Mark Cousins gives evidence

Getting Dirty by Association

Hello all,

First of all apologies if this lands even later than I hoped. I am a trustee of the Horizon Scandal Fund charity and we had a trustees' meeting this evening which I was able to attend remotely from my spartan lodgings near the tribunal court in Belfast.

My fellow trustees kindly let me go after an hour, so I am getting down to this newsletter aware I need to crack on.

What giveth?

It has taken me until this week to at least partially get my head round the claimant's case in this tribunal. Obviously I have spoken to Sara Morrison in detail about her experience, but it is her legal team, led by Naomi Cunningham, who have forensically parsed the evidence to put together their theory of what happened.

Usually you get a pretty good indication of where things are going at the beginning of a trial as each party delivers oral opening submissions which tells the court what the theory is and how they propose to prove it (making it easier for dimmo hacks who haven't seen all the paperwork to understand the case). Each legal environment is different. At this tribunal neither party gave oral opening submissions, they just went straight to the witnesses.

As we know, Sara Morrison gave evidence on days 1 and 2 this week, and was cross-examined by the Belfast Film Festival's barrister Sean Doherty. Through the evidence put to her and her responses, Doherty made the case that the BFF had been an entirely reasonable employer, acting in good faith from the moment it became aware of Sara's participation in the Let Women Speak (LWS) event on 16 April 2023, right up to her resignation on 26 November 2024.

Sara's case is more complex. From what I understand - and please bear in mind we are barely at the mid-point in this tribunal so this might be off beam - Sara's legal team believe there was a carefully constructed conspiracy to push Sara out of the BFF by deliberately creating an environment which made her job impossible.

Before we go through the evidence of today's witnesses, I will attempt to set it out for you. Just to be clear, this is my take on the claimant's case - many of the intentions and actions herein are disputed by the respondent and I might have got the wrong end of a very important stick, but here goes:

The evil plot

On 18 April 2023 Michele Devlin, the BFF CEO, posts a tweet celebrating a Good Friday Agreement event. A reply to that tweet alerts Devlin to Morrison's participation in the LWS event. Devlin hides the reply and moves to assist Morrison who is getting such a barrage of abuse online, she eventually has to get the police involved. It is a highly stressful time. By sitting it out and getting the police to have a word with some of the worst offenders, the abuse dissipates. Morrison and Devlin's relationship is put under strain.

On 4 May there is a quarterly BFF board meeting. No item is put on the agenda about LWS, but board member Lucy Baxter brings it up asking "what is going on that a BFF employee is speaking at this anti-trans, right wing event?". The issue is discussed briefly at the end of the meeting. Board member and former BFF chair Mark Cousins is not present at the meeting.

On 5 May Devlin updates the new co-chairs of the BFF (Marie-Therese McGivern and Lisa Barros D'sa), sending them a link to Morrison's speech at LWS and reporting a conversation with Pedro Donald, owner of the Sunflower Pub, who asked Devlin "what is the BFF Inclusion Officer doing speaking at a rally with this far right-wing crowd?”

Donald also told Devlin the reputation of BFF as a progressive LGBTQ supportive organisation was at risk. Devlin told her co-chairs she would be seeking advice from the Equality Commission. The EC (I stress this is the claimant's case) told Devlin that there wasn't much the BFF could do, as Morrison was entitled to hold and express her views.

Everything goes quiet until Mark Cousins gets involved on 25 May. He hasn't yet seen Sara's speech, but he has found out it happened at a LWS event. As many readers of this newsletter will know, LWS is founded and run by Posie Parker, who is nowadays better known as Kelly-Jay Keen-Minshull (or just Kelly-Jay Keen). Cousins texts Devlin:

"Hi Michele. Have tried to find the video of the Trans rally 
that Sarah [sic] spoke at. Was it the Let Women Speak event,
at which Parker Posey [sic] spoke and Graham Lenehan [sic] attended? If so this is more serious than I thought. I would like to email the chairs." He does so, telling them "I'm sure you're aware of Posey's [sic] previous comments, but if our staff member shared a platform with her, then this is even I more serious than I thought. As a board member I'd like to back you in whatever investigation or process is happening."

