Eva Kurilova on The Man Who Speaks for Canadian Women, Even on International Women’s Day.

Marni Panas, born Marcel Panas, is an Alberta man who claims to be a woman and likes to talk about how authentic he is. Recently, he was also invited to speak on a panel at an International Women’s Day event called “She Is” organized by Discovery House, a Calgary-based women’s charity.

A women’s charity that doesn’t know what a woman is. I remember the days when everyone learned this in very early childhood.

Two real women were invited to join Panas on the panel of “women leaders and change-makers across a variety of sectors”: Mandy Stobo, an “artist, entrepreneur, actor and mother,” and Christy Morgan, an “Indigenous Strategy Lead.” Discovery House also invited Canadian journalist Anna Maria Tremonti to give the keynote speech.

Well that’s nice of them. 75% women – I suppose that’s enough really. We wouldn’t want to be greedy.

Panas himself works as the program manager for Diversity and Inclusion at Alberta Health Services (AHS) and is a Canadian Certified Inclusion Professional (yes, that’s a real certification).

His specialty of course is the “include men as women” brand of inclusiony inclusion.

According to his website, he provides diversity and inclusion services to “health care professional colleges and societies, health centres, municipal and education governments, community services organizations, police services and other first responders, corrections facilities, corporations, and other institutions locally, nationally and internationally.”

I suppose the “services” are finding trans women for health care professional colleges and societies, health centres, municipal and education governments, community services organizations, police services and other first responders, corrections facilities, corporations, and other institutions to include in their inclusionary inclusion. What a saintly man he must be.

Panas made the news again in 2016 as an advocate for Bill 10. The bill mandates that schools can not refuse student requests for “diversity clubs” and that they must allow students who identify as transgender access to the washrooms and changerooms of the opposite sex.

Panas attended an Everyone Can Pee rally at the Alberta Legislature grounds to support the bill, where he clashed with members from a group called Parents for Choice in Education.

While those against the bill expressed concerns about undermining parental choice in education and women and girls losing their single-sex spaces, Panas told CBC that people with such concerns had to “catch up or shut up.”

You can submit or you can shut up; those are the choices.