08) REMEMBER AND RESIST

 

People's Voice Editorial

 

            On the 25th anniversary of the massacre of fourteen female engineering students at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique, violence against women remains an appalling reality. As we remember the victims of December 6, 1989, we also note some sober statistics gathered by the Canadian Women's Foundation.

 

            Half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16. Two‑thirds (67%) of all Canadians know at least one woman who has been sexually or physically assaulted. On average, every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner; about 85% of spousal homicide victims are women. On any given day, more than 3,300 women (and their children) sleep in emergency shelters to escape domestic violence. Each year, over 40,000 arrests result from domestic violence. Since only 22% of all such incidents are reported to the police, the real number is much higher. There are still hundreds of unsolved cases of missing or murdered Aboriginal women.

 

            Canada today suffers under a misogynistic government, which callously claims to support women facing violence at home and abroad, while cynically doing the opposite. The Conservative record includes attacking pay equity, rejecting an inquiry into the murdered and missing Aboriginal women, ignoring the crisis of unaffordable child care, making conditions even more dangerous for street sex workers, and much more. The Tory caucus includes MPs who think that the most important role of women is to remain at home and perform domestic labour.

 

            If the Harper Conservatives are re‑elected in 2015, the progress towards economic and social equality gained by struggles over the past century is at risk. The best way to pay tribute to all victims of violence is to step up the fight for women's rights and equity, and to defeat the viciously anti‑equality Tories.

 

(The above article is from the December 1-31, 2014, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)