At this point there is no investigation or process. Nothing happens for a very busy month during which all hands (including Sara) are making a success of the Docs Ireland event.

On 23 June, Cousins has an encounter with Morrison in a bar during Docs Ireland. He is startled to find she is unrepentant about her speech at LWS (which he still hasn't seen). On 25 June he contacts Devlin, writing: "There was no hint of regret for, or doubt about, what she did. As you’ll know 'I’m standing up for the rights of women' is the argument used by conservatives and religious people in several countries, and a new staple of the anti-LGBTQ anti-lslamic right."

Cousins, an influential (and, as Naomi Cunningham said today, "charismatic") figure within the BFF makes his position clear. "we need to accelerate the process by which this is sorted... We can’t have an inclusion/diversity officer who, many weeks after making such an ill-advised speech, is still standing by her actions completely."

She's got to go

The same day Cousins makes his views known to the co-chairs. On 28 June, the co-chairs and Devlin have a conference. During this conference they concoct a plan which will propel Morrison towards the exit: BFF will propose using their Big Screen to show various films on the Belfast Stories site during Belfast Pride at the end of July. Morrison will be not only required to work on it, but she will send an email to all the LGBTQ organisations on the BFF database asking for their input. Light the blue touch paper and stand back.

Devlin needs to work fast. Hours after her meeting with the co-chairs, she sends an email to her contacts at the City Council asking if it might be possible for the BFF "to host another screening on our big screen on the Belfast Stories site as part of Pride. On Sunday 30th July.... There is a tight turnaround on this, and we aren't in the Pride brochure so it would be great if you could let me know asap if this is possible so we can get publicity out."

Devlin then approaches Morrison and tells her that she wants her to work on Pride on the Big Screen (PBS) with her colleague Mary Lyndsay. Neither Morrison or Lyndsay are keen. Both are exhausted after Docs Ireland and the they don't have enough time to get it right. Devlin is insistent. She tells Morrison to pull together all the email addresses of their LBGT contacts and on 3 July tells Morrison to send an email to the groups asking for their input to the event.

Morrison is super-reluctant as she has had a load of grief from these groups to the extent the police needed to get involved. Devlin accedes and says she will send the email herself. This she does, putting every organisation in the cc rather than bcc list, with Sara's name at the very top.

Boom! The LGBT groups see Sara's name and the mob begins to descend, feeding of each others' righteousness. The fallout moves online - the twitterstorm is whipped up once more. On 4 July an external PR company is brought in to craft a statement. Devlin doesn't like it. Instead she sends out the following: "We have been made aware of the incident and are investigating. We want to reassure you that Belfast Film Festival passionately supports your values. We will celebrate and defend them."

Having announced an investigation, it has to happen. On 5 July Devlin calls in an external HR firm to do the job, then cancels BFF's involvement in Belfast Pride. On 25 July Morrison is informed she is the subject of an investigation. As Morrison has it, the email "alleged my
involvement in the [LWS] event was contrary to my role as an Inclusion officer" and would take in "my actions and behaviours and the potential damage to BFF’s reputation and any other issues that may come to their attention during the investigation." She was told co-chair Lisa Barros D'sa would be part of the investigation, representing the BFF.

To ensure the mob are fully placated and have no doubt whose side the BFF is on, Devlin attends Belfast Pride on 29 July wearing a t-shirt which says, in large block capitals: "TRANS INCLUSIVE FEMINIST". Morrison goes off sick and starts a grievance process against Mark Cousins. In 2024 she adds a discrimination case against her employer. In November 2024 Morrison resigns and claims constructive dismissal.

As I mentioned at the start, the witnesses from the Belfast Film Festival consider a lot of the above to be complete claptrap. But I think it is a reasonable representation of the claimant's case as presented to the tribunal so far. I hope it helps.

