Remember victims

Dear editor:
We all remember that tragic day in 1989 when Marc Lepine declared war on feminists by murdering 14 women and injuring 10 others while he claimed to be “fighting feminism” at Ecole Polytechnique” in Montreal.
The tragedy later became known as the “Montreal Massacre.”
The Government of Canada decided to commemorate Dec. 6 by calling it the “National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.” It was a noble gesture.
Indeed, rates of intimate partner homicide (or femicide as it is preferred to be called since it is more accurate) did decrease in the first decade of the 2000s by 15 percent.
However, between 2010 and 2011, it rose sharply, increasing by 19 percent and eroding any positive gains we may have made over the previous decade.
These statistics are quoted in the Canadian Women’s Foundation and the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses and Statistics Canada websites.
When it comes to violence against women excluding homicides, the figures are even more difficult to ascertain.
We do know that less than one-third of victims ever report their violent encounters with their intimate partners to the police.
We are left to wonder what the real rates of violence against women are, and whether or not the government’s “action” has made any real difference in the lives of women.
What we do know is that on any given day, more than 3,300 women and 3,000 children in Canada are forced to sleep in the safety of an emergency shelter. We also know that, on average, a woman is murdered by her intimate partner every six days.
Those are the federal statistics, with the highest incidents occurring in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In Ontario, 27 women were murdered in 2012 while 32 women were murdered in 2013.
Those are the facts.
Has the “action” plan made any difference for women in the previous 15 years? Tragically, we must decide that it has not.
Please join us this Dec. 6 in a moment of silence for the women murdered at the hands of their intimate partners.
We also ask that you honour the women in your life, not just today but every day.
Thank you,
Donna Kroocmo,
Executive Director,
Rainy River District
Women’s Shelter of Hope