NDP Chairman is Even More Radical Than You Think
| NDP Chair is even more radical than you think |
Mar 31
CPAC (NDP Convention – Chair Adrienne Smith)
By: Nick Osmond-Jones
A lot of people are having a good laugh right now at the antics at the convention of Canada’s New Democratic Party (the NDP). Clips are circulating of delegates arguing about whose intersectionality makes them most deserving of speaking time, misgenderings, a Hulk Hogan-style speech saying it is time to “eat the damn rich!”: it’s hard to believe this is a serious political party, not scenes from a sketch comedy show.
The main character in this tragicomedy has been the Chair, who oversaw this three-ring circus with great earnestness, while sporting an unfortunate haircut that led to many crude insults and unfortunate comparisons. Her name is Adrienne Smith, and while the clips may be funny, there is nothing funny about her or the influence she wields.
Juno News reports the stories the legacy media doesn’t want to touch. Become a Juno News premium subscriber today to support bold, fearless journalism.
Smith is a lawyer from Vancouver BC. She is a woman who identifies as non-binary (that is, a female who claims she is neither man or woman). Her website makes clear that the practice of law is twinned with her activism. Her slogan is “Keeping the Social Just” and her firm is billed as a “progressive Downtown Eastside boutique law firm for underdogs and the organizations that fight for them”. She does employment law, but only represents unions. She does human rights complaints, but only helps complainants. In Smith’s world, justice is inextricably linked to power and oppression. If you are oppressed, your cause is just. If you have power, not so much.
One of the services she offers is training for organizations. Workshop titles include Know Your Rights for Drag Performers and Library Workers, Social Justice Intervention Training (Dismantling white supremacy), and, what we all saw on display at the NDP convention: Anti-Oppressive Meeting Procedure. And of course, her bread and butter: Transgender Rights.
Most of her workshops are done for taxpayer-funded organizations (think government, universities, or non-profits) or labour unions. I encountered Adrienne Smith when I was an employee at the BC Ombudsperson’s Office. Her presentation on trans rights was a mix of personal grievances (she once had to turn down a job offer because there was only male and female bathrooms, neither of which she could use), radical claims about history and biology (gender roles were imposed on indigenous people by colonization, biological sex is a spectrum rather than a binary). More important to my work as someone who investigated complaints regarding government services, Smith claimed that Canadian law required the government to treat people based on self-declared gender identity rather than biological sex. In the Q&A at the end of the session I raised my concern that these were contested issues that reasonable people should be able to discuss, but any disagreement was stifled by fear of being accused of bigotry. Smith shut me down with a rant that began by stating that “this is not a question about a disagreement of terms or something that can be politely debated. This is a dispute between people who are seeking justice and people who would prefer that we were dead” and went on from there. Audio of our full exchange can be found here.
Smith, and people like her, are doing workshops like this all the time. They send a clear message to public servants and professionals: the cult of gender is in charge. Dissenters are made an example of, and witnesses learn the lesson: toe the line or else. Employers also have a financial motivation to ensure employees fall in line: Smith’s website stipulates that “there is a $100 surcharge per incident if people say intentionally transphobic things to me during a session.”
On the legal front, dig into any of the myriad crazy gender-related cases in BC and there is a good chance Smith was involved. Most people have heard of the recent BC Human Rights Tribunal decision to penalize former Chilliwack school trustee Barry Neufeld $750,000 for criticizing gender ideology. What you likely don’t know is that in 2021 Smith petitioned the BC Supreme Court to have Neufeld removed from his elected position, and to prevent him from running again. In a rare win for sanity, she was unsuccessful. At the BC Human Rights Tribunal, Smith broke new ground in 2021 by securing a $30,000 reward for a restaurant employee who was fired for aggressively insisting on being addressed as they/them.
On the advocacy front, Smith’s name pops up everywhere. In Hansard, she was named as a supporter of the 2016 inclusion of gender identity in the BC Human Rights Code (a change which enabled the non-binary restaurant ruling). Smith was instrumental in cutting municipal funding for Vancouver Rape Relief, a women’s shelter that refuses to admit men. She is the chair of the BC NDP’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee (SOGI). She appeared before parliament to advocate in favor of Bill C-6, the bill against conversion therapy which makes it illegal for medical professionals to help gender-confused children accept their biological sex. According to the BC lobbyist registry, Smith has reported 45 meetings to lobby government officials, mostly to oppose legislation which puts limits on the ability of criminals to change their (dead)names.
Smith is also a poet, and a 2021 performance gives us some clues to what underlies her advocacy: pain. In it, she expresses frustration at her inability to sustain long-term relationships, which she blames on bigotry. She states that she binds her chest “because it hurts too much not to” and frames this as a gift to the world to shield us from her pain. It’s a moving performance. She is eloquent, and her pain and frustration are palpable, but it’s no basis for public policy.
The upshot of all this is that, in a public setting like the NDP convention, when Smith’s ideology is put into practice, it looks ridiculous. This is why trans activists like Smith focus on gaining control of the levers of power behind the scenes: establishing ideological control in institutions through workshops/struggle sessions. Embedding their ideology into law and policy, not by convincing the public they are right, but by lobbying behind closed doors. Once laws and policies are changed, enforcing public compliance through courts and tribunals.
Smith may cut a ridiculous figure, but don’t underestimate her.
