32nd Anniversary of the 1989 Montreal massacre and the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

Global Peace Alliance Members participated in the yearly memorial – the 32nd Anniversary of the 1989 Montreal massacre and the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

“Breathtakingly powerful stories, ending with the Women’s Warrior Song, Answers were hard to come by tonight, though we celebrated joyous resilience though 32 years on the roots of the Ecole Polytechnique massacre continue to produce gendered violence. I left with the word said by every speaker….Action…drumming in my mind and heart….we act for those lost, those stuck, those surviving, those thriving.” Annie Ohana

The GPA members were Niovi Patsicakis, Karen Kilbride and Annie Ohana. All three alos members of the Surrey Teachers Status of Women Committee.

The fight for equality and safety of women continues. Thank you to the speakers from Network for Ending Violence in Relationships, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, the PSAC West Fraser Valley Area Council, New Westminster & District, Labour Council, and Rachna Singh, MLA for Surrey-Green Timbers.

The Facts on Violence Against Women

What is Violence Against Women?

The United Nations defines violence against women as “Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life[1].”

Violence against women includes, but is not limited to:

Gender-based violence
Rape, marital rape and incest
Forced marriage
Human trafficking including cross-border prostitution rings and bride kidnappings
Female genital mutilation
War crimes including rape as a weapon of war
Murder and assault including dowry-related violence and honour killings

Violence against women is not a private family issue.

It is a community and public health issue affecting not only the abuser and his victim but everyone around them.

What are the roots of Violence Against Women?

How big is the problem of Violence Against Women throughout the world?
Is Violence Against Women Still A Serious Problem in Canada?
“Violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture. It takes a devastating toll on women’s lives, on their families and on society as a whole. Most societies prohibit such violence – yet the reality is that too often, it is covered up or tacitly condoned[12].”

On average, every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner. In 2009, 67 women were murdered by a current or former spouse or boyfriend[13].
54% of girls between aged 15 and 19 experience “sexual coercion” in a dating relationship[14].

Aboriginal women in Canada are five times more likely than other women of the same age to die as the result of violence[15].

Women aged 25 to 34 old are three times more likely to be physically or sexually assaulted by their spouse than those aged 45 and older[16].

Emotional and economic abuse reinforces physical and sexual violence. 1 in 5 Canadian women experience some form of emotional or economic abuse in their intimate relationship[17].

In almost every province, 9 in 10 victims of spousal-perpetrated criminal harassment are women[18].

Only in one year, 427,000 women over the age of 15 reported they had been sexually assaulted in Canada[19].Since only one in ten sexual assaults is reported to the police, the actual number is much higher[20].

Across Canada, over 3,000 women along with their dependent 2,900 children are living in an emergency shelter to escape abuse[21].

40,200 incidents of spousal violence, which represents about 12% of all police-reported violent crime in Canada, were reported to police[22].

The majority of victims of spousal violence continue to be females, accounting for 83% of victims[23].

As of March 31, 2010, there were 582 known cases of missing or murdered Aboriginal women in Canada[24]. 115 (20%) of 582 cases involve missing women and girls. The Canadian Government has been urged to take real action to stop violence against Aboriginal girls and women by United Nations and Amnesty International.

In Canada, the annual costs of direct expenditures related to violence against women have been estimated at 684 million Canadian dollars for the criminal justice system, 187 million for police and 294 million for the cost of counselling and training, totalling more than 1 billion a year[25].

FROM : https://www.bwss.org/resources/information-on-abuse/numbers-are-people-too/