Canada’s Feminist Recovery must include a systemic feminist and anti-racist overhaul of our political culture

This article was originally published in the Hill Times.

CONTENT WARNING: This article includes references to sexual assault and institutional racism and sexism.

Entering Canadian politics as a 15-year-old immigrant, I had no idea how my trust in our civic institutions would erode as a result of systemic racism and misogyny.

When I was 16, I was sexually assaulted at my first Young Liberal policy conference in Windsor, Ont., where I knew only a handful of other delegates, and did not know about the structures and people to whom I could turn for support. By the time I began volunteering on the Hill at the age of 18, I had experienced sexual violence three times at political gatherings, and another two times by the time I left Ottawa eight months later.

In Ottawa, unlike Windsor, I turned to Members of Parliament from across the aisle, Senators, and staffers to ask for help and demand accountability. Though I was unaware of policies aimed at supporting me, most of which I now know were not survivor-centred and trauma-informed, this time I knew enough people preaching #AddWomenChangePolitics who I thought would stand up for and support me as I continued to fight for my place, and my safety in Canadian politics. I was in for a rude awakening.

Soon after coming forward, I was asked to “not come to the office” by my immediate supervisor and gaslit by a “feminist” Member of Parliament who told me that she would “advocate” on my behalf. Her caucus colleagues told me two years later that she had never uttered a word about my experience. Members of Parliament from across the political spectrum who were preaching about the importance of a 30 per cent critical mass of women in politics and applauding Justin Trudeau’s expulsion of two Liberal MPs accused of sexual violence, stopped answering my calls and told me they couldn’t do anything for me when I would catch them off guard in hallways or at social gatherings.

In her interview with Oprah, Meghan Markle said: “I regret believing them when they said I would be protected.” I’m not a Black woman, I can never understand the anti-Black racism that Markle, and women in politics like Celina Caesar-Chavannes experienced on a daily basis, But her words brought me to tears as they reminded me of the amount of hope and trust that I, and so many other Black, Indigenous, and racialized women, put into civic institutions such as the Parliament of Canada when we choose to engage with our democracy, knowing well that these systems were not only not created to support us, but also to actively eradicate or oppress our communities. It reminded me of how I expected Members of Parliament and staffers to take action against a political culture that normalizes and facilitates rape and sexual harassment.

But the reality is that our political culture is based on colonial institutions, built on an ongoing legacy of rape and genocide that dictates the everyday experiences of Black, Indigenous, and racialized women, transgender, and Two-Spirit people. Markle being pushed out of the royal family, Jody Wilson-Raybould being kicked out of the Liberal caucus, and me leaving politics as a result of sexual violence are not anomalies, but are the products of a white-supremacist political culture that seeks to silence Black, Indigenous, and racialized women’s voices and diminish our power.

Our political institutions were not created to serve marginalized women, and definitely not to keep us safe. No amount of surface-level representation or reforms are going to change that. In order to add an adequate number of marginalized women and meaningfully change politics, we need to challenge imperialist, white-supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal power, as put by Black feminist scholar bell hooks, as the basis for our political culture. It is impossible to build trust in institutions that continue to facilitate harm against marginalized women and our communities, no matter how many viral hashtags they give us.

Canada’s #FeministRecovery must include a systemic feminist and anti-racist overhaul of our political culture, covering every corner—from Parliament Hill to electoral riding associations and grassroots movements—and strengthen the determinants of civic engagement, like economic security and access to education, among marginalized women. Otherwise, what’s the point of building a perception of trust in civic institutions that is quicker to shatter than the glass ceilings we’re supposed to overcome?