Controversial British Columbia transgender activist previously known as Jessica Yaniv – whose legal name is now Jessica Simpson – lost her recent bid to be a vice-president on the Simon Fraser University student union.
Official results released by the Simon Fraser Student Society show Yaniv placed second last in the by-election for VP Equity & Sustainability, receiving only 17 votes. The winner of the by-election received 142 votes.
Yaniv shared her intentions to run for the student union in an October Facebook post. Photos posted to social media show that posters for Yaniv’s campaign made an appearance on Simon Fraser’s campus.
Yaniv’s platform included advocating for an “increased permanent hiring of Black, Indigenous, Transgender, and other underrepresented communities Counsellors” at the university’s health and councilling services.
Yaniv, who is currently studying criminology and gender studies, also pledged to “deliver on the undelivered promises of SFU administration to finally get sanitary product dispensers (which are sustainable and free) installed in all restrooms on all campuses.”
One of Yaniv’s campaign graphics featured an image that resembled a bloody tampon. Prior to the results being released, Yaniv had accused the Simon Fraser Student Society of election rigging and voter fraud.
The transgender activist had been previously embroiled in several controversies that garnered national media attention – most notably, the filing of human rights complaints against multiple aestheticians who refused to wax her male genitalia.
The human rights complaints were dismissed by the tribunal, and Yaniv was ordered to pay three beauty salons a total of $6000.
As reported by the National Post, the tribunal’s ruling stated that Yaniv “targeted small businesses, manufactured the conditions for a human rights complaint, and then leveraged that complaint to pursue a financial settlement from parties who were unsophisticated and unlikely to mount a proper defence.”
Yaniv was also arrested and charged in 2019 after brandishing a taser during a heated livestream with American conservative transgender YouTuber Blaire White. Yaniv later pleaded guilty to a prohibited weapons charge.
True North reached out to Yaniv for comment and was told to “f**k off.”