the MRA's most "strident online supporters are directly involved with CAFE."

It ends on a somewhat critical note by stating: 

As rational-seeming and pleasant as Trottier may be, he risks forever being overshadowed by the noisier and more extreme MRA advocates who ally themselves with his cause—some of whom are even given speaking roles at his events. Until the haters get shown the door, the men’s rights movement will never truly come of age.

Given that the article was titled "Don't Call It Men's Rights" this is all very contradictory and strange. It is also inherently, despite the relatively mild criticism on the part of Kay and Heuser, fundamentally a whitewash of what CAFE is actually all about and a bit of a weird decision to dedicate so much space to on the part of what has traditionally been seen as a progressive magazine.

The closing sentence "Until the haters get shown the door, the men’s rights movement will never truly come of age" implies that it is a movement that could possibly be meaningful (and come of age) without the "haters" when, in fact, they are intrinsic to the movement and its worldview. It is akin to saying that a White Rights movement could "come of age" by showing the "haters" the door, i.e. it is absurd and misses totally what the MRA is and what its aims are. Without the haters the men's rights movement would cease to exist.

Much of this ground I have covered before. From CAFE's misleading claims and its campus recruitment tactics to its overt ties with extremists like Dan Perrins to their association with the American hate site A Voice for Men.

In the Kay and Heuser article they mention that at CAFE's conference two of the speakers were Karen Straughan and Janice Fiamengo and while calling them "prominent MRAs" they barely scratch the surface (which could have easily been done with a Google search) of what these two are about. Straughan has a long history as a "contributing editor" with the A Voice for Men hate website and with making outrageous and offensive statements about women. Fiamengo, meanwhile, has written articles on Islamaphobic and extreme right websites and has even appeared on white nationalist radio programs to attack feminism, among the other highlights of her illustrious crusade.

The fact that these two spoke at the CAFE conference says all one really needs to know about any supposed desire to become more "moderate".

Never mind CAFE's attempts to hold an "Equality Day" concert (as if it is men who need equality!) in Toronto a couple years back that was cancelled when many of those involved discovered what CAFE was about or the bizarre interview with NOW Magazine that occurred in its wake.

CAFE and other men's rights groups also actually erase the very real oppression related to class, racism and bigotry, and homophobia that many men face by derailing nonsense about men being oppressed as men or by the mythical concept of 'misandry'.

The fundamental issue with the very notion of the need for a group like CAFE or of the Men's Rights Movement generally really comes through in the The Walrus article when Trottier says "We put aside the question of who has it worst in our society, men or women. That kind of polarizing debate doesn’t help in assisting individual people and families.”

The problem with this is that putting aside the notion "of who has it worst in our society, men or women" means ignoring the existence of systemic sexism and misogyny and amounts to a fundamental denial of the historic and continuing inequality of women, never mind the shocking prevalence of male violence both against women and generally, and the reality of rape culture. There is absolutely no doubt "who has it worst in our society" and it is inherently reactionary and misogynist to imply that there is even a question about this of any kind on a societal level. Doing so is both dangerous and harmful to countless "individual people and families" most especially women and children.

It is incredibly important not to put this reality aside in any discussion of "equality" and it is only polarizing to those who oppose the very need for a feminist movement or for a continued fight for women's rights.

It is through this type of obfuscation and pretend "moderation" that Trottier and CAFE continue to both be totally entwined with the extremists while peddling what amount to thinly veiled denials of the actual reality of our male supremacist society and the ongoing struggle for women's equality.

Further Reading:

Lies our fathers told us: The men's rights movement and campus-based misogyny

A Voice for Men's new Canadian misogynist campaign, CAFE and Ryerson University

Dan Perrins, CAFE & Canada's Men's Rights movement

Mainstreaming misogyny: Canada's new charitable hate movement, CAFE

Guess what's coming to U of T: The Men's Rights Movement, Janice Fiamengo and Paul Elam

Diminishing legitimate 'male' issues: Gary Mason, the Men's Rights Movement and the myth of misandry

Anti-MRA Links & Resources

Dan Perrins, CAFE & Canada's Men's Rights movement

A sticker has been appearing on lampposts and mailboxes in my west-end Toronto neighbourhood of Etobicoke (and, presumably, in other neighbourhoods as well). On it a website called antimisandry.com is listed below the claim that "Almost 80% of all suicides are men" and above the slogan "Men Matter".

