An Evening With the Fae(mous) Five
- Katherine Jameson Digby
- 1 day ago
- 10 min read
Updated: 37 minutes ago
— A Special Report for Gender Dissent by Katherine Jameson Digby
Fae Johnstone is presented with his Famous 5 Award Left to right: Rosemary Thompson (Awards Jury Chair), Catherine McKenna (Former Liberal MP), Fae Johnstone (award recipient), Yasir Naqvi (Liberal MP - Ottawa Centre), Linda Lapointe (Liberal MP, Chair of Government Women's Caucus), Dr. Diana Beresford-Kroeger (award recipient)
Photo: Gender Dissent
Ottawa, Canada — October 21, 2025, trans-identified influencer Fae Johnstone, best known for usurping roles and titles formerly reserved for Canadian women, became the first male recipient of the annual Ottawa Famous 5 Award. Special reporter Katherine Jameson Digby was on the scene and provides some history and some highlights from the "celebration."
But first — Who were the Famous Five?
Prior to 1929, Canada’s constitution said that only “qualified persons”—meaning men only—could be appointed to the Senate.
Five courageous and idealistic Canadian women challenged these antiquated laws and conventions by insisting that women be officially recognized as persons in the fullest legal sense of the word. Known as the "Famous Five," they set a stirring example of leadership that altered all Commonwealth nations' laws, and, with it, the course of history.
The efforts of Canada's Famous Five caused the Privy Council of Great Britain to define the word ‘persons’ as always meaning both women and men. Other countries adopted this definition as well. Thus, 96 years ago, Canadian women were eligible to be appointed to the Senate of Canada.
From the Famous Five Foundation Website : https://www.famous5.ca
The Famous 5 Foundation was established on October 18, 1996—the 67th anniversary of the ‘Persons’ Case—and registered as a not-for-profit charitable corporation in 1997. The Foundation’s mission is to empower women and girls to courageously lead change that contributes to a society without boundaries for women, in the spirit of the Famous Five.
Zachary “Fae” Johnstone was born in 1996, and was an undergraduate at Carleton University when Justin Trudeau was first elected in 2015. By 2017, the Trudeau government had passed Bill C-16, which amended the Canadian Human Rights Act to add gender identity and gender expression to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination.
By the time Johnstone was finishing his master’s degree in social work at Carleton in 2020, Covid had descended upon the world, and the stage was set for him to go into the TQ+ industry full time. The Zoom world ushered in a golden age for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and the Trudeau government was offering buckets of money to anyone who could keep the 2SLGBTQIA acronym glued together.
And there, boldly entering stage left, was Johnstone, fresh out of grad school with a relentless instinct for self-promotion, ready to put out his bold, square jaw as the face of the new Canadian intersectional feminism.
Title image of Gender Dissent story, Faery Tales from February 2023.
The Famous 5 Foundation apologizes for the F5's "flawed" colonial beliefs
On October 21, 2025, Johnstone received the latest in a long line of distinctions as Canada’s most celebrated male woman. The “Famous 5 Foundation” conferred on Johnstone (and four actual, accomplished women), this annual award for “persons who exemplify the vision, determination, and social impact of Canada’s original Famous Five – the pioneers who secured women’s recognition as 'persons' under the law.”
The literature from the event does not make it clear whether Johnstone is a pioneer in the sense of being the first male recipient of the award. In the pamphlet, the honorees are variously referred to as “persons,” “individuals,” “recipients,” and “trailblazers,” but not as “women,” in perhaps an indirect recognition of the fact that the award now includes men.
From the 2025 Ottawa Famous 5 Awards Awards program
How the award came to include men will perhaps never be made public. There are some interesting clues, however, on two web sites run by the Famous 5 Foundation. We have both famous5.ca and famous5ottawa.ca. The sites contain much text that is identical. Both include biographies of the five women in question, written in the dispassionate, historical tone that one might expect. However, the famous5.ca site has added information, written in atrocious prose, that immediately jumps out as a recent addition, so out of keeping it is with the tone of the articles.
The biography of Emily Murphy at famous5.ca repeats all of the text given at the famous5ottawa.ca, but then tacks the following paragraph on at the end:
"Emily was a product of the white English Victoria era and whilst being dedicated to making changes to improve life particularly for women, she opposed changes others were bringing. She advocated sterilization as a way to lessen the struggle for survival but then when others advocated it be used to control races, she agreed with this idea."
Nellie McClung’s biography at famous5.ca has an equally awkward disclaimer added as the final line in her biography:
"Like other progressives, Nellie also supported the idea of sterilization to make life easier and no doubt would be appalled at how it evolved."
