HebrideanHecateA Canadian mother has come forward to reveal that she was chastised by staff at her local recreation center after reporting that a balding man wearing “fetish gear” was in the women’s changing room. Despite feeling so frightened that she called the police, the mother was told that the man had a right to self-identify into whatever changing room he felt like. The incident occurred on February 18, when Keri* and her 14-year-old daughter visited the Bonnie Doon Leisure Centre in Edmonton, Alberta. Their plans to have a fun-filled afternoon at the local pool quickly took a turn for the worse after the two entered the changing area to see an adult man “naked except for fetish gear” standing in the center of the room.
After explaining what she had seen in the women’s changing area, a male staff member dismissed her concerns. “He said something like: ‘yes, this is an inclusive facility, what are you afraid will happen?’ and so I told him I was calling the police. He asked me why I felt the need to call the police, but did not try to stop me.” While waiting for an officer from Edmonton Police Service to arrive, a female staff member approached Keri to ask her about the situation. Keri recorded the conversation with the staff member, and provided the audio to Reduxx for review. In the recording, Keri is heard giving a statement to the staff member and explaining precisely what she had experienced.
Constable Matthew Hawley responded to the scene, and took Keri’s report. “He said that no law had been broken, and that this was city policy. He told me Edmonton Police Service is neither for nor against it, and if I didn’t like it I could stop using the pool,” Keri says, distraught by the response she received. “I tried to press him about whether he thought 14-year-old girls should have to get undressed in front of middle-aged men in fetish gear and he said the [Edmonton Police Service] has no position on it.”
Sherri_Ingrey
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