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The organization has come under fire in the past, particularly by women’s rights groups who claim that CAFE is not as much for equality as it is for redressing what it feels is a gender imbalance that now leans in favour of women.

Two year ago in Toronto, the group took out a billboard reading, “HALF of domestic violence victims are men. NO domestic violence shelters are dedicated to us,” which is, according to Statistics Canada, correct, but, critics claim, ignores the fact that women report more severe forms of violence than do men.

Last December, the Mayfair Theatre cancelled CAFE’s private screening of The Red Pill, a documentary about men’s rights activists, after receiving complaints from the theatre’s sponsors. The film was instead screened at city hall.

According to CAFE’s Ottawa chair, David Shackleton, the group’s detractors are the ones missing the point.

“Our evolutionary history has taught us to empathize with women and children, and not with men. Men were the protectors, and women and children were the protected. If you empathize with the protector, they can’t do their job; if you care too much, they can’t put their life on the line.

“The result is that when women and children are in trouble, we want to fix things for them. When men are in trouble, we want them to fix it for themselves. So we have an imbalance in society in empathy. But we’ve said to the world we want gender equality, and I think to do that, we need to address that empathy imbalance.”