Community rallies to support Island woman bashed for her views on gender and parents' rights
Local man on trial for assault March 4 and 5
For immediate release. Contact info@radfems.ca.
Nanaimo, February 24 – A man who allegedly bashed a Vancouver Island mother in front of City Hall has entered a plea of "not guilty" to an assault that left a 53-year-old woman with a broken nose and a concussion.
Nicholas Matear, who witnesses say was carrying a rainbow-coloured sign reading "No Place For Hate," was charged with assault by RCMP in early 2024. His trial is set for March 4 and 5, 2025, at the Nanaimo courthouse.
Supporters from all over Vancouver Island and across the political spectrum have rallied in support of "T,” a mother of two. They carried messages reading, “No More Violence,” “Women Will Speak,” “Stop Bashing Women,” and “Mother is Female.”
T, pictured above, asked to remain anonymous for now in case of further attacks. The assault took place in October 2023 during the 1 Million March for Children, where marchers denounced explicit and age-inappropriate grade-school materials about sex and gender.
Witnesses say Nicholas James Matear, a 33-year-old Nanaimo man, had joined the counterprotest on the opposite side of the street before he allegedly crossed the street and punched T in the head, leaving her injured and face-down in the street. Nanaimo RCMP detained him at the scene and later charged him with assault
The attack
T describes the attack as lasting “half a second” and said the man seemed to be stalking her. She says she was holding a sign with the words “Get the Cult Out of Schools” when a large man dressed in black crossed the street towards her. The man pushed a “No Place for Hate” sign in her face, but T retreated into the crowd along the sidewalk, "feeling distressed and looking for safety," she says.
Finding a quiet spot at the edge of the crowd, T stepped out into the street and raised her sign again. That's when the man reappeared, she reports.
“He walks right up to me and
puts his sign back in my face. The sign is about a foot away from my
face,” she said.
“I lift my hand and grab his sign, then pull it down. In one motion, as I pull the sign away from my face, his fist comes pummelling in,” she recalls. “His punch sent me all the way to the curb. I flew more than the width of a car and landed partly on the sidewalk.”
“My body twists and flies backward and I land face down, half in the gutter with my head and arms on the sidewalk.”
Supporters speak out
“We’re here to support this brave woman standing up for her beliefs,” said supporter Tara Prema. “We want her to feel safe and surrounded by strong sisters. We believe in freedom of speech and freedom of belief for women. There is no excuse for abuse.”
“I’m horrified that this woman suffered a beating because a man disagreed with her politics, and that it happened in broad daylight in front of City Hall and dozens of witnesses,” Prema said. “This is political violence – trying to force women to submit to controversial gender policies that affect parents and children, and especially women and girls. People see what’s happening: bullies using force to stop women speaking out.”
Jacqueline Gullion of the Vancouver Lesbian Collective has been following the Million March for Children and the “No Place for Hate” counter-protests across Canada. Gullion says, “The attack in Nanaimo was clearly woman-hating male violence. She was physically assaulted by a man trying to shut her up and intimidate others into shutting up about the threats of gender ideology to women, children, and of course lesbians. The lesbians in our province-wide network are watching for the police and Crown to move forward with charges and a trial. We will continue to assert that women have the right to critique gender ideology.”
Public opinion and the law
Opinion surveys show the majority of adults in Canada are "uncomfortable" with schools that don't notify parents when their children adopt a new name or pronouns. A growing number do not support giving children cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers.
A recent ruling in SupremeCourt of Ontario clarifies that human rights laws do not prevent anyone from speaking out in opposition to schools exposing young children to explicit materials about gender and sex.
“What happened here should not happen in a democratic society,” Ontario Superior Court Justice James Ramsay said about the case of Carolyn Burjoski, a whistle-blowing teacher who is now retired.
“The Human Rights Code does not prohibit public discussion of issues related to transgenderism or minors and transgenderism. It does not prohibit public discussion of anything,” Justice Ramsay stated. (Source: National Post.)
In 2022, Janayh Wright, a Nanaimo mother, organized two protests after she caught a convicted pedophile peering into a stall where her young daughter was undressing in the women's change room at the Nanaimo Aquatic Centre. Staff dismissed Wright’s complaint at the time, saying the voyeur identified as female. Wright says that staff even threatened to call the police on her for “misgendering” the intruder, who was later found to be an ex-convict who had sexually assaulted a young child in Kelowna.
Political violence against women
A number of other women have been assaulted in public for sharing their views about gender. An angry mob attacked a National Women's Convention hosted by Women's Declaration International in September 2023 and reportedly injured several people. (Source: Daily Mail.)
In March 2023, Women’s rights campaigner Kelly Jay Keen’s “Let Women Speak” tour in Australia was disrupted by protesters throwing soup and projectiles at participants. She escaped without serious injury. (Source: Daily Mail.)
In
October 2023, vandals spray-painted anti-feminist and pro-trans graffiti across the front and sides of a Saltair community hall that hosted a presentation with Meghan Murphy of Feminist Current. (Source: Youtube video description.)
To speak with T, contact Radfems of Canada.