"Misandry" is the fictitious invention of the toxic Men's Rights hate movement, and its appearance here as a term indicates quickly what this sticker is all about.

I have written extensively in the past about the Men's Rights movement in Canada, including about its false or misleading claims and premises, its rape apologism, its disturbing campus based activities, its dubious choices of speakers, as well as to why the idea of misandry itself is an absurd myth, so there is no real need to cover that ground again.

While the "Men Matter" slogan is a profoundly offensive allusion to other recent slogans of actual civil rights movements, it is also on its own premises completely asinine, especially given how white the movement's leadership is.

No group of people have ever mattered more than white men do! Their entitlement being the very basis of patriarchy and systemic misogyny.

I have also in the past touched on the statistic the sticker uses, which is close to true in a technical sense (it is actually 75%) and seems striking, but actually is, as is usual with the Men's Rights movement, also misleading. According to Statistics Canada, while men are three times more likely to succeed when attempting suicide:

Deaths by suicide, it should be noted, reflect only a small percentage of suicide attempts. It is estimated that for every completed suicide there are as many as 20 attempts. Although males are more likely to die from suicide, females are three to four times more likely to attempt it.  Furthermore, females are hospitalized for attempted suicide 1.5 times more frequently than males.
This discrepancy may be due to the fact that females tend to use less fatal methods, such as poisoning—the most common cause of self-harm hospital admissions—whereas males tend to use more violent methods such as hanging and firearms.

While certain men's rights groups -- especially the pretend "moderate" face of the movement in Canada, the Canadian Association for Equality (CAFE), a group to which we will return -- will use statistics like these or men's workplace accidents as another example, devoid of the full context, to try to hook people in with notions that they are simply trying help men who are suffering or are men's health advocates, once you get to the sites themselves a totally different agenda often emerges.

antimisandry.com is certainly no exception.

From the website's very masthead:

To its long opening diatribe about misandry and against feminism, to charming and truly farcical memes such as this one:

It quickly becomes abundantly clear that the real agenda is to attack, misrepresent and oppose feminism. 

Especially as the site seems closely associated with the vitriolic and rather extreme Canadian men's rights "activist" Dan Perrins who is also a supporter of, has written for, and has been praised by, the American hate site A Voice for Men.

Perrins recently went on rather short-lived and facile "hunger strike" at the Ontario Legislature that blogger David Futrelle looked at at some length. As Futrelle also notes in the piece, Perrins has engaged in some notoriously vicious behaviour towards a Canadian feminist activist who was the target of a prolonged and very disturbing campaign by the movement.

Now all of this would be little more than the deluded ranting and ravings of yet another MRA were not for the fact that Perrins is also associated with the above-mentioned CAFE, which is, astonishingly, a registered Canadian charity! 

Despite Perrins' past actions and writings, CAFE allowed Perrins to go on a fundraising march for it and its newly opened men's centre, and posted his press release about it to their website.

They also gave seemingly daily updates on this trek of Perrins' and posted his statement ending his hunger strike, in which he somewhat humorously attempts to portray it as a "real breakthrough"! 

Justin Trottier, one of CAFE's leaders, also gave a long interview on the hunger strike on You Tube which he opens by saying "we have been involved in supporting Dan from before there was a hunger strike". 

Keep in mind, CAFE is a registered charity, meaning donations to it are tax deductible! 

Natalie Lochwin and I, in a piece on Feminist Current, showed how this situation amounts to an almost government endorsed mainstreaming of misogyny. The piece centred around a concert that the newly charitable CAFE attempted to hold on Toronto Island -- a concert that fell apart after the publication of the piece as sponsors and acts discovered what this charity was actually about. 

Men's Rights activists and organizations, given what a distorted and ugly worldview their movement flows out of, are truly incapable of hiding for very long what they really represent. CAFE's association with and encouragement of Dan Perrins speaks loudly and clearly to this.

It is time the Government of Canada and Revenue Canada took notice. 

RELATED: "Men's Rights" group CAFE is trying to march in Pride Toronto: You can help stop them!