With all that in mind shall we have a quick whip through today's evidence? There were two witnesses today. Michele Devlin was due to resume this morning, but because Mark Cousins was due to catch a flight in the afternoon Devlin's cross-examination was temporarily halted and Cousins was given the morning slot.

Mighty Mark

Mark Cousins is an intriguing character. He is fluent, well-versed in a number of politico-historical discourses and thinks it is possible to change sex, though the only examples he suggested during his evidence were flowers and trees, rather than humans.

When Naomi Cunningham asked him if he agreed that every single human being on the planet came from a woman and had a mother, he did.

Cousins was also quick to point out that gender-critical people were not in the minority. Among working-class communities in Belfast, most people believe men are men and women are women and that you can't change sex.

Naomi Cunningham (who asked the questions all day) wanted to know if "shaming a marginalised group" was a bad thing. Cousins agreed. Cunningham pointed out that Cousins had taken a side in this "debate". He replied saying "I passionately care for the rights of trans people, and, I hope, everyone". Cousins appears to have adopted the trans rights cause back in 2013, yet he made a point that in all that time he had "never used derogatory language" against anyone who took an opposing view, including certain acronyms. Which acronyms, wondered Cunningham?

There began a diverting intellectual joust, analysing the use and meaning of "TERF" until the judge intervened to tell the barrister and witness that this was "all a very interesting social conversation" but we needed to stick to the list of issues and basically remember we were at an employment tribunal.

Cousins did make the point that in all debates and discussions - with the singular exception of Donald Trump (he got a laugh for that) he tried to "play the ball and not the man". By way of example Cousins explained he would never call someone a racist, but might point out they had said something racist.

With the scene rather grandly set, Cunningham moved to Cousins' witness statement, in which he said he was "surprised" that during her LWS speech, Sara Morrison had "criticised many of the organisations that the Respondent had worked with". Cunningham asked Cousins to tell her which of the organisation mentioned by Morrison the BFF had worked with.

"I don't know", said Cousins "I'm a board member."
Cunningham pointed out he had put in a sworn witness statement that Morrison had criticised organisations the BFF had worked with, but he couldn't name a single one.
"I can't remember," said Cousins. "When I made this statement I checked that we had worked with these organisations."
Cunningham looked at the date of his witness statement. It had been signed earlier this month. How could he have forgotten already?
Cousins claimed it "doesn't matter". What's more important is that when he saw the video it "really was inappropriate to denounce our treasured partner organisations who are acclaimed for the work they do", adding that one of the things he like about the BFF is the way they partner with numerous community groups.
"You haven't yet partnered with the Womens Rights Network, have you?" Members of the Womens Right's Network have been present throughout this tribunal supporting Morrison.
"No we haven't," replied Cousins.
"Should you?" asked Cunningham
"Yes." said Cousins, adding he was happy to work with any community group that wanted to put their views across in a non-aggressive way.

Getting Dirty

Cunningham explored Cousins' thoughts about Morrison attending the LWS rally. As corroborated by the written evidence, Cousins has a very big problem with LWS organiser Kellie-Jay Keen and what he says is her willingness to platform "extremist views".

Cunningham wondered what that had to do with Morrison - was he attempting to tar her with the same brush as some of the people (Jolene Bunting appears to be a particularly divisive figure in Belfast) who also spoke at the event. Cousins insisted he was not seeking to find "guilt by association" but did at one point suggest Morrison was getting herself "dirty by association" with extremists.

He felt that the BFF should "express love to the community as an antidote to LWS and extremist views being platformed".

Cunningham took Cousins to the pictures of Michele Devlin wearing her TRANS INCLUSIVE FEMINIST t-shirt at Belfast Pride. A long discussion about what that meant ensued as Cousins refused to accept the framing of a transgender woman as a man who says he is a woman.

