JANIEL JOLLEY - PROTEST CANDIDATE
Although the pageant did conclude with a “19 year old blonde from the University of Guelph” being crowned the winner, the WLU student newspaper The Cord, described one “unfortunate aspect” of the event as being the protests led by Janiel Jolley. Jolley, a 25 year old who had recently moved to Canada from the United States because of her husband's political views, was originally the candidate registered to represent Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Burnaby, British Columbia. Jolley was sponsored by the SFU student society and Vancouver women’s caucus to attend the pageant in an act of protest.
Janiel Jolley
SFU Archives
Jolley explained her proposed protests in a letter to women's liberation groups:
“This is the first time in North America that women’s liberation has had this opportunity to expose the dehumanizing nature of beauty contests from the inside. Vancouver’s Women’s Caucus is very excited about this action, and we are working hard to extract as much publicity and content as we can. We will be needing the help of other women’s liberation groups across Canada in order to [get] the national impact that we would like. Participating in the Winter Carnival can be very important to our movement and we hope that you will identify with us and assist in our campaign."
Letter from Janiel Jolley to Miss Canadian University Candidates.
SFU Archives
Despite Jolley’s clarifications that she would “not wear freaky clothes or carry guns” WLU pageant organizers decided to ban Jolley from participating in the pageant. SFU responded to this decision by explaining that:
“I feel that you have discriminated against our candidate solely on the basis of her political and social views and have most aptly demonstrated the dire need for her kindof protest."
-Norm Wickstrom, President of the SFU Student Society
Despite this decision, SFU still recognized Jolley as their official candidate and intended to send her to Waterloo to represent their school and protest the pageant.