Richmond group’s International Women’s Day event zoombombed with pornography

RICHMOND (NEWS 1130) — The president of a Richmond women’s group is heartsick and shocked after their virtual event was zoombombed with racist, sexist, and pornographic comments and images.

Tammi Belfer is the president of the Richmond Women’s Resource Centre, a mostly volunteer-run group that offers peer support, training, and education to local women. All of the programs have gone virtual amid the pandemic.

Saturday was their annual International Women’s Day event, the organization’s single-largest annual fundraiser.

To read our official statement please visit: https://t.co/i2CfYnpz0H

If you would like to support the Centre, our #IWD2021 Silent Auction is still ongoing until 10pm on March 8th at https://t.co/k7lGaYQePk and donation are accepted year round via https://t.co/2UACNNRqdj pic.twitter.com/VtBUnXdjAL

— Richmond Women’s Resource Centre (@BC_RWRC) March 7, 2021

The keynote address had just begun when she realized something was amiss. First, someone started scribbling on the PowerPoint presentation being given by the founders of the Boss Lady Collective.

“They went, uh-oh, and we just thought maybe it was somebody’s child,” she explains.

Then, the private messages started.

“They were stealing people’s names and sending us extremely rude messages,” Belfer says.

“It was just horrible. I was just so shocked. There were a few of us that felt violated, like somebody came into our house and did this. There was a clip that they showed that was a naked body dancing. It was horrible.”

A statement from the group describes the messages as containing “sexist, racist, ageist, vulgar and pornographic comments, images, and sounds.”

To the misogynist INCEL who thought it would be funny to hack our IWD2021 Zoom event: It wasn’t funny. Thank you for highlighting the importance of the work done by the Women’s Resource Centre. We need to lift each other up to make our world better.

— Alexa Loo 盧仙泳 (@alexaloo) March 6, 2021

It took nearly ten minutes for the stunned, shaken board members to lock the event down.

“I felt sick to my stomach and then heartsick, you know like when you have a real disappointment — you feel like your chest hurts. Just heartsick because everything was working so well. We worked so hard. This is our major fundraiser of the year for our little organization,” Belfer says.

The decision to target this group celebrating this day shows how much work still needs to be done toward women’s equality, according to Belfer.

“It’s a teaching moment. This shows why the centre is so important, this shows us why we need to be there, this shows why education has to be ongoing — it can’t be sometimes,” she says.

“Our whole reason for being is to support women.”

Belfer appreciates how speakers, attendees, and the MC handled the vulgar interruption but says the centre is working to find a way to prevent something like this from happening again.

As for what she wants people to learn from this incident, she says this kind of behaviour should be condemned by anyone who witnesses or experiences it.

“Just be vigilant and do not accept this as normal behaviour. This is not normal behaviour. This is not acceptable.”