On Dec. 6, 1989, a gunman entered L’Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, segregating the female students from the male students and began firing at the female engineering students.
On that day, 14 young women lost their lives to violence. The event has become known as the Montreal Massacre and is symbolic of the fight to end violence against women. In 1991, Canada’s Parliament declared December 6 a National Day of Mourning and the National Day to End Violence Against Women.
Across the country December 6 is marked by vigils, discussions and other reflections on violence against women.
Today, The Manitoba Federation of Labour hosted a luncheon at the Union Centre at noon in memory of the slain women and women slain in Manitoba over the past year.
Canadian Labour Congress Secretary-Treasurer, Barb Byers spoke at the luncheon and reminded attendees about the importance of speaking out against violence and the #NOTokay social media campaign by YWCA Canada which asks why we treat violence against women lightly in our popular culture.
In Canada, one in two women over the age of 16 has experienced physical or sexual violence, and at least 67 per cent of Canadians say they know at least one woman who has experienced this type of abuse, according to research from the Canadian Women's Foundation. On average, as the campaign notes, a woman is killed every six days by an intimate partner.