Response to Allegations from 2022

We want you to feel proud about wearing anything Monster Muffin and to know what we truly stand for. We care about each and every one of you and want to see you succeed as an athlete while helping the roller derby community grow. We accept all and stand for freedom of choice whether that be religion, gender, creed or any other aspect of self identifying. Our goal is to make uniforms and to spread support and love to athletes around the world. As a women-dominated sport, it is also important for us to show how to support one another and build each other up.

We support you and hope that you will continue to support us.

In 2022 I attended the Canadian Freedom Convoy. I went for my own personal feelings towards rights and freedoms and how I felt they were being infringed upon by our government. I wanted to keep it to myself, so I didn’t post anything on social media or even tell many friends or family members. One of the people I went with posted a picture of me on her Facebook page at the convoy, and it went viral within the derby community, family and friends. The roller derby league I skated with at the time, Toronto Roller Derby (ToRD), got wind of it, and the president at the time, Allison Rose aka Trial by Fury, sent me a private Facebook message stating her disapproval. We exchanged a few messages back and forth stating our own perspectives until things turned when she said I would need to make a public statement and adhere to set instructions in order to be considered for forgiveness and continue to be a sponsor of the league. They gave me, I believe it was 24-48 hours, to respond.  The list of demands I was asked to read at a meeting with ToRD’s Board of Directors and to post on my personal and business social media accounts. They asked that the statement include the following:

1. Denunciation of the Trucker Convoy organizers and their hateful, racist, violent, and/or undemocratic statements, including the MOU and the GoFundMe page;

2. Denunciation of all white supremacist and Nazi paraphernalia at the protest;

3. A promise that both you and your business with continue to follow all laws, regulations, and public health measures related to vaccines and public health such as masking, social distancing, capacity restrictions, etc.;

4. A sincere apology to ToRD and the wider derby community for your actions in attending the Trucker Convoy protest;

5. An acknowledgement of the harms your attendance and participation in the protest has caused to the member of ToRD and the wider derby community;

They continued with….

“But a statement will be only the first step. I will have to discuss the rest of the process with the rest of the Exec, our Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Committee, as well as ConMed. But other things will likely include a significant donation from Monster Muffin to one or more organizations of our choosing, an agreement to undergo diversity, inclusion and equity training to educate yourself around these issues, possibly an agreement to personally apologize, individually, to every member of the league who requests it, and listening to them explain how your actions have hurt them. I’m not sure what else, but it will be a long and likely difficult process.”

This was an utter shock to me, and I could not comply with all of their demands. I do not support and never have supported any hurtful or racist groups, so that part was not an issue; however, to denounce the Convoy, pay an organization of their choosing an undisclosed amount, and promising to follow government health recommendations and mandates relating to Covid-19... this sounded like extortion to me. I did post to both my personal and business Facebook profiles with my letter back to ToRD and let everyone know what they were asking of me. I kindly stated I did not agree with them, and I would no longer be a sponsor to the league. I exposed them, stood my ground, and wished them well. Maybe this wasn’t the smartest move, but I felt pressured to have to post something to defend myself and company.

Roughly a month or so later, I hired a lawyer to reach out to ToRD after they posted a statement on their website, Instagram, and Facebook accounts slandering my name and my company. Our lawyer reached out with a letter highlighting how they breached their own code of conduct by publicly posting a private issue between one of its skaters and a sponsor. We explained into more detail how I did not represent any of the hateful groups they insinuated, and that it was even more hurtful to my entire family as my grandmother was in a concentration camp. We asked for a public apology and to have the post taken down. We gave them the same amount of time to respond that they gave me, and they never replied. We reached out multiple times to see if they got our email to which they finally replied and said they would get back to us. They never did, and they never took their post down. I had taken down the posts on my Instagram and Facebook as I didn’t want that to be the focus of my company. I made my point and was ready to move on.

I was so stressed I didn’t want to bother with them anymore. I decided to focus all my attention on my business and give our customers the best service possible. It’s hard to know exactly how many customers we lost due to this as we were just coming back from two years of lockdowns, and not all teams reformed after Covid-19.

Roughly 2 years later on August 2, 2024, we signed an agreement with the governing body of roller derby, the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), to be a partner with their patch printing program. We spent months back and forth talking about the contract and were both excited to make the announcement to the derby community. On August 6 at 10 a.m., WFTDA made the first announcement on social media. Within the first few hours, people were commenting with hurtful and hateful things about Monster Muffin and the owner being racist, a white supremacist, BLM terrorist and so on and so on. They claimed to know this because of ToRD’s post that was still live with many providing screenshots and linking to it in the comments. I immediately contacted the current president of ToRD, Shae-Lea Ferguson aka Starscream, to ask that the post be removed. I let her know we were still getting emails and hurtful comments and told her how much it hurt me to know it was still even posted as I had honestly thought it had been taken down. She admitted the post was “picking up traction with the WFTDA announcement” and would talk to her execs about having it removed. The next thing I heard was “after reviewing with the executive team and members of the league we have made the decision not to take down the post as we still stand by the statement made by previous executives.” Heartbroken, I didn’t know what to do. By now the comments on WFTDA’s posts were out of control, and it felt like the entire derby community hated me and my business... It was 2022 all over again.

I was astonished that after 6 hours of the initial post from the WFTDA, they updated their post stating that Monster Muffin’s patch license has been suspended until they can investigate further. About an hour or so later, we got an email from them stating we were to stop using the logo and they will reach out for a discussion. We have yet to be asked any questions from the WFTDA but we are eager to speak with them.

I’m not sure what to do at this point after how brutal the last slander campaign on me was, I’m terrified to make a move. I had spent hours upon hours defending myself in blogs, posts, emails and in person, and it feels like it was all for nothing. There have been many stepping up to try and defend both myself and my company, and to them I am eternally grateful. The messages of support and love has been astounding. The brave souls that try to take on the haters on social media posts has been few but has been mighty, and I appreciate each and every one of them.

I want it to be clear we are not racist, white supremacists,  Black Lives Matter terrorists, anti-trans, or anti-LGBTQ+2. We never have been and never will be. The only thing we’ve stood behind this entire time was freedom of choice. Period.