It is a sobering fact that in the nearly 20 years since those tragic events in Montreal, the incidence of violence against women remains extremely high.
Ottawa (1 Dec. 2008) – Every Dec. 6 Canadians pause to remember women who have been killed in acts of violence across this country. The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women coincides with the sad anniversary of the death of 14 young women in Montreal.
On Dec. 6, 1989, a gunman entered L'Ecole Polytechnique. After separating female from male students, he began gunning the helpless women down. This tragic event has since become known as the Montreal Massacre and a powerful symbol of the fight to end violence against women.
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| Plaque at École Polytechnique in Montreal commemorating victims of the 1989 massacre. |
Violence against women remains a serious problem
It is a sobering fact that in the nearly 20 years since those events in Montreal, the incidence of violence against women remains extremely high.
It is reported that every minute in Canada a woman is assaulted by an intimate partner. One to two women are murdered by a current or former partner each week in Canada. And 40% of women have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16.
The effects of violence are often felt by others close to the women involved. It is estimated that up to 360,000 children are exposed annually to domestic violence. Between April 2003 and March 2004, a total of 58,486 women and 36,840 children sought refuge in one of 473 shelters across Canada.
United Nation's report expresses concerns over Canada's record
The United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has serious concerns regarding Canada’s record on the issue of violence against women.
The committee has listed numerous areas in which it feels that the Canadian government is failing to abide by terms of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
The committee has expressed concern that domestic violence continues to be a significant problem and also at reports of high levels of violence against adolescent girls in the family and society.
Of equal concern is the inadequate number of shelters for victims of violence. The committee has recommended that adequate shelters and appropriate support services be provided in all jurisdictions for women and adolescent girls who are victims of violence, and that the shelter and services needs of Aboriginal women, women with disabilities, immigrants, refugees and trafficked women, as well as rural and northern women, be addressed.
The committee's concerns and recommendations require the priority attention of Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial governments. It has asked Canada “to provide, within one year, written information on the steps undertaken to implement the recommendations.”
The committee has also raised concerns that hundreds of cases involving Aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered in the past two decades have neither been fully investigated nor given priority attention. Perpetrators remain unpunished.
Sisters in Spirit Initiative
Aboriginal women aged 25-44 are five times more likely than other Canadian women of the same age to die of violence. In the last 20 years more than 500 Aboriginal women have gone missing in Canada.
In 2004, the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) launched the Sisters in Spirit Initiative (SIS). The initiative focuses on four key areas of community-based research, communication, education and awareness, and policy assessment and analysis.
The process involves the collection of life stories and statistical information to understand the circumstances, root causes and trends surrounding missing and murdered Aboriginal women to successfully relay the findings to the public, to Aboriginal communities and to provincial and federal governments.
At a recent meeting of the National’s Union’s Advisory Committee on Women’s Issues (ACWI) the committee heard from Theresa Ducharme, a community development coordinator with the SIS. As of October 2008, she reported, 509 cases are included in the SIS database − 66% involving women and girls 30 years of age or younger. In total, 25% are classified as missing and 66% are classified as murdered. Only 40% of the murder cases have been cleared (i.e. charges laid in connection with the crime).
In October 2006, at its Building International Sisterhood Conference, the National Union committed funding to the SIS initiative. At the union's convention in June 2007, a resolution was passed unanimously to provide continued support through its Social Justice Solidarity Fund for three years.
The ACWI continues to support the initiative by drawing attention to the issue and by promoting SIS’s fund-raising merchandise.
Actions You Can Take
- Lobby the federal government to implement the recommendations of the CEDAW Committee.
- Donate to your local women’s shelter.
- Support the Sisters in Spirit Campaign.
NUPGE
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring that our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE
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