FIRST READING: Alberta MLA goes viral for video in which she’s berated by trans activist

Jennifer Johnson refused a demand from activist Karla Marx to say that 'trans women are women'

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Published Sep 20, 2024  •  5 minute read

Alberta MLA Jennifer Johnson and trans activist Victoria Bucholtz (aka Karla Marx) pictured in a Sept. 16 virtual roundtable. Photo by Screenshot from X.com

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TOP STORY

An exiled Alberta MLA who has been under instructions to “rebuild trust” with the LGBT community has become the subject of a viral video in which one of those trust-building sessions features her being berated by an activist who moonlights as a drag queen named Karla Marx.

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Karla Marx is the stage name of Calgary’s Victoria Bucholtz, a trans activist who goes by the pronouns she/her — and is also a Mount Royal University sessional instructor specializing in German history.

During a virtual roundtable with Alberta MLA Jennifer Johnson, Bucholtz opened by asking the Lacombe-Ponoka representative: “Will you state on the record that trans women are women?”

Johnson said, “I’ve never been asked that before,” and then said she “wanted time to think on that.”

To this, Bucholtz vowed to “speak out against this meeting.”

“I’m not going to be your pink-washing unless you can tell me right now that you believe that I, as a trans woman … am a woman, then we don’t have a lot to work on here,” said Bucholz, adding, “If you can’t start with that basic foundation principle that we are who we say we are … then I don’t think we’re on the same page.”

Bucholz then gave Johnson “one more chance” to agree that trans women are women, but signed off with a smile and a wave when Johnson replied, “Can we disagree and still respect each other?”

Clips of the encounter have been seen more than a million times on social media, and garnered notice from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, a vocal critic of gender identity activism.

“Honestly, you don’t even need to turn up the sound,” wrote Rowling against a post on X describing Bucholtz as a “man attempting to control a woman.”

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Bucholtz, meanwhile, did indeed “speak out” against the meeting. “Today several members of the queer community met with MLA Jennifer Johnson … she refused to say on the record that trans women are women. No Jennifer, you haven’t done the work,” posted Bucholtz to an X account under the name KarlaMarx1917, and adorned with a banner featuring a sickle crossed with an ejaculating penis.

Johnson was expelled as a candidate for the United Conservative Party in 2023 after audio was released of her saying that gender ideology in the public school curriculum was similar to ruining a batch of cookies with a “teaspoon of poop.”

“It does not matter that we’re in the top three per cent of the world. Who cares if they got 89 per cent in Chemistry 30? Who cares that they’re entering post-secondary — if they’re chemically castrated?” Johnson can be heard saying in the recording.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called it a “vile analogy” and declared that if Johnson won her riding she would not be allowed to sit in the UCP caucus.

Johnson then proceeded to win her riding by one of the widest margins in the province (67 per cent against 23.5 per cent for her NDP challenger) and has been sitting as an independent ever since.

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https://www.instagram.com/janis.irwin/p/C__z_EIyW9I/?img_index=1

In an apology issued shortly after her ejection from the UCP, Johnson said: “Although I am concerned about potentially life altering medical procedures for young children, this is an extremely sensitive topic for so many and I need to do a much better job communicating my concerns and objectives.”

Smith has signalled the possibility that Johnson may be let back into caucus. But in a statement to Global News this week, the premier’s office said that Johnson “has some work to do to rebuild trust and relationships in the LGBT+ community.”

Numerous commenters had framed the Bucholtz encounter as being part of a mandatory session that had been ordered by Smith — a claim that Johnson dismissed in a Facebook statement.

“This meeting was at the request and arranged by a constituent of the Lacombe-Ponoka riding, and I was happy to accept their invitation to meet,” wrote Johnson. In addition to Bucholtz, the meeting had featured representatives of the Lacombe Pride Society, Ponoka Pride Society and the Central Alberta Pride Society.

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“Danielle Smith, her office, and the UCP caucus and party were in no way involved in or aware of this meeting and, contrary to speculation, this meeting has nothing to do with my future as an Independent Member of the Legislature.”

IN OTHER NEWS

It’s no secret that crime is way up, but a new report by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute has found that, unlike many previous crime waves, this one is hitting everywhere all at the same time. Sexual assaults were rising in every city the report examined, and robberies were up in every urban area except Vancouver. While the solution to all this is usually cited as better rehabilitation or an improved social safety net, Macdonald-Laurier said that a lot of it would go away if Canada just kept bad people in jail for longer. “While governments need to address various factors affecting crime — such as improving rehabilitation programs — stronger sentences for the most serious crimes are also an important aspect of criminal justice reform,” spokesman Peter Copeland told the National Post in an email.

“There is an opportunity to get something out of this situation,” was how Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet answered a reporter’s question this week about why he was propping up the Trudeau government even if national polls showed Canadians widely dissatisfied with the status quo. Blanchet added that Quebecers were least inclined to want an early election, which does seem to be backed up by polls. An Ipsos survey from last week found that just 40 per cent of Quebecers wanted federal opposition parties to “trigger an election at the earlier opportunity,” against 60 per cent who wanted the House of Commons to muddle through until late 2025.

The Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation has just released details of how the Trudeau government spent $2.7 million on film festivals between January 2023 and May 2024. Among the six-figure bill to organize a “Canada House” at South by Southwest in Austin was $35,000 in furniture and foliage rentals, although the weirdest charge was easily $9,930 for “umbrella stand coordinator services” at Cannes. 

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