Dec. 6 marks the National Day of Action and Remembrance on Violence Against Women. A 6pm vigil will be held at the Boathouse at 116 Gordon St. in Guelph and there will be a performance by Woman to Woman Choir
The day commemorates a tragedy that occurred almost twenty years ago at the engineering school of the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal.
On Dec. 6, 1989, 14 women were murdered by a single male gunman. Before opening fire, the gunman separated the male students from the female students and said that he “hated feminists,” Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis state in a press release.
Since this attack, the 14 victims have come to represent symbols of the inequality faced by women every day, and to make a connection between a single event and the widespread reality of male violence towards women.
Every year, a vigil is held on the anniversary to both honor and mourn the loss of these women and to remember all women whose lives have been touched by violence.
Dec. 6 also serves as an opportunity to raise awareness on the issues of injustice towards women and woman abuse, and to advocate for change.
