The Honey Badger Brigade — the all-female-except-not-really gaggle of antifeminist YouTubers — has been raising money, and quite a lot of it, to pay their possible legal bills as they seek “legal redress” against the Calgary Expo for booting them from the event.
So far they’ve raised nearly $14,000 of their goal of $40,000, which they say “will be used for legal costs and costs directly related to our ejection from the Calgary Comics and Entertainment Expo,” whatever that means. That gives them some wiggle room. As “victims” go, they’re pros.
On the group’s fundraising page, the Badgers accuse the Expo of tossing them out
due to our Men’s Rights Activism and unpopular view of modern feminism. Therefore it is our belief that the actions taken by the Calgary Expo staff were of a political nature and contravene the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in particular freedom of conscience, freedom of thought and freedom of association.
Apparently this is one of the most important civil right struggles of our time.
While the Expo hasn’t given a clear reason for why the Honey Badgers were evicted, I’m guessing it’s not for the group’s “view of modern feminism” but because the group came to the expo flying the figurative flag of GamerGate, a loosely organized but highly virulent harassment campaign disguised, not very convincingly, as a campaign for “ethics in game journalism.” Oh, and possibly because they seem to have gotten into the expo under false pretenses.
Even if we were to assume that the Honey Badgers were booted for being Men’s Rights Activists, there is a teensy bit of irony to their complaint. You see, the HBB is closely tied to Men’s Rights hate site A Voice for Men. Indeed the two most visible HB’s — Alison Tieman and Karen “GirlWritesWhat” Straughan — are volunteer staffers on the AVFM masthead, as is HB hanger-on Sage Gerard.
Last summer, most or all of the HBB attended AVFM’s first conference, held outside Detroit; Straughan spoke at it. Here they are posing with their AVFM comrades.
You know who wasn’t at that conference? Feminists, whom the event organizers made pretty plain were not welcome. Indeed, as journalist Jeff Sharlet noted in his remarkable account of the conference in GQ, attendees seemed to be obsessed with defending their little event against an angry mob of feminists that never materialized.
They keep saying, “No feminist better try coming here!” Local police have dispatched four officers, and the conference attendees have deputized even more security from their own ranks. “Security” wears black polo shirts, and there are a lot of black polo shirts, but since the line is slow, security decides to sweep us all in with a request to return for a “check.” Nobody does. Only one feminist later attempts entry, an activist who goes by the handle “Dark Horse Swore.” The black shirts eighty-six her.
Only a few of these dastardly feminists made it into the event, posing as journalists. Oh, wait, they were journalists. Somehow I suspect that security at AVFM’s planned conference this year will be tighter.
I also suspect that the Honey Badgers will be there, recounting the story of the terrible injustice done to them by the Calgary Expo.
H/T — @idlediletante on Twitter, who’s been keeping tabs on the money so many #GamerGaters are raking in.
What legal costs are they even talking about?
Very soon after the Honey Badger expulsion someone predicted this might happen. Interesting.
If I’ve been reading all the blather on it correctly, they’re planning to sue.
since this is very connected to the topic, here’s this interview of a former Gator/MRA about the dark side of 4chn done by one of the most underrated people on Youtube.
Where’s our resident lawyer? Alan, do you think this has any chance of even seeing a day in court?
MRAs love being “censored” and “discriminated against” about as much as American Christians, largely because neither group knows what those words really mean.
Hint: a private entity finding your hateful ideology objectionable enough that they exclude you from their private event doesn’t count.
Ooh, can we have a spotlight that you shine on the sky when a legal thing comes up? I’d LOVE that.
Actually, have a preliminary view on this but just been checking the relevant charter. Stand by for pontification on “horizontal v vertical effect”. I won’t be offended if you start another thread with cats so you’ve somewhere to escape to.
I suppose they’re thinking of hiring a lawyer and spending time away from their jobs of spewing bile on the internet to attend court proceedings so they can use CalgaryExpo.
Oh, thank god I can’t make out Paul Elam’s eyes in that AVFM group photo. They always creep me out.
Much like American free speech laws, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms only protects you from government oppression. It doesn’t protect you from being “oppressed” by the Calgary Expo. So, good luck with that lawsuit!!!
