A Facebook chat on a popular Idle No More site started innocently enough. Various people were coming to grips with an attempt by one woman to place misguided blame. It was her pain speaking, but her argument was so provocative, and so poorly researched, we couldn’t resist weighing in.
Within a dozen or so comments, we had things in hand. There had only been two people posting from historical blind spots. The woman who had started it all was ultimately unable to be clear on what her issue actually was. The other seemed to have left, but was simply regrouping, coiling up for a more sinister strike.
I keep my newsfeed on all the time these days. You never know, Harper might man up, or a courageous few might make a break from the Conservative herd and stand up to him. As a result, I saw the negative commenter’s name (let’s call him Creep) appear in the corner of my screen. Because of his goading, I moved quickly to view it. There was just a website link, and of course, unable to help myself, I clickedÉ
Some very silly looking men were dominating a screen full of women, all with expressions of unlikely ecstasy. Decorating the page: full-on, pink, ripple-edged images of vaginas. Creep’s message was clear, if tiresomely predictable. Ah, I thought, a creep, and a loser. I shut him up by deleting his “comment” and stopped his impotent poison from reaching the other women.
The Idle No More movement, begun by four women, reaches beyond the First Nation’s fight. There are feminist and matriarchal elder overtones that speak to a force as transformative as the suffragette impact on society. But we will be attacked for it, and women need to be aware of this. Through vigilance and courage we can protect each other.
While a small, courageous woman sits in her warm teepee, under the cold shadow of Parliament Hill, will our government continue to disrespect her just like all the other Creeps of this world? Tough comparison? I don’t think so. Because anyone who harms a woman, or through her, her children, is committing an unspeakable violation.
It’s difficult to write knowing that by the time this runs in Nexus, the standoff will be resolved, one way or another. Spence will either have met with Harper and live; will be close to kidney failure; or will be gone.
But one thing I’m sure of, Harper will have not broken that woman’s spirit, or any others, just to fuel his limp ego.
Mr. Harper, consider your party’s presence in our midst, deleted.