The main hall at the Southeast Regional College was filled with residents and visitors from southeast Saskatchewan during the memorial vigil for the 14 women killed at Ecole Polytechnique in 1989.
Named the End Violence Against Women and Children Memorial Vigil, the event provided everyone in attendance the chance to reflect on the tragedy that stemmed from an intense hatred for women, and discuss the ongoing abuse other women still face in our community.
“We all want to believe that we live in a relatively peaceful community where people are treated with respect and dignity, yet statistics are alarming,” said Christa Daku, executive director of Envision Counselling and Support Centre, during the opening remarks, before noting that one in four women are abused by the man who she lives with, and every 17 minutes, a woman is abused in southeast Saskatchewan.
Envision Counselling and Support Centre vice-chair Vic Wiebe and Daku briefly went over the services provided by Envision, including the number of in-house programs and counselling services and the recently announced project to combat cyber-violence, which is still in the early stages of accumulating information from members of the community.
A video recapping the horrific events at the engineering school in Montreal was shown and outlined how a gunman stormed the school and shot and killed 14 women in a classroom after ordering the men to leave the room. A number of other women were also injured throughout the school.
Estevan’s police chief, Paul Ladouceur spoke shortly after the video and talked about his encounters with domestic violence and other situations of violence against women, which he added are prevalent and often difficult for women to come forward with.
“These 14 women made headlines because of the numbers but we don’t see the incidents that occur on a daily basis throughout this country,” he said. “If we were to combine the number of incidents nationally on any given day one would be astounded by how often this happens.”
Ladouceur described violence against women as a “community issue,” and added it goes beyond domestic violence.
“The conversation surrounding violence against women tends to centre around domestic violence but clearly we’re seeing incidents like (the Montreal Massacre) where men wish to take power or control over women for whatever reasons,” he said. “We have to be role models to our children and teach them how to treat women properly.”
Ladouceur finished by saying that it’s imperative that people report any instances of domestic violence and other cases of violence against women.
Dee Dee Chomyk, author of Unpunished, read a small portion of her book that tells the story of a woman named Donna and her fight against abuse. At one point, Chomyk read how Donna’s abuser often told her it was “Your word against mine,” a phrase she said many women are likely familiar with in cases of abuse.
“The first time I spoke publicly I was terrified,” she said. “But I want to help those who have suffered or continue to suffer and assure them that it does end.”
The Social Justice Group from Estevan Comprehensive School presented a poster, and Chomyk noted it was “great to see the younger generation picking up on this.”
Southeast Saskatchewan singer-songwriter Lorri Solomon Matthewson performed twice during the vigil, and encouraged audience members to sing along, which they did.
