Vote, for the sake of our futures
Vote, for the sake of our futures.
The federal election on Monday, April 28, 2025 will be a day of reckoning for many of us living here in Canada. It's an election that has been, purportedly, about the economy, about the housing crisis, about rising grocery prices, price gouging, and more — yet never has so much been at stake. We've seen, over the last few months, relentless attacks on Canada's very sovereignty and continued existence by an expansionist, colonialist power in the south. And here at home, we're seeing the same strategies — hateful rhetoric, attacks towards minorities, and attempts to appear "tough" at the cost of destroying our democracy.
I'm terrified for our futures.
The Conservatives have made anti-trans campaigning an important part of their messaging. The last three years have seen a never-before-seen increase in anti-trans rhetoric in Canada, in great part metastasized from the U.S. and abroad. Hate groups have taken root here, using their power and deep wallets in an attempt to pit people against each other — leading to hundreds of hate protests across the country, and legislation attacking the rights and freedoms of trans youth in two Canadian provinces. Poilievre's promise to endanger trans women in prisons — and simultaneous failure to introduce any measures concretely protecting women — is telling. He does not want to protect Canadians; merely punish them. Law and order, as in "obey and abide". Sounds Trumpian, doesn't it?
Constitutional protections are equally being eroded as we speak. As section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms turns 40, the very idea of equality rights — one of the very principles underlying Canadian law in the last 40-60 years — is starting to slip away. Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Québec have already chipped away at Canadians' human rights, one at a time; whether it'd be with trans youth, unionized workers or hijab-donning teachers. Poilievre's suggestion to expand its use to the federal level would send it straight to its deathbed. To quote The Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne, "He’s picked the perfect starting point, of course. There can be few less sympathetic figures than multiple murderers." Yet, we live in a society where everyone, by virtue of being alive, are deserving of dignity and of humanity. To dispose of this idea would be to turn back the clock fifty years, and to plunge us into a new dark age — one where Japanese-Canadians were expropriated and forcibly relocated, one where Indigenous kids were scooped away from their parents, one where we couldn't necessary fall in love with the persons we love.
Is that the future that we deserve? Is that the future that you want?
Our political parties have been far from perfect. Some have, arguably, been horrible — and in a way, have allowed our current status quo, one of generalized disenfranchisement, to take root. But none have shown so much contempt towards humanitarianism as one of them: the Conservatives. They've allowed disinformation campaigns in their name to take hold. They're teaming up with DOGE wannabes to destroy this country. They're talking about attacking trans women, denying healthcare for trans kids. They're calling on defunding humanitarian organizations such as UNRWA, and defunding universities which doesn't align with his values. They're talking about defunding Canada's public broadcaster, about womens' "biological clocks". Poilievre himself is calling Nazis "socialists" instead of what they are: Nazis. That doesn't smell like democracy to me; that sounds like authoritarianism — because Trumpism is fascism is authoritarianism.
We shouldn't live in a society in which every election — and the times preceding it — are times filled with uncertainty and fear, yet that's exactly what it's like to be a trans woman in Canada in 2025. And I don't want us to end up like the U.S. — a country from which people are actively fleeing owing to authoritarian laws and policies. I don't want us to end up that way.
So please — don't Trump Canada.
Whether you think your vote will make a difference or no, vote as if your life depends on it — because it does.
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Read more about different federal political parties' positions on 2SLGBTQ+ issues on Queer Momentum's website.
For strategic voting, look up 338canada.com and VoteWell.
For ridings in which the Conservatives have no chance of winning, look up VotePalestine — we don't need just a strong wave of votes against fascism, but also strong leftist opposition MPs able to hold a (hopefully) Carney government to account.
For information on how to vote: Elections Canada.
This is what the death of the rule of law looks like
This is what the death of the rule of law looks like.
And this is exactly what so many of us had feared, for the longest time, with everything that is going on.
The rule of law officially no longer exists in the United States, arguably the world's most powerful empire until very recently.
People are being deported. Some, into prison camps, into foreign concentration camps — gulags — over baseless declarations of war and empty accusations. Hundreds of Venezuelans, including queer refugee claimants, have been sent into foreign prison camps (most notably Guantánamo prison camp and El Salvador's CECOT megaprison), denied due process, the right to a fair trial, and any semblance of human rights as provided for by both the U.S. constitution and international human rights instruments, notably the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And when the courts said no, the Trump-Musk administration continued, in a blatant act of contempt of court.
