Today marks 19 years since fourteen female students were gunned
down on December 6 at Montreal's l'École Polytechnique in what is one
of the most horrific cases of violence against women in Canadian history.
In 1991 the Parliament of Canada established December 6th as a National
Day of Remembrance and a day to honour all women impacted by Violence.
Westcoast Indie News dedicates this day to:
- All of the single mothers struggling to raise their children in poverty – because their provincial and federal government has failed to ensure they have an adequate family income;
-For the hundreds of missing, disappeared and murdered Aboriginal women across Canada;
-To all the girls and women who are forced to tolerate physical, mental, emotional and sexual abuse, rape and psychological degradation because they are female – in their families, communities, schools, and lives;
-For the girls and women who are sexually exploited, trafficked and forced into prostitution for survival, for themselves and their children;
-To all of the girl children and women who have been beaten, kicked, humiliated and murdered at the hands of the men who should cherish and protect them;
-For all of the girls and women who have to continue to fight for equality and safety – in their work, pay equity, in their families, in politics, in schools, in their communities and in sports;
-To all of the women who are abused by their spouses who are forced to stay because they have no other options for them and their children because governments do not adequately fund shelters and transition homes so women and children can be safe;
-For all of the workers and organizations that offer safety, protection, support and compassion to abused women and children.
-To all of the men who work as allies and protectors of girls and women and work along side of women to End Violence against Girls and Women.
-To all of those Uppity Women who stand up Loud & Strong and tell the World, men and Governments that in a civil society – THERE MUST BE ZERO TOLERANCE FOR SOCIAL & PHYSICAL VIOLENCE AGAINST GIRLS AND WOMEN.
In 2008, Canada submitted its report to the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as part of the responsibility that came with the signing the UN Convention of the same name.
A coalition of women’s organizations also presented a report to the UN Committee. This coalition report chronicled the uninvestigated or inadequately addressed cases of missing and murdered women, the majority of whom were Aboriginal, in Canada over the past 20 years. Among the sites of missing and murdered women are two infamous B.C. locations, the Pickton farm and Highway of Tears.
The United Nations Committee is calling on the Canadian government to launch an inquiry into the cases of the missing and murdered women to find out why the response by law enforcement was so poor, and how to ensure that this is going to change. The Committee also requested a report back within the year.
Please take action on December 6 and throughout the following week. Join others across the country in supporting the UN Committee’s call. Contact your area Member of Parliament (MP) – you can find them through the Government of Canada website - and send an email or fax to her or him endorsing the UN recommendation and pressing the federal government to act immediately.
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Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women ( CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly.
2008 BC CEDAW Group report: Inaction and Non-compliance: British Columbia’s Approach to Women’s Equality.
Missing/Murdered Native Women
Please sign our Petition to the Canadian Government to investigate why so many of these cases remain unsolved.
Walk4Justice – Bernie Williams & Gladys Radek walked across Canada to rally in Ottawa to demand justice for the hundreds, if not thousands of Aboriginal women who have disappeared, been murdered in Canada.
In 2000, Gladys Radek launched a historical Human Rights case proving "systemic racism" for the first time ever in Canada. This cases final decision was July 13, 2005.
Native Women’s Association of Canada. Sisters In Spirit.
Canada must probe cases of slain, missing aboriginal women: UN
A United Nations committee wants Canada to explain why law enforcement agencies have failed to deal with the disappearance and murder of Aboriginal women.
Canada must probe cases of slain, missing aboriginal women: UN
The United Nations is calling on the Canadian government to investigate why hundreds of deaths and disappearances of aboriginal women remain unsolved.
It's asking Ottawa to report back in a year on the status of more than 500 cases that "have neither been fully investigated nor attracted priority attention, with the perpetrators remaining unpunished."
A federally funded $5-million study by the Native Women's Association of Canada concludes that 510 aboriginal girls and women have gone missing or been murdered since 1980. It calls for an emergency strategy.
The UN also raised alarms about lack of shelters for battered women and about Conservative government cuts that wiped out the court challenges program — funding that helped advance minority rights in the legal system.
Common-law husband charged in Abbotsford apartment homicide
CBC News. December 5, 2008.
After Priester's death her family was outraged because police failed to respond to a 911 call made from the apartment 12 hours before her body was discovered.
Bitch Poem
When I stand up for myself and my beliefs, they call me a bitch. When I stand up for those I love, they call me a bitch. When I speak my mind, think my own thoughts, or do things my own way, they call me a bitch.
So try to stomp on me, try to douse my inner flame, try to squash every ounce of beauty I hold within me. You won't succeed. And if that makes me a bitch, so be it. I embrace the title and am proud to bear it.
B - Babe I - In T - Total C - Control of H - Herself
"Well behaved women rarely make history" - Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
WeCanBC: I am a Changemaker
- BC Campaign to End All Violence Against Women
16 Days of Activism - November 25th to December 10th.
See here for Events.
December 10th, 2008 - Candlelight Vigil
Light a candle for all women who have suffered from one of the most pervasive
human rights violations - violence against women.
5 - 6 pm
Victory Square
198 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC
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