The Ontario Federation of Labour held an online meeting to strategize how to disrupt the Wednesday Million Person March against transgender ideology in schools..OFL president Patty Coates notified her organization’s executive, coalitions, and community partners of the September 15 meeting by an email four days in advance. It complained, “Canada wide (anti-sexual minorities) protests” planned by the “ultra-conservative right” were made under the “guise of protecting children.”.“In this time of unprecedented hate and emboldened anger against so many people, it is time now, more than ever, for labour to show up as allies to protect targets of hate and bigotry wherever they may be,” the email said..“We will draft a system to ensure that no city in Ontario where an event is planned is left unchallenged. No groups will be left alone.”.Over 100 attended the zoom meeting, led by OFL Executive Director Rod Halpin, which was leaked and posted to Vimeo..Coates said she knew of 22 protests in Ontario alone and unions needed to “fight against the rise of hate across provinces. We're seeing it now in our education system with our premier and education minister as put forward with regards to the obligations of teachers and school boards, educators and school boards.”.OFL Director of Women’s Rights Chandra Li-Paul said the Million Person March was unprecedented in her over 30 years as a “proud, queer individual and activist.” She said the march was “really scary” and represented “super- broadly and coordinated hate.”.“We are very, very worried about what could be coming next,” Li-Paul said. “What we're seeing is a far right, extreme response to inclusive education, teachings that have anything to do with the (sexual minority) community.”.Li-Paul said the initiative echoed others in the US and could not be left uncontested..“We are wanting to show a very strong response countering these protests to show that if they even think that there's a possibility of bringing what's happening in other places here, we're going to be there to counter it every single step of the way.”.The Million Person March’s strategy of capturing “the media cycle throughout the entire day” was “extremely worrisome” to Li-Paul for its potential effectiveness..“We don't want them to get into those newsfeeds and capturing the negative aspects into those things. We want to be countering those as much as possible,” she said..Vicki Smallman from the Canadian Labour Congress Emergency Task Force on sexual minority hate spoke next. She said an emergency meeting held by the CLC in June established her task force, which has met three times. Their focus was on forming “flying squads” to counteract “hate group” activism..“Organizing against this particular effort is like organizing against jello, because the…anti-(sexual minority) crowd…are sort of uniting and collaborating under one banner,” she explained..“We don't know for sure if a protest is happening or not happening, who's behind it. And so on a lot of that intelligence, a lot of that work really needs to happen at the grassroots local level.”.Smallman said the CLC was trying to “bolster support” to help labour and activists with that local work. In the meantime, they launched a digital campaign called Workers United Against Hate for the “tail end of pride season” of June through September. Here, all affiliates and local labour councils received graphics and talking points to counter 'disturbing' events..“It's really easy to sort of say, well, these are fringe voices, these are the convoy writ large, etc. [but] all of it is being validated and platformed and echoed by provincial governments and by the federal Conservative Party, which offers a bit of legitimacy.”.Smallman said “parents' rights rhetoric” was an electoral ploy for some candidates in the Manitoba election, but would “throw trans kid families, queer families, queer people, queer workers’ kids under the bus.”.“(Sexual minority) rights are important and central to the work that the labor movement does. This is about solidarity in action,” Smallman said..“[H]ate has no place in our communities, or our workplaces or our unions–period.”.Yolanada B’Dacy, human rights director for the OFL, said the Million Person March was “insidious” by claiming to protect children, while actually attacking them..“For the (sexual minority) community, for anti-Islamic or anti-Muslim sentiments, for anti-black, anti-Semitism, anti-women, we need to be there,” she said..“We need to be as allies, we need to be co-conspirators, we need to be in the effort in such a way that when the rocks are hitting these communities, that they're hitting us.".B’Dacy said ideological opponents were guilty of “hate," ”intolerance”, and “indoctrination.” In response, she called for OFL members and allies to engage in “disrupting and causing some good trouble.”.“We arrive 30 minutes before at least this their planned protest, so that we are occupying the space, that it becomes our message and that we are then establishing ourselves,” B’Dacy explained..“[H]ave a megaphone, make music, flags, posters, banners, chant sheets…[S]peak with people to spread the real message. Have a petition ready there, have clipboards, have pens [so] that you can speak with people, get their information, so that our rapid response team is going to be a team that you can call on anytime and it's going to be growing.”.The zoom call shared a google spreadsheet so everyone would have relevant information regarding the protests and responses across Ontario. .Emily Quaile, described as a "queer mom" on the CUPE 4600 website for teaching assistants, internally-funded research assistants, and contract instructors at Carleton University, said she organized counter-protests against Josh Alexander and Billboard Chris in Ottawa June 9..“We are dealing with a very fractured and difficult-to-track movement…they've gotten better at operational security. They're doing a lot more things that's tighter and harder to infiltrate and harder to track,” Quaile explained..“They are able to, at this moment, rise above their internal discord to build a very, very big movement…This is absolutely crucial that we oppose this in the streets.”.Quaile said she researched Canadian fascism at Carleton. She applied the label to Josh Alexander, Billboard Chris, the freedom convoy and Million Person March participants..“This is far more than just like a far-right transphobic protest. They are fundamentally racist. They're fundamentally anti-union, they are fundamentally anti-queer and transphobic. And it's just a matter of time before they come to us. And the only way, the best way, that the fascists have been stopped in the last 100 years has been when we unite in massive numbers in the streets.”.Anthony Marco, a VP of the Canadian Labour Council in Ontario said his group would be the bigger presence for a rally planned in front of the Hamilton School Board..“We're hoping that we are going to overwhelm their members…We want it to be our rally, not their rally…The currency of activism is showing up,” Marco said..“We've got a couple of seasoned activists who have already said that they're willing to go over and take some pictures of license plates and tape…and make sure that they know that they're being watched, that they're not doing this in secret.”.Yet Munib Sajjad, a community organizer for the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, asked for updated resources on how their side could protect themselves from similar tactics..“We've seen that with a lot of fascist, white-supremacist organizations and groups that have been doxing a lot of progressive folks, [ones] that have been organizing in the regions in combating hate in many ways.”.Susan Gapka, a male-to-female transgender from CUPE Ontario, hoped labour and allies could stop the million-man march from sequels..“People that I talk to want to stop this dead in its tracks,” Gapka said..“If we stand up to the bully, the bully will decide what to do. They will flight, fight, or fright. So let's give them some freight on September 20, so that on September 21, 'til whenever, that they're working on the flight aspect.”