The Irene Parlby biography at both famous5ottawa.ca and famous5.ca informs us that “[Irene Parlby] became the first female cabinet minister in Alberta (and the second in the entire British Empire).” Then the mystery editor at famous5.ca has added that Parlby “was not given a portfolio because of misogyny.”
Both web sites have a heading entitled “About Us.” The famous5.ca site has a subsection under “About Us,” entitled “F5 Flawed Beliefs.” Under this, we get more of the bizarre, pedantic writing that stands out so jarringly in the biographies.
"The Famous 5 did not know what we know now, and as a result, like most Canadians more than 100 years ago, the F5 were white Christians.
"Of course, we, the Famous 5 Foundation, wish the F5 did not hold certain ideologies and beliefs. Today, we have accumulated and have access to either direct or indirect knowledge and experiences of the world, but in the early 1900s, most people’s knowledge and experiences came from within a small sphere.
"We regret the statements and actions of the F5 which were racist and elitist and believe that if the F5 were alive today, they would apologize for such matters and work towards greater equality and diversity.
Perhaps it’s time for us to ask ourselves — What am I doing and saying today which won’t withstand the test of time?"
The near-identical web sites, one with these cringey, patronizing apologies on behalf of women who lived one hundred years ago, and one without, suggests that there might be some disagreement among the Famous 5 Foundation about how to appropriately atone for the dreaded, historical “lack of diversity” in their organization.
Is this how we arrived at the “inclusion” of a male recipient for an F5 award in 2025?
Whatever the case, on October 21, 2025, at 5:15 PM, I found myself in the lobby of Carleton University’s Richcraft Hall, eager to find more about the Famous Five and the pioneering young man who was about to be honoured in their name.
I confess I was unconfident that we could count on the mainstream press to cover this historic event. I took it upon myself to take notes in the hope of publishing my account through Gender Dissent, the women-led website exposing the money and the influence behind the gender industry in Canada.
I also suspected that Johnstone’s many followers on social media would appreciate hearing how he comported himself on this celebratory occasion.
The ceremony
Johnstone arrived at 5:15 at the front of the building, for an event scheduled from 5:30 to 7:30. He wore a stunning black lace dress that left little to the imagination. I had pictured him always travelling with an entourage of gangly incels in dresses and tiny non-binary girls in surgical masks, and was somewhat surprised to see him arrive alone. Johnstone braced himself with a cigarette and then strode upstairs to the reception area. At this time, there were nothing but early-bird old women to talk to in the Richcraft atrium, so he promptly redescended at 5:20 for a second smoke.
The evening began in earnest at 5:30 with a half-hour reception with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Johnstone did have a short line-up of mostly younger women waiting for their chance to speak to Canada’s most revered spokesman on all things woman. The room was smaller than I had expected, with chairs set up for 120 people, and the room not quite full.
Four of the five honorees (seated) of the 2025 Famous 5 Awards Photo: Gender Dissent
Among the dignitaries present, Johnstone seemed mostly interested in Catherine McKenna, his former Member of Parliament in Ottawa Centre during his university years, and during the early days of the Trudeau government, when intersectionality was at its peak—a time when an ambitious young man could dream of tax-payer-funded travel across the country telling women how to accommodate men in their bathrooms.
Catherine McKenna had a book to promote, Run Like a Girl, in which she chronicled her start as a competitive swimmer in Hamilton with Olympic dreams, to her eventual election to Parliament in 2016. It would be interesting to get McKenna's thoughts on the effects of Bill C-16 on female sport in Canada, as leagues are now compelled by the bill—passed by her government—to include males in the female category, and to allow unfettered male access to female change rooms.
Other members of parliament present were Yasir Naqvi, current member for Ottawa Centre (and one of the very few men present), and Linda Lapointe, Chair of the Government Women’s Caucus, and MP for Rivière-des-Milles-Iles.
Linda Lapointe, Liberal MP and Chair of the Government Women's Caucus, congratulates the "persons" being honoured at this event—an event inspired by five historic Canadian female leaders who secured recognition for women as "persons" under the law.
Also present were Sheila Copps, MP for Hamilton 1984-2004, Rosemary Thompson, the 2025 Jury Chair and emcee, Beatrice Keleher Raffoul, chair of the Famous 5 Foundation Ottawa Group, and Anne Bowker, Dean in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Carleton University.
