The library manager said that the OPL’s publicly available code of conduct was “not correct” and “that does not apply.” Instead, we should be looking at the Intellectual Freedom Policy. But that policy does not override the Code of Conduct. In fact, the Code of Conduct serves as a guard rail for intellectual freedom. Intellectual freedoms are crucial to a democracy and healthy communities, but when information is proven to be false, discriminatory, and directly linked to state repression – it becomes anti-democratic. This is, in part, why such a code of conduct exists.

The manager engaged in a type of argumentation that rests on the assumption that information and speech exists in a vacuum. When our CSO member asked if they would allow a screening of “Birth of a Nation”, the manager nodded and said “if it is not illegal, yes”.

This is outrageous. We are witnessing an increase in all our communities of hateful rhetoric and actions. This has been occuring in public spaces, online communities, and through the platforming of hateful material for many years. It has persisted long enough to be mainstreamed, and now legislators across the world are either considering or already have implemented a roll back of human rights that target trans women, in particular. We are living in a time when members of the public, who cite movies like “Adult Human Female”, feel it appropriate to demand ‘proof’ of womanhood to access bathrooms and sporting events, based on their subjective interpretation of someone’s appearance. This is the context that must be considered when faced with renting space to transphobes.

We also received information from a community member that the Main Branch management is scapegoating the employee who initially confirmed the booking. 

This Branch is understaffed, according to its own workers, and overworking employees inevitably leads to mistakes. The City of Ottawa continues to make budget choices that do not prioritize the needs of the community, and instead funds OSEG and OPS at ever increasing levels. The 2025 budget for Ottawa libraries is $64.9 million, while the 2025 draft budget for police (who were called by OPL to coerce us into silence) is $447.5 million.  We are also aware of a trans youth who is being stalked and harassed by a transphobe within the Library on a regular basis. When our CSO member questioned why this abuse is ongoing, the manager of OPL blamed the victim of harassment for not starting a complaint process earlier. The OPL does not understand the threat our community faces, nor are they listening to our pleas to act with urgency.  We assert that the blame lies with the City of Ottawa for underfunding community services and OPL management, who is responsible for ignoring our calls to cancel the event and who chose to call the Police. 

In these dangerous times, individual actions matter. OPL management and security workers made a choice that day to protect transphobia. Our democracy is fragile, and as we are seeing in the USA, the laws and policies that exist to protect our freedoms are far too easily weaponized against the most vulnerable members of our communities. We cannot expect the law to be justly enforced, or for our politicians to protect us. We cannot wait for rulings on human rights violations, or for the slow tide of progress to turn in our favour. A sense of urgency is required of us all, including those who find themselves to be representatives of a public institution on a Saturday afternoon. History reminds us that not all laws are just and not all laws are justly enforced. History is unequivocal on our moral and social imperative to disobey when our bosses direct us to do something that contributes to injustice. 

The OPL should have used their code of conduct to protect the community. The OPL should have cancelled that booking when the community made them aware of the error they had made. The OPL feigned neutrality, but neutrality doesn’t stop hate. Neutrality ignores it. On Saturday, this neutrality was the justification for calling the Ottawa Police Service on us. This is wrong in the current context and will be wrong in the annals of history.

CSO, and those who joined us, did the right thing on Saturday.

The Library, its security, and the Ottawa Police all chose to protect transphobia, in defiance of the Library’s own Code of Conduct. When OPS arrived and told us we faced arrest if we did not leave the Library immediately, we were engaging in respectful dialogue that was far and above what transphobes deserve. The way in which we protest is often used as a justification for the criminalization of protest. We are told we are too loud, too disruptive, too inconvenient. Even when we target a poorly attended event in the basement of our Public Library, we are told we went too far. The only people disrupted on Saturday were the transphobes themselves, and the disruption was purposefully non-violent and included civil discussion. If we follow the logic of the City and its Police Service, the only acceptable protest is one that is not seen, heard, or even within view of its intended audience. This is unconstitutional, undemocratic, and illogical. 

We non-violently disrupted a hateful event, away from the general public, for a mere thirty minutes before we were trespassed by Police. This is in stark contrast to how access to all our downtown public institutions, including the OPL, were violently obstructed for weeks, under the banner of hate, during the Convoy in 2022.