Protractor: how to click link that is said to be not visible

I need to click the link in the page header:

<div class="fixed">
        <nav class="top-bar" data-options="is_hover:false">
        ...
        <section class="top-bar-section">
            <ul class="left">
                ...
                <li ng-show="hasPermission('ROLE_MESSAGE')" class=""><a href="#/message" class="ng-binding">Message</a></li>
            </ul>
        </section></nav>
</div>

But any attempt fails with "Element not visible error". It seems strange since on the previous step I've logged on as a user that has the permission ROLE_MESSAGE. Tried different locators, but none work.