Remembrance & Action
The victims, from top-left: Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte, Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault. From bottom-left: Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviewnick, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier. (CBC Radio/radio-canada.ca)
By Veronika Ilich
Today in Canada we mark the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
Today we remember the names and the faces of 14 women who were murdered on December 6, 1989 at École Polytechnique in Montreal. These women had their lives and futures stolen from them. They were taken from the people who loved them. That day, fourteen lives ended, and hundreds of people were (and continue to be) impacted by their loss.
Violence always ripples outward.
The events of December 6, 1989 also started a renewed wave of support to end violence against women in Canada. Support which, thankfully, continues today.
Support and hope can also ripple outward.
Yet even while most people in Canada would agree that violence against women and other gender minorities is harmful and needs to end—the problem persists. We made ripples and we’ve made waves, but have we failed to turn the tide?
Many people have asked themselves, how much has really changed since 1989? How much has violence against women—or gender-based violence more broadly—decreased? Will it ever end?
The numbers tell a story of slow but meaningful progress.
For instance, overall homicide rates involving a female victim have decreased by 52 percent from 20.4 per million population in 1975 to 9.7 per million population in 2015 (Canadian Femicide Observatory). Similarly, rates of police-reported domestic violence have also been declining (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 2015). We know women have more legal protections than they did 50-70 years ago, there are more supports available to those experiencing violence, and overall, women are in better economic positions to leave abusive relationships.
Yet despite this progress, gender-based violence remains an urgent issue—one that intersects with racism, transphobia, homophobia, colonialism, ableism, ageism and more—and the fight against it remains under-resourced when we can see the full scale and complexity.
Other numbers, sadly, tell a story of unequal progress, and what looks in some cases as stalled or declining progress.
Let’s take a look:
Based on 15 years of Homicide Survey data (2001-2015), homicide rates for Indigenous women and girls were approximately six times higher than rates for non-Indigenous women and girls.
Women in rural areas were twice as likely to experience intimate partner violence (IPV) compared to their urban counterparts.
Women with a disability are three times more likely to experience violent victimization than women living without a disability.
In 2018, one in three (32%) women and one in eight (13%) men were subjected to unwanted sexual behaviour while in a public place. Women are also more likely than men to report experiencing certain forms of violence, including sexual assault, online harassment, or unwanted sexual behaviour in the workplace.
Sexual assault is the only violent crime in Canada not declining—rates have been static since 1999. 30% of all women aged 15 and older have been a victim of sexual assault outside of the context of intimate relationships at least once since age 15.
Transgender people are more likely to have experienced violence since age 15, and more likely to experience inappropriate behaviours in public, online, and at work than cisgender people.
For gender non-conforming men, or men who don’t ‘fit’ the rigid norms, queer folks or trans folks, they can become targets of hate, attacked for daring to defy norms. In Canada, the most violent hate crimes have historically been men attacking other men on the basis of perceived sexual orientation. Nationally, young men account for around 90 percent of people arrested for gay-bashing crimes.
Numerous studies have shown that men who adhere strongly to patriarchal ideals of masculinity are more likely to endorse and use violence against both women and gay men—those who are seen as ‘feminized’ and ‘lesser.’
A CBC investigation launched just days before the pandemic upended Canadian life found that women and children who were victims of domestic violence were turned away from shelters in Canada almost 19,000 times a month.
There’s also evidence to show the pandemic made things worse:
In 2020 alone, 160 women and girls were killed by violence in Canada, the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability (CFOJA) reported. In the first half of 2021, 92 more women and girls have been killed, and they were disproportionately Indigenous.
Since March 2020, organizations involved with supporting survivors found an increase in violence of 20 to 30 percent in certain regions of the nation. Meanwhile, calls to police for domestic disturbance increased 12 percent in the first three months of the pandemic. Shelters have also reported calls for assistance in more severe instances of violence and abuse.
The number of police-reported hate crimes in Canada increased by 37% during the first year of the pandemic, rising from 1,951 incidents in 2019 to 2,669 in 2020. This marks the largest number of police-reported hate crimes since comparable data became available in 2009. Police-reported hate crimes targeting race or ethnicity almost doubled (+80%) compared with the previous year, accounting for the vast majority of the national increase in hate crimes.
Here at NGM, we don’t have all the answers, but we do have hope that it will not always be this way. We must continue to believe that gender-based violence is preventable.
We must also understand that our belief and our hope are not enough on their own. They must translate to action, and much of that action must focus on changing ourselves and our culture.
It’s well past time to let go of patriarchy. To stop upholding a rigid gender binary that tells men to hide their emotions, to eschew the ‘feminine,’ to use violence to maintain control. That culture is what has led us here.
We owe our progress to this point to the courageous women, particularly women of colour, and 2SLGBTQ+ advocates who have marched, organized, researched, and built the movement to end violence and achieve equity. To accelerate change, more men must join in the work.
So men, this is a call to all of us.
Here are four things we can do today, to help end gender-based violence in our communities:
Take the White Ribbon pledge to never commit, condone or remain silent about all forms of gender-based violence and discrimination.
Support the work of the Moosehide Campaign. Wearing the Moosehide pin will spark conversations with friends, family, colleagues, and provide the chance to raise awareness of violence against Indigenous Women and Children.
Learn to be an upstander—to interrupt harassment when you see it—take the bystander intervention training from Hollaback.
Donate to (or volunteer with!) organizations working to end violence against women, nonbinary and trans folks in your community. Some amazing organizations include the YWCA, CWES, Sanaré Centre, the Centre for Race and Culture, the Native Women’s Association of Canada.
The only way forward is together.
Veronika Ilich is the Community Manager for Next Gen Men. Find her at NGM events, on the Modern Manhood Podcast, or on our online NGM Circle forum! She is passionate about social justice, and in particular, gender-based violence prevention and eliminating poverty.