Ms. Keleher Raffoul mentioned in her remarks that Carleton is planning to remain a partner of the Famous 5 Foundation up until the centenary of the “Person’s Case” in 2029. There will be lots of opportunity for further discussions between Carleton and the Famous 5 Foundation as to what “inclusion” means for future awards.
Following the conferring of the awards, each candidate was invited to speak about the work that had led to this distinction.
The Youth Honoree, Sara Awada, was not able to speak as she had to leave early to write an exam.
Johnstone was first to speak, and to his credit, kept his remarks short, speaking mostly about the difficulties of buying groceries while wearing his trademark lipstick.
Fae Johnstone delivers his acceptance speech at the Ottawa Famous Five Awards ceremony, October 21, 2025. @1:50: "I refuse to live in a world where the next generation of women (and queer and trans people) are less safe and more scared than the generation that I grew up in." Video: Gender Dissent
Honoree Dr. Indu Gambhir, spoke about her lifetime of work as a women’s health advocate. During her time working for Doctors Without Borders, she noticed that she had to set up separate meeting spaces for village women to come and talk about their health, since they were often reluctant to speak when men were present and attempting to speak on their behalf.
Honoree Jocelyn Formsma talked about her advocacy for Indigenous youth. She highlighted how she had benefitted from leadership opportunities created especially for women, by women.
Honoree Dr. Diana Beresford-Kroeger spoke of her lifetime of work dedicated to scientific discovery, conservation and public education as a botanist, medical biochemist and author.
By the time Dr. Beresford-Kroeger was given the chance to speak, Johnstone was seemingly running low on patience, and spent the whole of the doctor's speech reading his phone.
Some questions
With the benefit of hindsight, a few aspects of this rarified evening struck me as curious for their absence.
Johnstone claims that Ottawa has been his home for eighteen years, until he announced this past summer that he was moving. This means he’s been in Ottawa since age eleven. After all that time, did he not have any friends or family that wanted to spend sixty dollars for a ticket to watch him win a Famous 5 award?
Secondly, Johnstone is a double-alumnus of Carleton University, having received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the School of Social Work. Why then did no one, including him, mention this at the ceremony? A post-event search of the copious Fae-related information online shows that he does not often identify himself as a Carleton alumnus. Has Johnstone had a falling-out with Carleton?
And finally, where was the 2SLGBTQIA+ “community” that we hear so much about? Is it possible some of them are still annoyed at Johnstone placing himself in the centre of the “Queers for Palestine” demonstration that brought the 2025 Capital Pride Parade to a halt less than an hour after it had begun?
Fae Johnstone, front and centre in the Queers for Palestine blockade of the 2025 Ottawa Pride parade.
Johnstone's social media on the run-up to Pride show involvement with neither Capital Pride nor Queers for Palestine, but in his inimitable way, he managed to get himself photographed in the centre of the barrage that stopped the parade, for reasons perhaps best explained in his follow-up opinion piece in the Ottawa Citizen on September 3.
As I left Richcraft Hall on October 21, I discovered that someone had left flyers in the women’s bathroom, commemorating Johnstone’s tweet of July 12, 2021, in which he famously called for Women and Gender Equity Canada to “vilify" women who don’t want men in their spaces. Someone must have thought that this should have had a bearing on his candidacy for the Famous 5 award.
A flyer with the most famous [and useful] of Johnstone's social media posts, taped to the door inside a women's washroom cubicle at Richcraft Hall. Photo: Gender Dissent
Johnstone did enact a mini twitter tantrum at 10 PM that night, once the flyers were brought to his attention. But the tantrum seemed half-hearted, as if he can no longer tap the depths of misogyny that characterized his early years in the TQ+ movement.
Which brings me to my final thought — has even Fae Johnstone had enough of “gender”? The man who has done more than anyone in Canada, or perhaps the world, to secure a place for men in women’s spaces, seems to be growing weary of the whole enterprise.
As his plane left the tarmac to take him back to his new home in Halifax, Johnstone sent out a last tweet, where he neglected to cast himself in his chosen gender, but summed up the general feeling nicely, “Je suis fatigué mes amis.”
Amen Fae!
We too, are fatiguées, and are looking forward to the imminent demise of gender.
Johnstone flashes his infamous grimace as he towers beside his co-honoree, Dr. Indu Gambhir at Ottawa's Famous 5 Awards. Photo: Gender Dissent
SOME GENDER DISSENT READER REACTIONS
A number of comments under Gender Dissent's social media preview of this story provide a taste of the disdain that many Canadians have towards this LARP-er, and of the Famous 5 Foundation's decision to honour him. Here are just a few, for good measure:
