Women’s rights activist Mary Billy created her Femicide List—a catalogue of the names of murdered women across Canada—after the Montreal Massacre in 1989 when Marc Lepine killed 14 women.
That ever-growing list now has 4,000 names on it. Activist/writer Gwynne Hunt, who has looked after the list since 2005, says close to 200 women are murdered every year across the country, many as a result of domestic violence.
“We tend to look at the big news stories of sex-trade workers or large numbers of women going missing from certain areas or different communities, different ethnic communities, and we don’t really focus on the fact that domestic violence is a huge issue,” she says.
To honour Canada’s women who have died under violent circumstances, Hunt has organized the fifth annual Memory March, to be held in Abbotsford, B.C., on March 19 in conjunction with the International Celebration of Women.
Statistics Canada reports that one to two women are murdered by a current or former partner each week, and that 51 percent of Canadian women have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16.
Author of “Rampage: The Pathology of an Epidemic,” Hunt says efforts to halt violence against women must include both sexes and can only be achieved by a societal shift in the way women are viewed.
“Society as a whole has to look at a healing process and coming together and working together, men and women—not women pointing fingers at men, but everybody working together—to try to heal the way we view women, to change the way we view women.”
In previous years the march was held in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, but Hunt decided to move it to Abbotsford to distinguish it from a similar event held annually that commemorates aboriginal women murdered and missing in the area.
She says the move will help more people relate to the issue, and realize the violence against women is not limited to any one region.
“I wanted to bring it out where people will recognize the fact that there are women [victims] all over the country. There’s grandmothers killed by their grandsons and mothers being killed by their sons and children being killed by their mothers and fathers in homes. And this isn’t something that we address very often.”
Educating children about non-violence and pointing out damaging portrayals of women in the media also play a crucial role in raising awareness, Hunt adds.
Of the 40,200 incidents of spousal violence reported to police in 2007, 83 percent of the victims were women, according to Stats Can.
The agency says that every year in Canada, up to 360,000 children are exposed to domestic violence. Consequences for such children can include emotional trauma and depression, as well as other physical, psychological, and behavioural problems that can extend into adolescence and adulthood.
The march on Saturday will be followed by entertainment at the Best Western Regency Conference Centre.
“We have singers, we have people doing monologues, we have poets, speakers, and we have some videos. It’s going to be a full day of reflection and discovery,” Hunt says.
For more information, visit ragmag.net/memory-march/.
That ever-growing list now has 4,000 names on it. Activist/writer Gwynne Hunt, who has looked after the list since 2005, says close to 200 women are murdered every year across the country, many as a result of domestic violence.
“We tend to look at the big news stories of sex-trade workers or large numbers of women going missing from certain areas or different communities, different ethnic communities, and we don’t really focus on the fact that domestic violence is a huge issue,” she says.
To honour Canada’s women who have died under violent circumstances, Hunt has organized the fifth annual Memory March, to be held in Abbotsford, B.C., on March 19 in conjunction with the International Celebration of Women.
Statistics Canada reports that one to two women are murdered by a current or former partner each week, and that 51 percent of Canadian women have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16.
Author of “Rampage: The Pathology of an Epidemic,” Hunt says efforts to halt violence against women must include both sexes and can only be achieved by a societal shift in the way women are viewed.
“Society as a whole has to look at a healing process and coming together and working together, men and women—not women pointing fingers at men, but everybody working together—to try to heal the way we view women, to change the way we view women.”
In previous years the march was held in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, but Hunt decided to move it to Abbotsford to distinguish it from a similar event held annually that commemorates aboriginal women murdered and missing in the area.
She says the move will help more people relate to the issue, and realize the violence against women is not limited to any one region.
“I wanted to bring it out where people will recognize the fact that there are women [victims] all over the country. There’s grandmothers killed by their grandsons and mothers being killed by their sons and children being killed by their mothers and fathers in homes. And this isn’t something that we address very often.”
Educating children about non-violence and pointing out damaging portrayals of women in the media also play a crucial role in raising awareness, Hunt adds.
Of the 40,200 incidents of spousal violence reported to police in 2007, 83 percent of the victims were women, according to Stats Can.
The agency says that every year in Canada, up to 360,000 children are exposed to domestic violence. Consequences for such children can include emotional trauma and depression, as well as other physical, psychological, and behavioural problems that can extend into adolescence and adulthood.
The march on Saturday will be followed by entertainment at the Best Western Regency Conference Centre.
“We have singers, we have people doing monologues, we have poets, speakers, and we have some videos. It’s going to be a full day of reflection and discovery,” Hunt says.
For more information, visit ragmag.net/memory-march/.
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