Residents of Duncan, BC, are outraged after young girls at an aquatic centre were assaulted by a male in the women's change room.Resident Saige Point posted a video to Facebook that shows a man with a beard in the women’s change room at the Cowichan Aquatic Centre approaching the camera boasting about being a “lady with a beard.” “I could identify as a lady with a beard. There’s nothing you can do about it,” the man says to the camera, while a woman tries to move him away from the children present in the room. Then the camera goes dark and banging and children can be heard screaming and crying, “Stop!”.Point’s nieces, who Point says are indigenous, were in the changeroom at the time, along with one of her friends. Point said a “naked” male was in the women’s change room “making many females including my young nieces very uncomfortable.”The woman who put herself between the children and the man in an attempt to wedge him away from the young girls is a friend of Point, who said the police want to charge her friend rather than the perpetrator.“This male even assaulted one of my niece’s who is 10 years old,” wrote Point on Facebook. “Smashed her head into the wall!!! Yet the police want to charge my friend who was standing up for her daughter (WHO IS A CHILD) and my niece.”A protest will be held Tuesday, March 25 outside the aquatic centre “to raise awareness about how unjustified the system is.”.“Protecting indigenous females and young indigenous females should not be a crime,” wrote Point on Facebook. “There is a universal/family change room, males’ change room and females’ change room.”“Females should not feel scared in what is supposed to be a safe space. Cowichan Aquatic Centre failed to protect the safety of my nieces especially when there were already complaints about this male being in there!”“People need to know how unsafe it is to be at the Cowichan Aquatic Centre.”
