Violence against women continues long after 1989

By Wendy Knowlton



December 6 means different things to different people. Traditionally, the day has been held as a memorial for the 14 young women who were killed at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal on December 6, 1989. A quote from the man who perpetrated these murders stated he was set to seek revenge on “feminists who have ruined my life� www.ctv.ca">www.ctv.ca">www.ctv.ca), showing that these 14 women were targeted for no other reason than their gender. We still feel the sorrow of that day. We also, however, feel the sorrows of the continuing violence against women. December 6 has become a day of awareness that violence against women still exists. It has also become a day of celebration of the programs and advances we do make in an attempt to eliminate this violence.

When one thinks of violence against women, one often thinks of domestic violence and partner violence. It reaches deeper than that. It is the implicit societal acceptance of violence against women. On television, in advertisements, and in movies, we see women being victimized until we are completely desensitized by it. In some religious materials, women are portrayed as the evil sins that must be destroyed. In music, we hear lyrics that debase women and advocate violence against them. And, we see it in the actions that take place in our society every day.

Looking at the newspaper, above and beyond the violence that takes place in personal relationships, we see women being victims of violence because of their gender. Over the past several years, there have been several very public and horrific examples of this. In June of last year, CBC reported that there may have been a serial killer attacking women in Edmonton, Alberta, as 20 women’s bodies were found in rural areas surrounding Edmonton since 1983. The Pickton Farm has become a very famous case of women being victimized. According to a CBC report in August of this year, there have been 60 women disappear from Vancouver’s East Side over the past two decades. Robert Pickton is charged with the death of 26 of these women, as police found remains of the women on his farm. Very recently, in Pennsylvania, a man killed five young Amish women simply because they were women.

Looking at statistics, in 2005, Statistics Canada released a report on domestic violence, which found that women were more than twice as likely to be injured by a partner. Women are three times more likely to fear for their lives from their partners. Women are twice as likely to be targets of 10 or more violent episodes from their partners. Violence against women is still very much a part of our society.

This year, The Women’s Place, Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women, and the Chrysalis House are hosting an information session on a program called Silent Witness. Silent Witness remembers women who have been forever silenced by their intimate partners. The information is valuable and the way it is presented is very profound and insightful. Please come on December 6 at 4 p.m. to celebrate with us the lives of women who have inspired this piece and the programs that are being developed in their honour.