The Ontario NDP introduced legislation on Tuesday to ban protests near places where drag queens perform, following protests that escalated in British Columbia and Quebec on Tuesday.
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Kristyn Wong-Tam, who works on 2SLGBTQI+ community issues for the NDP and uses the pronoun iel, filed a private member’s bill to ban all forms of bullying within 100 yards of a place deemed safe for the community. The law would also protect places where drag queens perform.
Anyone who violates this prohibition could face a fine of up to $ 25,000, detailed Kristyn Wong-Tam while presenting her bill at Queen’s Park.
Kristyn Wong-Tam says action is needed to protect community members from “anti-2SLGBTQI+ extremists” who “specifically target drag queens.”
This bill was introduced with the support of several drag queens who traveled to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for the occasion.
The ruling Progressive Conservative Party opened the door to the idea of studying the bill, but did not go any further.
On Sunday, a demonstration and a counter-demonstration brought together around 200 people in Sainte-Catherine, on the South Shore of Montreal, on the occasion of a reading of a story for children by the drag-queen Barbada.
A duel of insults was launched on both sides, while three people were arrested and one injured.
The National Assembly on Tuesday adopted a resolution presented by Quebec solidaire stressing “that Dragqueens should not, under any circumstances, face violent insults, intolerance and hatred for their participation in the reading children’s stories”.
On Saturday, another demonstration escalated between opponents and defenders of drag queens in Vancouver, which led police to release two videos of suspects who had come to blows with their vis-à-vis.