I’m no fan of Sarah Thomson. I actually had an odd and uncomfortable business dealing with her back in Hamilton, years ago. She wanted to take and publish photos at a monthly queer dance event I was involved with. I told her her photographer would have to get permission from anyone who was photographed because all of the people might not be out. She pitched a fit and it never came to pass, fortunately. This was all in email, and I regret having not kept them.
I also wasn’t interested in her as a mayoral candidate. A little “head in the clouds” politcally for my liking.
But all that said, she did what so many women haven’t been able to do: she called out a man who, she alleges, touched and spoke to her inappropriately. And she has been treated in an all-to-familiar way: with doubt, distain and disregard.
Apparently being a woman in politics means she is supposed to accept this. It means she’s supposed to keep her mouth shut. It means that we are supposed to hold in high regard the voice of Toronto’s mayor, Rob Ford. Because he’s a man and she’s a woman. Simple as that.
How can the much-need dialogue of stopping, the one where men are taught to not sexually harass, dehumanize, degrade and rape women beging when a contemptible public figure such as Rob Ford is vigorously defended by media after such an allegation?
Personally, I think she did the right thing taking this public. Had it remained in the shadows, even if there was discussion and resolution, then we would not know that this is allegedly another notch in the Rob Ford belt of douchebaggery.
I may not like Sarah Thomson, but I greatly respect her for not taking this quietly. If it turns out that she was, indeed, a victim (and I fully believe she was), then I hope it gives other women—in politics or anywhere—the strength to speak out.
