GABRIELLE GALLANT
Associating elbowgate with violence against women is an insult to victims
The Prime Minister lost his temper. He got up out of his seat, and he walked over to the Conservative Whip – who was standing in a group of NDP MPs – and led him to his seat. As he did this, he bumped into NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau. In the video of the altercation, Ms. Brosseau clearly winces. It is also undeniably clear that the elbowing was unintentional.
This incident has dominated the political discourse in Canada. The country – including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself – is in agreement that Mr. Trudeau should not have done what he did.
But perhaps the most appalling element of the events? New Democrat MPs have characterized so-called elbowgate as gender-based violence.
NDP MP Niki Ashton said that “it is very important that young women in this space feel safe to come here and work here.” NDP MP Brigitte Sansoucy went so far as to make a comparison to “abusive husbands” whose wives had taken shelter at a centre for battered women.
To manipulate the cause of violence against women for partisan purposes is the antithesis of NDP values of equality.
To compare this incident to violence against women is a slap in the face to any woman who has actually been assaulted.
To label this as violence against women is just plain cruel: Any woman who has suffered real violence certainly knows an accidental elbow is not akin to violence.
This comparison – and all statements likening this incident to gendered violence – diminish the cause of those who fight violence against women. It diminishes the pain of the very real trauma experienced by women who have suffered abuse at the hands of men.
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