Daughters of the Vote delegate claims other members were “hateful” towards Conservative women

22-year old Daughters of the Vote delegate and Nova Scotia Conservative nomination candidate Hannah Dawson-Murphy has made a public statement about being “subjected to hate” while participating in the delegation.

Hannah was one of the 338 young women, between the age of 18 and 23 who attended the political leadership program in Ottawa and at the House of Commons.

In the Facebook video which has been viewed over 10,000 times, Dawson-Murphy details how she and other conservative delegates were subjected to harassment and bullying from other members for applauding and supporting Conservative politicians.

“After the word got out that I was a conservative and that my friends were conservative, it went downhill from there, some delegates refused to call me by name. They would call me white woman, they would call me racist and fascist, they would call us colonizers, just these hateful, hateful terms,” said Dawson-Murphy.

“People need to know what went on towards other women that were at this conference. These other delegates… were very hateful towards other people who were not aligned with their views, and that made me really sad.”

In one post, Dawson-Murphy describes how one of her fellow delegates told her that she couldn’t call herself an indigenous woman because she was a conservative.

“Just off the first day, I was clapping for Rachael Harder who is a brilliant Conservative member of parliament, she got nominated at 26 years old and she won her nomination against four men and that was something that I really admired as a young woman going into politics,” related Dawson-Murphy. “Right after that speech one girl came up to me and called me a racist for clapping for her.”

Dawson-Murphy also relates in her video how she was not one of the women who turned her back on Justin Trudeau during his speech.

“The same delegates who actually turned their backs on Trudeau, were the ones who walked out on Andrew Scheer’s speech and I found that extremely disrespectful. And I did find those young women turning their back on the prime minister to be disrespectful as well,” said Dawson-Murphy. “I did sit there because I do respect his title and I do respect him as prime minister.”

Despite her experiences, Dawson-Murphy said she was thankful for the opportunity to be involved, but hopes that how women are treated at similar events and conferences will be addressed in the near future.

“I think that that’s not okay, I think that harassing somebody, verbally abusing them, because of their political affiliations, because of the colour of their skin, or their religion. One girl told me that my cross necklace that I always wear was offensive to her and that the next time that she saw me she might do something about it,” said Dawson-Murphy.

“I was on the edge the whole time because you don’t know these people, you don’t know how they would react.”