The Charter is also not immutable, the legal system has the right to put reasonable restriction on things like freedom of expression. It’s why we have anti hate speech laws. See what happens to Bill Whatcott everytime he opens his hateful mouth
There is one thing MRAs excel at and that is pretending to be victims in an imaginary world where society is out to oppress them. MRAs love to claim that all the negative attention they receive is proof of this oppression when in fact it is society’s response to their hateful, vitriolic, and bigoted ideas.
This is all just mutual masturbation…it seems few of these people have 9 to 5 jobs??
Another reason why we need to have a basic civic knowledge class in Canadian high schools.
At least we’re learning about Canadian laws while we read about all the stupid.
A few of us Stateside could benefit from it too, I’ll bet.
Though, I imagine if (more like when) they lose, they’ll post another video about how “unfair” the courts are to them for not giving them their “female privilege” by instantly agreeing with them and telling off CalgaryExpo for being big meanies for daring to want to make their show a safe place for people they don’t agree with!
Ninja’d by zoon
But just to amplify; as zoon points out this was a private event.
The Charter only applies to:
(a) the Parliament and government of Canada in respect of all matters within the authority of Parliament including all matters relating to the Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories; and
(b) the legislature and government of each province in respect of all matters within the authority of the legislature of each province.
So, rather like the US Constitution and the ECHR it only puts limits on *The Government* inhibiting rights (such as freedom of expression).
It is a bit more complex than that though. The limits on Government interference is called “Vertical effect”; because the power dynamic is hierarchical.
Sometimes though you can argue “horizontal effect”. This is where the actions of non-government concerns, such as a private business infringes on rights. So imagine that a location has a number of private golf clubs. Theoretically a private club has complete discretion over who it admits as a member, but if, in practice, no black person will be accepted in any of the clubs there is a possible claim on the grounds that collectively they’re denying a right not to be discriminated against on grounds of race.
That’s probably the route the honey badgers will try.
It’s probably a non starter though. Some lawyers argue that horizontal effect doesn’t even exist and really it’s still always the Government that’s the defendant.
It was a private gathering. The occupier of a private space can admit and exclude who they want so long as the criterion is not based on protected characteristics (race, gender etc.).
Even the HBs aren’t arguing that was the reason; they’re nailing their colours to the mast on free speech. That won’t cut it. They have no more legal standing than someone who gets banned form this bulletin board.
My guess is:
They’ll issue a claim, make a big fuss and then the claim will be struck out by the court at a preliminary hearing.
They’ll then argue somehow that shows they’ve won and/or are free speech martyrs. They’ll probably get on to Amnesty.
The evidence supporting of any of their claims is …?
They got kicked out for breaking the rules they agreed to abide by. There is documentation of that. They aren’t victims. They’re dishonest jerks. They’ll never go to court.
Still, I’m always so glad to see the MRA rubes fleeced. I hope their fundraiser goes well.
The fact that the Honey Badgers are the women’s auxiliary of a hate group is reason enough for Calgary Expo to boot them. Something tells me the HBs wouldn’t have gotten a booth at all if they’d been upfront about who they were.
Oh, Ninja’d by *EVERYONE* 🙂
PS they’ll lose and keep all the fundraising money. And keep calling other women “professional victims”.
PPS gotta love the irony of a bunch of men who reeeee about gold diggers and hypergamous whores forking over money to a bunch of women in return for absolutely nothing.
No kidding, Cyber. The HBs aren’t even going to sex the menz!
As you mentioned, David, the Honey Badgers aren’t a women’s group. They are a majority male group – 10 men and 8 women, according to Judgybitch:
“The HoneyBadgers are:
Karen Straughan
Hannah Wallen
Alison Teiman
Rachel Edwards
Brian Martinez
Sage Gerard
Kristal Garcia
Kelsey J. F.
Kat Rocha
Surya Prakash
Phil Johnston
Doctor RandomerCam
Yul Tolbert
J Kream
Europa Phoenix
Brian Martinez
Observing Libertarian
Jessica Kenney
POP QUIZ!
There are 18 Honeybadgers in total.
If 8 of the Badgers are female, how many are male?
Did you get 10?
Yay!
8 is what percent of 18?
Did you get 44%?
Yay!”
Well for a bunch that denounces how ugly feminists are, and how women should mostly care about looking good for their men, they don’t seem to be following too closely all those PUA’s prescriptions for female physical appearence.
(As a feminist, I think they can look any way they feel like, but the irony is too blunt. )
Oh no, that’s the worst kind of misandering there is.!