To those who believe people, let alone Canadians, participating in the Women’s March on Washington rallies are pointless:
Hi. You’re short-sighted and altogether missing the point.
The Women’s March on Washington is a rally being held in Washington, D.C. this Saturday—the day following the presidential inauguration of America’s favourite orange guy. According to The Guardian, there are over 300 sister marches taking place across the 50 states, and at least 200 others in cities worldwide. A number of those cities happen to be within our borders, from Toronto to Montreal to right here in Ottawa.
The March began on social media after Donald Trump was announced to have won the presidential election. It started off as a way to represent women after the sexist and misogynistic content that formed the foundation of Trump’s campaign was brought to the forefront of media conversation. Since being developed further, however, the March has grown to take on a more intersectional life, including all the minorities and groups Trump has spoken out against.
Since there’s little doubt now that Trump will indeed become the president of the United States on Friday, many people are wondering about the point of the March at all. To some, it makes no sense to have such demonstrations in Canada or elsewhere as well, because Trump won’t be taking control of our country.
Beyond anything else, the marches serve as a show of solidarity to all the folks who have been threatened by Trump’s ascension to power. More than the mere fact that he will be president after Friday, his winning of the election itself sends a potent and negative message to the world that the kind of uninformed, stereotype-riddled slander he perpetuates is accepted and believed by the general populace. As human beings, we cannot accept his stilted view of people and the world. The Women’s March on Washington serves to show all the people who are threatened under Trump’s reign that such talk is not truthful, nor is it believed; that we see, hear, and respect each other, and will not give up on fighting for every person’s inalienable human rights.
The idea that the hate-filled and paranoia-fueled rhetoric slammed into the world’s ears through Trump’s campaign just ends at their borders is ignorant. A man who was caught on tape joking about grabbing women by the genitals is about to become the leader of one of the most major countries on the planet. We all knew about it, not to mention the countless other problematic things he has done and said, and yet he was still elected to take the throne of the free world. What does this say about that behaviour? The normalization of his beliefs, grounded in racism and xenophobia, has already begun to reveal itself through an increase in hate crimes.
Furthermore, the rally isn’t a specific protest against the presidency of Trump. Its title does not feature his name anywhere. It’s a protest against the idea he represents, the garbage-like jargon that he has brought to the world stage and threatens to normalize. And as much as we’d love to believe otherwise, Trump’s expressed abhorrent and discriminatory views on women, LGBTQ+ folks, immigrants, Muslims, and others are not unheard of here. Our participation isn’t merely to wave a cheery hello to the oppressed masses down south, but to show our own refusal to allow such discriminatory behaviour and ideas to exist within our country as well. Canada has its own ongoing issues with our treatment of immigrants, birth control access, domestic violence, colonialism, and other facets of oppression reflected within Trump’s platform.
American, Canadian, or otherwise, attending a Women’s March on Washington rally is not a fruitless endeavor. It’s a way of showing our acknowledgement of these continued power structures within the United States, and every other country of the world as well. It’s a vow that we will never stop working for both equality and equity for all.
