Wednesday March 26 2014, Danielle D’Entremont, a feminist activist who openly criticized the Queens University men’s issues awareness group, reports that she left her apartment in the dark of night and was attacked by a man who knew her name. She informs the world via facebook and also states this;
I was punched in the face multiple times and lost half my tooth. This was after a few threatening emails regarding my support for feminist activities on campus. Take care of yourselves and try not to go out alone.
The chain of events of how her attack was reported as we understand them went as follows:
- D’Entremont made a status update on facebook with a photo, showing some swelling, bruising and a chipped tooth, that she was attacked. Included in that status update was the claim she had received threatening emails regarding her activism prior to the attack.
- She reported the attack to campus security.
- They helped her file a police report.
- An investigation was launched.
- Insinuation that a Men’s Human Rights Activist was behind the attack permeated news reporting of the assault.
The attack did happen the night before Dr. Janice Fiamengo was to give a lecture. A lecture questioning of Feminist Theory, at Queen’s University, where D’Entremont is a student. D’Entremont was a student and a feminist activist who protested this event.
Right now on the original Queen’s Journal news piece about the attack there are over 1,000 comments. Comments from all sides of gender politics. They range from calling her a liar, to feminists championing her and pointing an accusatory finger at the MHRM, and everything in-between.
The feminist position appears to be that it must have been a Men’s Human Rights Activist.
My position, and believe I can say its the majority of the movements position, is: I’m open to the remote possibility it was someone who thought they were an MHRA. Our movement is and always has strongly condemned and eschewed violence, and our record over the many years of doing this has been one of constantly being accused of being violent even though none of us has ever been violent and we’ve made it repeatedly clear we would condemn anyone who was even a little violent. So I say they might be someone think they are an MHRA because our whole movement has been based on non-violence and to inflict violence would be contrary to a core tenet of the movement. However the possibility does exist that someone who thinks they are an MHRA did attack D’Entremont.
If that is the case, no kid gloves or special treatment should be used when that individual stands before a court and answers to the charge of assault. And they should expect no mercy from the MHRM.
I think it far more likely that she was not attacked by an MHRA, because despite years of our being accused of violence, none of us has ever perpetrated any. But what I think does not matter.
What matters is we have allegations / insinuations of someone being responsible for an assault against someone who was only exercising her right to free expression and, like it or not, we are doing something about it. It does not matter if we agree with D’Entremont or not; violence is not acceptable.
Yesterday Attila Vinczer traveled to Kingston Ontario, home of Queens University, and peppered the town with reward posters offering $1000.00 for information (which will be kept confidential) leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual responsible for D’Entremont’s attack. 200 posters were put up and handed out to the locals.
Shortly after this was announced, and before Attila had returned from postering, Paul Elam of A Voice for Men matched Men’s Rights Canada’s offered reward, increasing it to $2,000.00 (Shhhhh, it’s part of our evil plan to “silence women on campus.” I’m probably fired now for letting you in on this patriarchal secret. Patriarchy does hurt and help men after all, right?)
Paul also issued a challenge for other men’s rights groups to add to the reward pot. On that note, others noted that perhaps Paul has not gone far enough in his offer. Maybe feminists would like to help in the reward for the arrest and conviction of the individual(s) responsible for the attack on Danielle. Will they? We now publicly invite them to do so, and if they are interested they can contact us (contact info is on our Masthead).
Freedom of expression (speech) and freedom association is a Chartered Right in Canada and when it is threatened by violence it falls on us all, feminist and non-feminist alike to make every effort to have those individual(s) brought before the courts to answer for their violence. Violence serves no purpose in an open discussion. It certainly serves no purpose in gender politics, AVFM / MHRM has been steadfast in its position on this from day 1.
We’d like to know what actual steps the feminist community is taking to ensure the attacker is caught. Right now we’re not seeing much from the feminist community other than Over 9000 pedobears and a slew of unfounded allegations.
If they really are committed to ensuring her attacker is brought to justice there should be no reason they wouldn’t help. They certainly spared no effort in rallying the troops to support her immediately after she was attacked.
Their support in condemning the attack is there, but are they willing to take that extra step and help ensure her attacker is brought to justice?
Does the feminist community really want Danielle’s attacker caught as much as the MHRM?
The reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Danielle’s attacker just from Attila and AVFM alone is now at $2000.00 and there is every reason to believe it will be increased.
Are feminists as committed as the MHRM to ensuring violence is never used to silence an individual’s right to free expression, and to make sure criminals are brought to justice in Canada?
