Juno News - Why this Canadian athlete is standing with Sophie Cunningham

00:00:00.000 our guest today is april hutchinson former powerlifting champion in canada and activist

00:00:10.640 for women only sports welcome april hey mark nice to see you again nice to see you as well

00:00:17.600 let's talk a little bit about the ongoing campaign to have women only spaces women only sports it has

00:00:23.760 now entered the realm of professional basketball in the united states with on the women's side 0.99

00:00:29.520 And we've seen some of the struggles that Sophie Cunningham, she's one of the stars of the WNBA,

00:00:35.440 and she has come out very much in favor of what you believe, which is that when it comes to sports

00:00:41.560 and women, men don't belong for obvious reasons, physical reasons, genetic reasons. It just doesn't

00:00:50.380 work. And Sophie Cunningham is coming to Canada soon, on the 18th of August, I believe, and

00:00:57.840 You'll be involved somehow with an event that shows your support for her.

00:01:03.620 Is that correct?

00:01:05.560 Yes, that's correct.

00:01:06.880 So, yeah, on August 18th, Indiana Fever will be at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

00:01:13.520 They'll be competing against Toronto Tempo, which is a great team.

00:01:17.400 So I'll be there about 5.30 p.m.

00:01:20.560 So a pregame rally will be taking place at Jurassic Park,

00:01:24.540 which is kind of like a meeting place in front of the uh the main entrance there where people can

00:01:29.120 gather and kind of you know it's not going to be a protest it's basically just going to be a

00:01:33.660 friendly rally with like you know posters wearing our xxxy athletic t-shirts just to show our love

00:01:40.940 and support for sophie it's not going to be like anti-toronto tempo we're not against toronto we're

00:01:46.740 not there to say oh we hope you beat toronto because you know i'm sure a lot of the players

00:01:51.180 on toronto are there actually they love sophie too they play like support sophie they're probably

00:01:56.080 like hey we we don't want men in our league too right so it's just to show our love and support

00:02:00.880 for sophie because you know we've seen some backlash right people are there you know there's

00:02:05.660 a lot of athletes like look at megan rapinoe that's saying that you know why not welcome

00:02:10.460 trans athletes why not welcome you know um women identifying or men identifying as females in the

00:02:16.760 uh WNBA so it's just going to be a peaceful protest I think that Rebel News might be there

00:02:22.460 with their billboard trucks circling around the venue saying like keep men out of women's sports

00:02:27.980 um so yeah it's going to be a great time and uh if anyone can come out and support and bring a sign

00:02:34.180 then please come on the 18th to support Sophie and uh just support females and keeping men out

00:02:40.280 women's sports are you expecting that maybe some anti-sophie people will be there as well people

00:02:47.960 who are going to say no trans people belong in the wnba just as they belong in all women's sports

00:02:56.120 i mean could things become become tense well you know it is canada so um i mean you've seen it in

00:03:05.560 the states it happened in the states too right we had there was activists there you know there's

00:03:10.660 always antifa that show up just to cause trouble um but i you know i've done a bunch of speeches

00:03:18.220 across canada i've never personally had any activists show up and to give me a hard time

00:03:24.640 um there's always those keyboard warriors that say they're going to show up and they never do

00:03:30.800 You know, there's going to be a lot of Toronto police around the area as well.

00:03:34.880 But I don't see, you know, it's a common sense issue.

00:03:38.340 Like 88%, if not more, of Canadians voted to keep men out of women's sports.

00:03:43.380 It is a common issue.

00:03:45.420 It's just a matter of, it's like women are the ones on the teams that are actually the ones that are just not saying no to it. 0.95

00:03:52.680 They're the ones that are not boycotting the sports.

00:03:54.920 Like, we've talked about this many times, right, where it's like, why am I the only one?

