Join Dr. Mandi Gray as she celebrates the Winnipeg launch of Suing for Silence: Sexual Violence and Defamation Law (UBC Press). There will be a conversation hosted by Katrina Clarke of the Winnipeg Free Press, an opportunity for audience Q&A, and a book signing with the author.

The launch will be hosted live in the Atrium of McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park and also available as a simultaneous YouTube stream.

The arrival of the #MeToo movement was long overdue, putting sexual violence in the spotlight and opening up public discussion of the problem. It also sparked a global anti-feminist backlash. In Suing for Silence, Mandi Gray critically examines how abusive men use defamation lawsuits as a weapon against anyone who attempts to hold them accountable. 

Suing for Silence argues that such suits ought to be recognized as Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation (SLAPPs), whose purpose is not to achieve justice but to intimidate, silence, and drain the financial and emotional resources of those who speak out against sexual violence and even report their own assaults – and to discourage others from doing the same. Sexual violence discourse must have adequate protection if it is to be heard.

Dr. Mandi Gray is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Trent University, lecturing in criminology, and an anti-violence activist. She is regularly featured in Canadian media on issues pertaining to sexual violence, including in the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, and Toronto Life, and on the CBC. Visit her online.

Host Katrina Clarke is an award-winning investigative reporter with the Winnipeg Free Press. She has reported on issues of sexual misconduct and sexual assault in the fields of education and medicine, and the systemic failure of those in positions of power to address wrongdoing. She previously worked at the Hamilton Spectator, the Toronto Star and The Daily Gleaner in Fredericton, N.B.