Canada: Student union brands men’s rights groups as ‘hateful’ clubs that ‘justify sexual assault’

Article here. Excerpt:

'There is, apparently, an ominous threat to female autonomy growing on Canadian campuses, and it masquerades under the guise of “men’s rights awareness.” These deceptive collectives purport to offer support and resources to men in the community, but, according to the Canadian Federation of Students, they actually promote “misogynist, hateful views,” and “justify sexual assault.” Well, then.

The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), the union body representing over 500,000 students across the country, will consider this and other matters over the next week as part of its 63rd semi-annual nation general meeting. On the agenda roster is a motion to amend the “Sexual Assault and Violence Against Women on Campus” policy to account for the “increase in the presence” of men’s groups on Canadian campuses.

According to the motion:

“The groups provide environments for sexism, patriarchy, and misogyny to manifest and be perpetuated on campus” and “promote misogynist, hateful views toward women and ideologies that promote gender equity, challenges women’s bodily autonomy, justifies sexual assault, and decries feminism as violent.”

“Messages from these groups claim to be of equality, but are in fact messages that are misogynist, sexist, cissexist, heterosexist, and homophobic responses to the challenge of cis-male privilege in society.”

Needless to say, the description is fraught with a number of bold, unsubstantiated — and frankly, wrong — statements. But find me an official group poster that claims women’s bodies are the rightful property of men, and I’ll retract. In any case, despite the rhetoric-heavy description, the CFS motion stops short of actually recommending a ban to men’s groups by name. Instead, it calls for official opposition to “campaigns, forums, groups, meetings or events whose purpose is to frighten, intimidate, and/or target women students on campus.”'