Day 11 - 16 days of Activism against Gender Violence

Day 11

December 6th is a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada because, 20 years ago on this day, 14 women, engineering students, were murdered at at L’École Polytechnique in Montreal. This weekend, people across Canada will gather to remember their murder and other women who have been targets of violence. Tomorrow I will attend a memorial vigil that, I hope, will be widely attended by many others.

We may think, and hope, that something like this could never happen again, that women's presence in all academic programs and disciplines, as well as fields and careers, is accepted. In many ways, women have achieved acceptance, but in other ways we are still the targets of violence in our schools, workplaces, and homes. Sexual violence, sexual harassment, and intimate partner violence remain serious threats to the health, well-being, and lives of many girls and women.

In 2008, Amnesty International released Safe Schools: Every Girl’s Right, a report on violence against girls in and out of school and the violation of the right to education. The report indicates that, in many cases, girls face violence in and around their schools. Nor do these risks cease once they enter university. Although many universities across Canada now have in place security measures for preventing sexual assaults and rape on campus, attacks against female students remain a problem. I recall a case of a brutal sexual assault of a female student on the campus of Carleton University in August 2007. The 23-year old student was working in one of the university's chemistry labs when her attacker, described as a white male in his 20s, entered the lab, beat the young woman unconscious, and sexually assaulted her. I also think, given that many cases of rape are not reported, that incidents of sexual assault and rape on university campuses is much higher than we are aware.

Looking back on the murder of 14 female students at L’École Polytechnique in Montreal 20 years ago, we may want to tell ourselves that women and girls no longer face violence in schools or in the workplace, that things have changed. While it is true that some of us are safer, many girls and women face violence every day - at school, at work, and at home - and we have a duty to address this crisis and strengthen our efforts to end violence.