Great news. Last night the Queen’s Alma Mater Society Assembly defeated a motion to deratify the Men’s Issues Awareness Society on campus. You can see some tweets @equalitycanada.

The group’s student leader tells us the vote was probably not even close (though we don’t have a tally), as he could not identify a single assembly member who seemed sympathetic to deratification. Assembly members questioned why they were being asked to deratify a group that had yet to actually host a single event and what precedent it would set if they started going around censoring the programs of any groups that had ideological or political positions, or other perspectives, that were in the minority. Would a liberal-dominated Assembly seek to deratify a campus Conservative club, or vice-versa? These are some good questions and indicate the Assembly is run by some reasonable people.

The Assembly was right to be skeptical of the motives of these opponents. It is instructive to be aware that some who oppose CAFE’s educational programs see no trouble in lying to support their position. On the facebook page for the Queen’s University event which was the instigator for the motion to deratify the university club, the claim is made that a Kingston Liberal MP is working to support the opposition to the event:

“Ted Hsu is now aware of this and he’s working on our side from a federal level. This will get big attention, folk. If you don’t know why this is harmful, you need to learn a LOT.”

In fact, Ted Hsu and his team had no knowledge of the event, as we discovered when we brought the matter to their attention. According to Hsu’s legislative assistant:

“Thank you for following up with this over email. I have touched based with Mr. Hsu and our riding office, and this is the first any of us have heard of this event.”

If some opponents are willing to outright lie about something as serious as political action from an elected official, in order to support their dubious position, what else might they be lying about?

Something to talk about when Men’s Issues Awareness comes to Queen’s University at its inaugural event this Thursday, March 27! CAFE representatives will be present and we’re looking forward to a great show.