00:04:00.160 female canadian athlete that's actually used her voice and spoke up and said no to men like i've

00:04:05.600 actually you know spoken to you know athletes in my even like in pickleball where like i knew there

00:04:12.560 was a trans athlete playing like next week in a tournament and i said well would you play against

00:04:18.240 them they're like well i don't really care i want to beat a boy i'm like well no like i would take 1.00

00:04:22.640 a knee and say no like i'm not competing against you today it still goes on where women don't use 0.89

00:04:27.680 use their voice but I mean there might be activists there might be people just trying to be there to 0.60

00:04:32.620 cause trouble but I think it'll be a pretty much a peaceful a peaceful protest it's a it's a rally

00:04:38.140 it's not even a protest so right well they made an example out of you and that's probably why 1.00

00:04:43.380 other women have not jumped onto your bandwagon and made that case I mean you were banned for 0.99

00:04:50.640 what two years I was banned for two years and I was just talking to Linda Blade the head of

00:04:57.120 athletics for alberta i was talking to her earlier today and i said you know if i did have money and

00:05:03.760 it's still like in the works it's still in the talks um that you know if i did have money it's

00:05:09.960 not out of the question for me to sue them i'm still thinking about suing the canadian power

00:05:15.140 lifting union and i might even sue the museum that kicked my exhibit out it's it's not it has

00:05:21.980 not been it hasn't exited my brain so what they did was completely wrong especially since i made

00:05:27.900 a statement in my own free time you know stating that men don't belong in sports so you know that's

00:05:34.760 that will happen someday i will take them to court well they cost you your career you were going

00:05:41.180 gangbusters you were doing really really well and then you said that and they jumped on you 0.91

00:05:48.540 with both feet and so that was obviously a message sent to all women saying you better shut up about 0.93

00:05:55.100 this issue or we'll treat you just as badly as we treated April I mean that's probably the reason 1.00

00:06:02.000 why they did it they knew why they knew about it and I think they should face consequences for what

00:06:07.900 they've done and my other question would be around Sophie Cunningham if you had any contact with her

00:06:14.480 does she know what you're planning so i did talk to jennifer from xxxy athletics and she's the one

00:06:22.080 that kind of um and also amy susa um she's also a huge activist she lives in the states but um

00:06:30.560 they're the ones that kind of proposed this idea about setting up the rally in canada

00:06:35.760 um they basically um said that for me to contact riley gains who's a good friend of mine and said

00:06:41.440 hey let sophie know what section you're sitting in um at the at the game and so that we could

00:06:47.440 actually meet her after the game and get a photo and then basically what you know we're tagging

00:06:52.160 her and everything we actually made a good video for her to show her that we love her and support

00:06:56.080 her so yeah high hopes that we're basically going to meet her after the game and uh talk to her

00:07:01.040 because we got pretty good tickets to the game too so um yeah so pretty confident that we will

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00:08:18.260 I mean, look what's happened to her. I mean, she got clotheslined in a game. 0.97

00:08:22.900 That's seen by tens of millions of people, the highlight, where she was going in on the basket.

00:08:29.060 it you saw it she was you know looked like she was going to score and then an opponent uh basically

00:08:36.540 wrapped her arm right around her face and it was basically an assault and you can't help but think 0.97

00:08:43.340 that part of that is around the whole issue the strong stand that sophie cunningham has taken

00:08:48.640 what do you think oh yeah i'm actually going to be talking about that later on today

00:08:55.160 oh and then and then they said it was white privilege and all that yeah so that's that's

00:09:00.120 crazy i know yeah the right there's no consequences to actions anymore um yeah oh no for sure she's

00:09:08.280 gonna be targeted i mean even when i started speaking out like about my like in my federation

00:09:15.720 like i had trans activists go after my job like they just target and target and target you

00:09:21.240 and try to take you down this is how the you know in the states you call them democrats right this 0.65

00:09:28.200 is how they think this is how they will go after you and this is the the sickness of the mind of

00:09:35.240 being able to try to take you down and like that's like any you know but if that happened

00:09:40.600 did the roles were reversed in that that game like that's how you know we know what how things

