Vigil calls for end to violence against women
- EFN Staff | December 06, 2017
The YWCA in Regina will be having a vigil honouring the lives lost on December 6, 1989. This day commemorates Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in honour of the shooting deaths of 14 women in 1989 in Montreal by a man who deliberately targeted women at the L'Ecole Polytechnique campus.
YWCA encourages people to join this National movement and to show support to stop violence against women and girls.
“YWCA Regina’s Rose Campaign to end violence against women and girls works to reduce violence, increase public awareness and prevent violence before it starts,” as stated in the media release. “Violence against women and girls - including sexual harassment, sexual assault, stalking and cyber violence - still permeates our culture. It pervades our daily news, our social media and our entertainment. We need to name it and address it.”
Violence against women is the world's largest and most persistent human rights violation, and Canada is no exception. Over 50% of Canadian women will experience an incident of violence at some point in their lives, the majority before they turn 25. In most cases, women know their abuser.
According to data mentioned in the release, in Canada, women are more likely than men to be the victims of the most severe forms of intimate partner abuse, including spousal homicide, sexual assault and stalking. Young women experience the highest rates of violence and the rate of violence by boyfriends is on the rise. Almost 40% of women in Canada who reported assault by an intimate partner said their children witnessed the violence and in many cases, the violence was severe. In half of the cases of intimate partner violence against women that were witnessed by children, the woman feared for her life. The devastating count of missing and murdered Indigenous women points to a deep-seated gendered and racialized violence in our culture.
Local businesses and agencies will be ‘lighting the night’ to draw attention to the need for action on violence against women. The event starts at noon on Wednesday at YWCA located at 1940 McIntyre Street.