Others, such as Dr. Rasha Alawieh and Mahmoud Khalil, have been respectively deported despite temporary restraining orders by the courts, or are facing forced disappearance, deportation and revocation of status over merely displaying an ounce of humanity towards Palestinians — a chilling attack on free speech. And, surprise or no, it shouldn't come as a coincidence that around the same time Trump starts sending Venezuelans to foreign gulags, Israel is restarting its genocidal war on Gaza, and has murdered more than 400 in the span of a few hours — in clear breach of a ceasefire it had previously agreed to right before Trump took power most recently.
Meanwhile, trans people are being denied ID, and being effectively banned from entering the U.S. over the very fact of them being trans. Legislation outright criminalizing transness — deeming my existence and our existence an outright fraud — is being considered for the first time ever — showing just how significantly the Overton window has been allowed to shift in the last few years. Civil rights are being explicitly repealed, for the first time in American history. And, to no one's surprise, the rule of law is also being pushed aside, for the sake of attacking trans people. Court orders ordering gender marker changes are being declared 'void' by executive fiat, and trans women prisoners are being transferred to men's prisons despite judicial orders to the contrary.
The same is happening worldwide. Turkiyë is banning any acts of support or compassion towards trans people, making it punishable by three years' jail time. Hungary is striking down against Budapest Pride, planning on banning it by legislative order. And back home, in Canada, our very own human rights instruments — notably the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms — are being pushed aside to make way for legislated hate against trans kids.
Where is all of this going to end?
Or are human rights, as we know them, gone? Are we going to have to live out the rest of our lives in pain and misery?
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The rule of law lies on a core principle: a government is beholden to its own laws. It is a theoretical equilibrium, sometimes summarized as: "no one is above the law", and "everyone is equal under the law". It is a flawed paradigm, one that fails to account for unjust laws, yet is the very paradigm which prevents governments from acting arbitrarily (irrationally).
The rule of law is the very principle that ensures that human rights instruments can be enforced. It is the very thing that allows citizens to make sure they are safe from being assassinated by political opponents. It's perhaps the very basis of contemporary democracies.
What happens when the rule of law is killed? The very civil rights you have been promised and guaranteed to have ends up being about as useful as toilet paper.
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Empathy is a foundational human value, part of the very thing that links us together. Yet, the very people who display empathy for others, notably by providing them necessary healthcare, are being criminally charged for their actions. The world's richest man and a Nazi, Elon Musk, is attacking the very idea of empathy for others — y'know, the very thing that has allowed us to make our way through countless humanitarian crises throughout history. The very thing that has allowed us to survive human-made climate change catastrophe up until now. And now... deportations — complete with immigrants, not accused of any crimes, in shackles — are now becoming material to ASMR at, according to the White House. How far have we fallen?
One of the most prominent texts on fascism — Ur-Fascism, by Umberto Eco — was a text that was first introduced to me, in its French version (Reconnaître le fascisme), by my constitutional law professor, Frédéric Bérard. One topic that was consistently brought up to me was just how recognizable it would be, when you recognize the warning signs. Let me now apply it to the United States...
The cult of tradition? Check. Just look at white supremacy.
The rejection of modernism? Check. Just look at tech bro culture.
The cult of action for action's sake? Check. Just look at all the attacks on trans people.
Disagreement as treason? Check. Just look at how the NIH is defunding any research going against so-called "U.S. national interests" — on topics as generic as the health outcomes of trans people.
Fear of difference? Check. Just look at all the attempts at deporting pro-Palestinian immigrants, or the attempts at criminalizing trans people altogether.
Appealing to a frustrated middle class? Check. Most U.S. exit polls show it pretty clearly.
Obsession with a plot? Check. The so-called "trans agenda" is exactly that.
The enemy as both strong and weak? Check. Trans people being somehow behind a "globalist agenda" yet being deemed mentally ill by authorities is but one example thereof.
Life as permanent warfare? Check. Just look at the techbro insurgency against basically every group it deems the 'other'.
Populist elitism? Check.
Heroism as norm? Check.
Machismo? Check.
Selective populism? Check.
Newspeak? Check.
I don't have any further words to say — just that things are not looking good for the future. The world is burning, yet we don't realize it. Yet, that's the whole point. We're being set on fire, yet being gaslit to pretend that that isn't the case. There's a reason they hate critical thinkers: "it's easier to run an authoritarian government if you don't have a population that knows."
Rule of law never goes away by decapitation or public execution. The State never announces that fascism is therefore state ideology. Instead, anti-fascists are deemed enemies of the state. And we're mere seconds removed from that becoming the truth.
The future looks bleak, and I have no other words to say.
May humanity prevail.
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P.S. Owing to the currently unenforceable nature of civil rights in the U.S. and the prospect of arbitrary detention, trans people should avoid all travel to the United States. A new travel advisory will be uploaded shortly.