00:09:45.880 would have played out right so it's just yeah she definitely has a target on her back right but

00:09:52.760 it's you know when that happened you know when she was doing the famous point 0.86

00:09:58.280 she you can't go anywhere without seeing sophie memes and support and love and that's what

00:10:03.880 happened to me that people don't understand even though i got suspended for two years and this is

00:10:08.360 what you and i have been working on you know being on your show is that people have to remember i

00:10:14.680 spoke up i got worldwide recognition i got you know and i thought about it before i spoke up

00:10:20.760 i'm like oh you know there's going to be some consequences but i felt better speaking up that

00:10:25.560 was the best thing i ever did and the women of canada you have to understand that like it's

00:10:31.320 about integrity it's about having sports for your little girls down the road because it's going to

00:10:36.280 be a male-dominated sport if you don't speak up and like i got sponsors i'm now an xxxy athlete

00:10:43.080 i've had i have other brands that i'm an ambassador to i got worldwide recognition i was on fox news

00:10:50.240 i was on tucker carlson like i get i get people recognize me down the street and go hey you're

00:10:54.780 april thanks so much for standing up for my little girls like you're a hero you're literally

00:10:59.980 considered a hero and so is sophie cunningham and you know what if i died tomorrow i'm leaving

00:11:06.860 a legacy behind i might not have daughters myself but i have little nieces but i'm remembered

00:11:12.760 as a canadian hero and people say that to me because i spoke up to make a difference in this

00:11:17.920 world so i hope the women out there can do the same thing even if you don't have daughters

00:11:22.680 be a change in this world for the pot you know for the positive and you know keep men out of

00:11:28.720 women's sports it's just that simple we don't you know men don't we don't need more men's sports

00:11:33.960 yeah i mean it's insane what has happened and why people normalized this type of behavior

00:11:42.840 including parents by the way i mean you go to high schools and you still see men boys you know

00:11:49.460 involved in sports in which women end up uh getting injured in some cases like basketball

00:11:56.800 to the or a volleyball to the face i mean they play rugby rugby it's astonishing what these

00:12:04.580 schools allow allow people to do i mean if i was a parent well i i am a parent if my daughter

00:12:12.040 was involved in sports these days i would take her out because i said no i don't want you competing

00:12:17.640 with somebody who could potentially hurt you it's absolutely ridiculous no exactly yeah it's not

00:12:24.840 just the fairness aspect it's the safety and there's there's just numerous numerous um you 0.86

00:12:30.780 know there was that wrestler that got sexually assaulted you know there's like there's tons of

00:12:35.920 of cases so you know who could forget the face of that italian boxer who was totally punched in

00:12:43.380 punched out by uh that trans uh athlete from algeria just uh astonishing anyway uh remind

00:12:52.160 us again about this event how do people support it where do people go uh can you fill us in on

00:12:58.640 those details yeah so um it's going to be on august 18th and again it's outside the scotia

00:13:05.440 bank arena in toronto so the location is called jurassic park but really all you have to do if

00:13:11.440 you're taking the train into toronto it's right outside the train station at union station it's

00:13:16.400 right at the main entrance you can't miss it you know you won't be able to miss me we'll be wearing

00:13:21.280 our x x x y t-shirts we're gonna have banners um you could also send me a message on my instagram

00:13:28.160 look for april hutchinson on instagram uh there's my website www.april hutchinson.com

00:13:34.960 find me on twitter find me on facebook instagram shoot me a message and i can give you details how

00:13:40.640 to get there but it's 5 30 p.m outside scotia bank arena indiana fever versus toronto tempo

00:13:48.000 come on out and show your love for sophie um it's gonna be a great game and just let's keep

00:13:53.520 men out of women's sports it's that simple april hutchinson thank you so much for what you do

00:13:58.720 appreciate it thank you mark always a pleasure seeing you i love you guys we'll see you if you

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Juno News - August 12, 2026

Why this Canadian athlete is standing with Sophie Cunningham

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