The 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence begins on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25 and ends on International Human Rights Day on December 10. Within these dates, December 6th marks the National Day of Remembrance And Action on Violence Against Women. Dec. 6, 2020 is the 31st anniversary of the Montreal Massacre that claimed the lives of 14 young women.
This is a time to both reflect on gender-based violence — and take action to end it.
Gender-based violence is brutality that targets individuals or groups on the basis of their gender. Gender-based violence, particularly against women and girls, is the most pervasive form of human rights violation. It includes physical, sexual, verbal, emotional, and psychological abuse, threats, coercion, and economic or educational deprivation. There are serious physical, mental, economic, and social repercussions.
It has been 31 years since the tragic mass shooting at l'École Polytechnique de Montréal. On Dec. 6, 1989, an armed man entered the school. He separated the men from the women and then he told the men to leave. “Do you know why you are there?” he asked the women. They did not. “I am fighting feminism,” he said. Then he began to shoot. Fourteen women lost their live that day, 14 promising young women had their futures cut violently short.
As we come together to commemorate this national tragedy, we also reflect on the troubling fact that for women, girls and LGBTQ2 individuals across our country violence continues to be a daily reality. Thirty years after the Montreal Massacre, on average:
- a woman is killed every other day;
- once a week a woman is murdered by her partner;
- and one in three women will experience some form of sexual violence over the course of their lives.
Gender-based violence is neither exclusively a women’s issue, nor a men’s issue, but it is a society wide issue. This National Day of Remembrance calls on each of us to share the actions we are taking in our own communities and in our own lives to question, call out, and speak up against acts of gender-based violence.
Submitted by: Jenn Angus, Executive Director, Moose Jaw Transition House; Chair of the Partners Against Violence Committee
Anne-Marie Edward, Anne-Marie Lemay, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte, Barbara Daigneault, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, Genevieve Bergeron, Helene Colgan, Maryse Leclair, Maryse Laganiere, Maud Haviernick, Michele Richard, Nathalie Croteau,Sonia Pelletier. (file photo)
