Over 3,000 people have signed an online petition to federal Citizenship and Immigration Minister Christopher Alexander to keep a man whose seminars and boot camps on how to pick up women are considered offensive and promote rape.
Julien Blanc is scheduled to perform a number of free seminars next year in Toronto, Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver but some say he is promoting emotional and physical violence against women. Videos of his seminars, as well as tweets promoting rape, have drawn international attention this month.
In one video of a seminar conducted in Japan, Blanc tells men they just have to shove a woman’s head into their crotch for a successful pick-up. On Instagram Blanc has suggested walking up to a woman in a bar and choking her as a way to begin seducing them. His Instagram and Twitter accounts have since been made private.
On social media, thousands have used the hashtag #KeepJulienBlancOutOfCanada in the hopes the government stop his entry into the country.
In a statement released on Monday, Alexander said he is aware of the campaign to keep Blanc out of Canada and that he is “looking at all options and will consider using every tool at our disposal to protect the rule of law on Canadian soil.”
“As a husband and father of two young girls, I find this person’s views, his actions and the fact he profits from them, absolutely and utterly disgusting,” Alexander said. “Canadians are united in the outright rejection of sexual violence, assault and depravity. People who hold or espouse such views against women are not welcome in this country.”
1/ I see your tweets & am aware of #KeepJulienBlancOutofCanada. His content is completely counter to Canadian values and common decency.
— Chris Alexander (@MinChrisA) November 10, 2014
2/ My job is to ensure our imm system does not facilitate violence against anyone in Cda & ensure women are protected from all forms of such
— Chris Alexander (@MinChrisA) November 10, 2014
3/ We are looking at all options and will consider using every tool at our disposal to protect the rule of law on Canadian soil.
— Chris Alexander (@MinChrisA) November 10, 2014
Blanc recently had scheduled appearances in Australia cut short when the government cancelled his visa amid protest.
“This guy wasn’t putting forward political ideas, he was putting forward abuse that was derogatory to women and that’s just something, those are values abhorred in this country,” Australian immigration minister Scott Morrison told Sky News.
Similar calls have been made in England to put an end to his Nov. 27 appearance scheduled in London.
The seminars are put on by a group based in the United States called Real Social Dynamics, which claims to be the “World’s top Dating coaching,Self-Actualization & Social Dynamics company” and offers boot camps as well as paid for seminars around the globe.