Last week, I was barred from entering a public event hosted at St. Andrew’s Wesley United Church in Vancouver.
The event, “ Ask a Trans Person Anything ,” was advertised as a “no-questions-off-limits Q&A” hosted by Momentum (also known as the Society of Queer Momentum ). It was one of several in a cross-country series . The description lauded its hosts Fae Johnstone and Victoria Bucholtz, who both identify as transwomen, as “two of Canada’s leading trans activists.”
The organizers have suggested that their goal is to change hearts and minds: “We have more in common than we think — but when complicated issues become political, it’s hard to find those connections,” read the description of the event series.
“We want to hear your worries and share our side of the story.… This is your chance to get your questions answered — yes, even the tough ones. We won’t cancel you. Instead, we’ll give you our honest takes….” With the exception of “threats and personal attacks,” all questions were supposedly welcome.
Notwithstanding these promises, I was turned away at the door. As I approached the venue, pulling up the electronic ticket on my phone (which I had booked a month prior), I realized that it had been rescinded a few hours earlier.
At the same time, I heard someone ask, from up the block: “Is that Amy Hamm?” Looking up, I saw Johnstone and Bucholtz outside of the venue, staring towards me. A third person, who I learned was hired security, began to walk towards the door in what appeared to be an effort to block my entrance to the church. It was at this point that I turned on my phone camera to record whatever interaction was about to occur.
Sure enough, after showing identification to the guard, I was informed that I was blacklisted.
“Your friends are more than welcome but you are not,” said the guard. “I was informed by the organizers with a list of people who wouldn’t be coming with the right intentions.”
Some naive part of me thought that perhaps I’d observe the event and report on the hosts as having been genuine in their attempts to face ideological scrutiny. However, Johnstone’s history suggests this was unlikely: in a now-deleted X post from 2021, Johnstone wrote, “I actually do want a political environment in which TERFs are so vilified they don’t dare speak their views publicly, let alone act on them. Shut. Them. Down.” (“TERF” is a slur used against gender-critical people and stands for “trans exclusionary radical feminist.”)
Similarly, Bucholtz attracted international scorn in 2024 after berating Alberta MLA Jennifer Johnson for refusing to state, during a recorded video session, that trans women are literal women.
From where I stand, these two want open dialogue like an agoraphobe wants a free trip to Disneyland.
One woman who attended last week’s event told me afterwards that she counted a meagre 30 attendees. I was also told that Johnstone and Bucholtz started the night by bragging about preventing a “convicted transphobe” from entering. (Surely they were not speaking of me, as I’ve never been convicted of a crime. Nor is “transphobia” a type of criminal charge.)
This is not the first time Johnstone and Bucholtz banned a woman from their event series. Back in April, (wrongfully) fired Mount Royal University professor Frances Widdowson — best known for her fearless commentary on the “graves” scandal at the former Kamloops, B.C., residential school, where no graves have actually been found — was escorted out of an Okotoks, Alta., session. She, too, recorded her expulsion. “You’re not open-minded; we know your beliefs,” Bucholtz told Widdowson with an eye-roll . “Please go.”
The Canadian government, via Women and Gender Equality Canada, provided Momentum with a $555,325 grant for the period of Jan. 1, 2024, through March 31, 2027. According to the government’s grant disclosure website, the money is to be used by Momentum for building “coalitions to improve advocacy on behalf of 2SLGBTQIA+ people.”
“It will address gaps in collaboration in advocacy across the sector and across related sectors including feminism, education and health care,” reads the grant description. “Momentum’s board of directors and its 2SLGBTQIA+ advocacy advisory council’s meetings will foster collaborative networks and advocacy coherence. Each cross-sectoral working group will develop public education/advocacy campaigns addressing equality and inclusion issues within their respective sectors.”
By all appearances, Momentum is to use these funds for public education. But were they used for the “Ask a Trans Person Anything” series? It matters insofar as the organizers should not ban entry to taxpayers accused of wrongthink or wrong “intentions.”
An email I sent to Momentum was redirected to Johnstone, the organization’s executive director. “I am responding to clarify that no, the Government of Canada did not fund these events,” Johnstone wrote in reply. The funding, Johnstone clarified, was from “Individual donors, a foundation, union contributors and others.” After asking which foundation contributed to funding the tour, Johnstone stopped responding.
If it is indeed true that this was not a taxpayer-funded initiative, the organizers should nevertheless hold their heads in shame. If Momentum’s desire in holding these events is to find “common ground” with Canadians, then detractors should be given front-row seats, not turned away for their presumed ill intentions.
Back to that phrase: not the “right intentions.” Ah, imagine it were so simple for Canadian females to exclude biological males from their spaces with the invocation of the same sentiment! After all, a lack of mind-reading capability does not preclude us women from detecting when biological males who enter our sports , prisons , shelters or change rooms have downright terrible intentions.
For us women, it’s not simply a matter of having to speak to people who we disagree with — our physical safety is at risk. Godspeed to any Canadian man or woman who makes such an observation but hopes to not be pilloried and excommunicated from their community or profession as a result. Canadian institutions rain holy hell upon those who do .
That said, the Canadian public is growing tired of the excesses of gender activism. I’d hazard a guess that this is why Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre confidently told reporters he has no plans to attend any Pride events in 2026.
It seems obvious that the “Ask a Trans Person Anything” series is nothing more than attempted image rehabilitation for a declining movement . When it comes to gender and trans activism, I believe that a critical mass of Canadians will eventually come to view the movement as a toxic, metaphysical pseudo-religion based on outdated gender stereotypes that preaches about children being “born in the wrong body,” should they not enjoy pink as girls or blue as boys.
This movement inflicts terrible harms on untold numbers of Canadian children through so-called gender-affirming care . It has also decimated women’s sex-based rights and given cancel-happy gender theologians an unholy enemy: anyone who dares to speak the truth.
Johnstone and Bucholtz can turn all their critics away at the door. They’re not doing themselves any favours, though, because the truth itself can never be cancelled.
National Post
