May 12, 2025

To EM—

We don’t know your name, but we know your courage.

As women watching from across the country, we are heartbroken, enraged, and in awe of your strength. You are walking through fire in that courtroom in London, Ontario—reliving the horror, subjected to endless questioning, standing alone against a system and a culture that have failed you again and again.

We believe you.

What you are facing should never happen to anyone. The idea that multiple men could degrade and assault a woman and justify it as “consensual” is a grotesque distortion of truth, power, and humanity. It echoes other stories we have heard—like that of Gisele Pelicot in France—and it reminds us how deeply broken the world still is when it comes to violence against women.

As you sit in that courtroom, know this: you are not alone. Across the country, women are checking in with each other, shaken by what’s unfolding, haunted by the way society continues to protect power over truth. We hear the familiar whispers: “She shouldn’t have been there,” “She was asking for it.” We reject them. We are tired of this narrative. We are tired of the silence.

You are facing five men, multiple lawyers, a sport with national pride wrapped around it like armor—and still, you speak your truth. We want you to know that in our eyes, you are a Canadian hero. A superhero. Not because you should have to be—but because you are. For what you are enduring, for what you are standing up against, for all the women before you and all the girls who are watching now.

We wish we could be in the room, standing behind you. Instead, we send this letter as a small act of witness and a promise: that we see you, we hear you, and we are with you.

With rage, sorrow, and deepest solidarity,

Karen Barnes, Tosh Southwick and KP and the thousands of women supporting you out there.