Background:
During the Fall 2015 semester, a men’s rights/issues group has been visibly present on campus and has applied to be officially recognized as a student group with the Ryerson Students’ Union.  This has caused alarm amongst students, administration, faculty members, feminists, sexual assault survivors and those with marginalized identities on campus.  During the initial application process, the men’s issues group was denied official student group status.  The group plans to appeal this decision to the Board of Directors.  This petition will be delivered to both the Board of Directors and the Ryerson Students’ Union.

Whereas there has been an upsurge of men’s rights and issues awareness organizations seeking campus group recognition on campuses including Ryerson that exploit concepts such as free speech to advance the interests of people who have historically maintained power at the expense of women-identified people;

Whereas these groups have actively promoted aggression towards marginalized communities such as, but not limited to, women-identified people, trans people and racialized communities on campuses across the country including at the University of Toronto, Ryerson University and York University;

Whereas men’s rights groups actively seek to delegitimize women who come forward as survivors of gender-based violence and attempt to silence women who speak out against patriarchy and misogyny by use of threats, intimidation and harassment;

We the undersigned support the call from the Ryerson Feminist Collective demanding that:

•  The Ryerson Students’ Union publicly re-commit themselves to            principles of equity, anti-oppression, and intolerance of hate speech by:
  Releasing a statement denouncing misogynist groups on campus and   reiterating support of feminist and equity-based groups on campus.
  
  
•  The Board of Directors deny the appeal of the men’s issues group currently  attempting to organize and be recognized as an official student group on campus.