National Day of Remembrance & Action on Violence Against Women - December 6

December 6 message from Stephanie Smith

I’ll never forget hearing about the massacre at Montreal’s l'École Polytechnique on December 6, 1989. Like you, I watched the news coverage in stunned disbelief that such a horrific act of violence against women could happen. I grieved for the 14 young women, students at the school, and their loved ones.

It’s no easier 22 years later to reconcile how someone could slaughter women in Canada because of their gender.

Violence against women hits especially close to home this year. The Missing Women’s Inquiry has been examining the activities of serial killer Robert William Pickton and the police departments that handled the case. Pickton preyed on women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside before his arrest in 2002.

The inquiry has been headline news. The testimony has centered around the treatment of vulnerable women at the hand of those who should have been protecting them. Witnesses have described feeling ignored, despised and unsafe in their own community.

This has to stop. We still, all too frequently, hear of yet another woman beaten, sometimes to death, by a partner or relative. Women are still unsafe in their homes, communities and workplaces. We deserve better.

December 6th, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada, is a special day of mourning and commemoration. On this day, we will remember the 14 young women who were killed in Montreal. First we mourn, then we’ll continue our work to end violence against women.

Stephanie Smith is treasurer of the BCGEU and chair of the Provincial Executive Women's Committee.