Alek Minassian, a 25-year year old male, was arrested after “a rented vehicle ploughed into a crowd, leaving a further 15 people hospitalised, and also faces multiple counts of attempted murder”, in Toronto, Canada, says CNN. However, this tragedy only reflects a “real-life online underworld of misogyny and violence,” says reporter Gianluca Mezzofiore about the Incel Revolution.

The Incel Revolution refers to the term, “involuntarily celibate.” The Revolution aims to punish women for denying incels sex, says The Atlantic. The representative phrase “The Incel Rebellion has already begun!” comes from a message police say the alleged Toronto killer posted on Facebook minutes before the van rampage that left 10 pedestrians dead, says Mezzofiore.

The movement consists of a male majority who claim they “can’t have sex despite wanting to,” according to incels.me. Utilizing online platforms, a rather more extreme portion of the group discuss “the desirability of carrying out gruesome misogynistic crimes, including mass rapes”, says The Atlantic. These discussions help add a distinguished tone to the revolting notions this group praises. Following Minassian rampage, many were quick to celebrate, claiming that he could become their “next new saint”.

However, Canada’s gender based problem is not necessarily new. Back in 1989, Marc Lépine, a 25 year old man, walked into a college classroom at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, Canada. “Lépine had previously been denied admission to the École Polytechnique and had been upset, it later transpired, about women working in positions traditionally occupied by men,” according to The Guardian. Before opening fire, Lépine shouted: “You’re all a bunch of feminists, and I hate feminists!”.

Furthermore, the national statistics agency, Statistics Canada, reported that “between 2001 and 2015, indigenous women were six times more likely to be murdered than other women in Canada.”

So where does Canada’s gender based problem stand today?

On election night 2015, when Justin Trudeau was running for the office of prime minister, he boldly declared himself a feminist,” says Global News, “but considering that women still make 74 cents to every dollar that a man earns and gender-based violence affects approximately half of all Canadian women”.

Global News conducted a survey in the May of 2017 that reported, “four out of five Canadians believe the next generation of women is likely or more likely to experience sexual assault”. The fear of sexual assault in both Canada, and the United States of America, expressed through the “Me Too” movement, is uncanny. The “Me Too” movement emphasizes empowerment for women. Unlike the Incel Movement, this empowerment is not over another gender, but for the victim. The only way to solve this crucial issue is to address it.

Despite the progression of gender equality in Canada, “61 per cent of Canadians believe that gender equality in our country has progressed in the last 25 years” Global News, Canada still has a long way to go before it’s women can feel safe.