La Maison Rosewood hosts its annual vigil of remembrance and action on violence against women Tuesday at Operation Grow.
It has been over 30 years since the murder of 14 young women at Polytechnique Montréal, an an engineering school affiliated with the Université de Montréal. This act of violent misogyny shook the nation and led Parliament to designate December 6 as The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
Besides memorializing the 14 women murdered at l'École Polytechnique on December 6, 1989, this Tuesday’s vigil will remember 52 women and children, who were murdered in Ontario this past year.
La Maison Rosewood Shelter says that statistic (52 femicides in 52 weeks) should give all Ontarians reason to demand change.
According to the shelter, the youngest victim was eight years old and the oldest 88 with Black and Indigneous women over-represented. As well, 21% of the victims were over the age of 55 and 17% were from rural communities.
Haily MacDonald, acting executive director of Huronia Transition Homes, said “women with disabilities, Indigenous women, racialized women, transgender and non-binary people, and women who are homeless or under-housed” are at even greater risk of experiencing gender-based violence.
“In order to be effective in our work to end gender-based violence and femicide, we must proceed with actions that are informed by these facts and connected issues,” she said.
MacDonald said December 6th is a day to challenge the long-standing complacency towards gender-based violence and to remember the lives taken.
“Community members are asked to reflect upon this ongoing violence, and to demand that as a society we take accountability in actively ending violence against women."
The vigil begins at 6 p.m. at Operation Grow, which is located at 436 Bay Street in Midland.