"Trans women are women" he said.
"Are you saying trans women are different from women?" asked Cunningham
"There are women and trans women and men and trans men"
"So they're different", stated Cunningham
"They are women", said Cousins "They're a type of woman."

Once that had been disagreed on, Cunningham asked about Devlin's attendance at Belfast Pride and wondered if there had been signs suggesting TERFs should be punched or other forms of violence meted out to them then attendance at the event would be "ill-judged" on Devlin's part.

Sean Doherty intervened to point out no such evidence was in the bundle. Cunningham said she was pretty sure if they looked they would find some. Cousins found the question so hypothetical he couldn't answer it.

Cunningham said Cousins was holding Morrison to an "impossibly high standard" by censuring her attendance at LWS. Cousins disagreed. The problem was "the central speaker" (KJK) who had said toxic things in the past - such as "Islam… disgusting".

Cunningham wondered if that was Sara Morrison's failing too.
"I don't always believe in guilt by association" said Cousins, apparently shifting his position from one where he didn't believe in guilt by association at all, to one where he would make an exception in this case.

Cunningham wondered why Cousins was so upset at the lack of regret Morrison had when he encountered her on 23 June 2023 in the bar. He said he finds the phrase "standing up for the rights of women" indelibly tainted by the far right. In 2023 he had just made a film about Mussolini and he told Cunningham that everywhere he went whilst making the film he encountered far right men, and it was always men saying that they were standing up for the rights of women. He says the phrase both "haunted" and "was scaring" him. It is a phrase he's heard used "by Tommy Robinson" and "the anti-immigrant people down south".

Challenged on why he had a problem when a woman said it, Cousins seemed to get a bit confused. He was himself "a feminist" and it was the "misappropriation" of the phrase that was most "troubling". He invoked the ghost of Emmeline Pankhurst to say he was sure she would be horrified by the way it had been misappropriated.

Cunningham wasn't having any of this. She suggested that Cousins had basically smeared her client with a far right trope in the same way Devlin had with her Sarah Palin gag. "Well, that wasn't Michele's finest hour" conceded Cousins and wanted the court to note he did not respond with even "a smiley".

The Jaw Drop

Changing the subject, Cousins took Cunningham to his email of 25 June 2023 - where he said "We can’t have an inclusion/diversity officer who, many weeks after making such an ill-advised speech, is still standing by her actions completely". The idea that this was an attempt to get Morrison sacked was "jaw dropping" and "so far off beam" he couldn't believe it. "I hadn't even thought of that", he said.

As Cunningham explored what he was thinking by sending the message, it transpired Cousins wanted Morrison removed from the role of Inclusion Co-ordinator.

"What are you going to do - make her the accountant?" asked Cunningham.

Cunningham wondered if his real problem was that he couldn't control the thoughts and speech of people in the BFF he disagreed with. Cousins dismissed this out of hand, saying he didn't really know the views of his fellow board members. Cunningham pointed out that everyone knew he thought trans women were women, and everyone knew Devlin thought trans women were women and that he didn't know anyone at the BFF who thought trans women were men because they were too scared to make their views known, especially after seeing what happened to Morrison. Cousins said he didn't know the sexuality or religion of his fellow board members, suggesting it just hadn't come up.

As a final turn, Cunningham took Cousins to paragraph 12 of his witness statement, part of which says of Morrison's statement: "the Claimant seems surprised that so many people in the field of LGBT work have rejected her position As she is an educated, culturally aware person, I don't understand why she could not foresee that, by associating herself with people who have said oppressive things, there would be a reaction."

Cunningham suggested that he was saying that if there was an outcry at someone exercising their free speech, then they should have seen it coming and "learn to shut up". She suggested that paragraph of Cousins' statement was little more than a "bully's charter". Cousins took umbrage saying he himself had been bullied at school and worked locally with anti-bullying charities. He found Cunningham's question "offensive".

Cunningham asked him to answer it.

"Not at all" he said. And that was him.

Devlin in the Detail

We left Michele Devlin on a cliffhanger yesterday after she promised she would bring in documentary evidence proving that Pride on the Big Screen 2023 had been in the planning since February 2023. She returned after what sounded like quite a stressful evening with 145 pages of document to back up her case. These were examined around Mark Cousin's evidence and entered into the bundle for everyone to inspect at lunchtime today.

As Naomi Cunningham pointed out, 37 pages of the evidence was the operating manual for the BFF's Big Screen and another 37 pages was an event management plan for something which had taken place in 2022. Cunningham wondered how the operating manual was going to be of any use to the judge. Devlin thought it would give everyone some insight into what the BFF do.

"It might help them erect a Big Screen" noted Cunningham, but she still wasn't sure what "it could possibly do to assist" the tribunal.
"I don't know", said Devlin. "I've never been to a tribunal."

The event management plan had been supplied because Devlin could not find the one for Docs Ireland 2023. She was reminded she had promised to come back with documentary evidence of planning for Pride on the Big Screen before July 2023. It seems that in the entirety of the 145 page tranche, neither party could find anything at all. Cunningham asked - where were the emails confirming plans? Why hadn't she at least sent some chases to Sara Morrison asking what was going on? Devlin said the team worked in an open plan office. Nothing about this event appeared to be written down.

Cunningham said the bundle was just about "the best evidence the claimant could wish for to demonstrate you cooked up this event in order to orchestrate a pile on".
"I don't accept that at all", said Devlin.

Cunningham called Devlin's actions "thoroughly dishonest" and by putting Morrison "back in the firing line", with her 3 July email she didn't just precipitate Morrison's exit, she put her own employee in danger.

"It was a deliberate ploy to reignite the storm" said Cunningham. "It was a reckless risk with Sara's health and wellbeing."
Devlin denied this completely and insisted she had "supported" Morrison saying Morrison herself had agreed the 3 July email and told her she had no problem working with trans organisations the online shitstorm had completely "blown over".

Finally Cunningham explored the triggers for Devlin's decision to start an investigation - the response from trans groups and individuals concerned about Sara Morrison's involvement in Pride on the Big Screen. One individual wrote:

"To invite us to co-create an event for Belfast Pride with this team member, came as quite a shock. Trans rights is a central theme to the Pride celebrations this year, and to invite trans inclusive organisations to work with this individual, without addressing the very public and very dangerous opinions she holds while in the position of being your Inclusion Officer, is not something I can be part of or endorse."

"This is not a complaint you have to take seriously is it?" asked Cunningham.
"Of course i do", said Devlin.
"She's complaining about dangerous opinions. You can't police peoples' thoughts can you?"
"No I wouldn't want to" replied Devlin.
"Literally dangerous. It's obvious nonsense isn't it? It's hysterical."
"No", countered Devlin. "It's not hysterical - it's her opinion."

Michele Devlin's evidence will continue for at least another two hours on Friday 14 November. Proceedings are due to start at 11.30am. I'll be there to cover them.

Notices

Two bits of housekeeping before I go. Firstly - thank you very much indeed for all the feedback. You like 'em long. I'll keep 'em long. Most people are okay with the font size too. It certainly looks fine on my mobile, but I still have a problem with it on a laptop. I have therefore experimented with a different style, rather than size. If this doesn't work I think I need to get Andrew of the Dark Arts involved as I'm constantly worried I'll break something if I start tinkering under the bonnet.

The second thing is I thought you'd like to be the first to know is that I will be returning to Belfast for the whole of next week. It is your extraordinary generosity which has made this possible, so thank you thank you thank you. It's been quite the week.

If it's not too much to ask I would be enormously grateful if you would continue to spread the word. The more I am able to raise, the more work I can do on this and other gender stories. It's as simple as that. Please forward this email to anyone you think might like it, and do point people to the blog and the twitter feed as well. Thank you all so much.

As a special treat, today's live tweets are up already.

Right - good night!

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