The Envision Counselling and Support Centre is asking the public to mark a sad anniversary in Canadian history.
The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women is Dec. 6, which marks the anniversary of the murders of 14 women in 1989 at l'École Polytechnique de Montréal.
Envision Counselling and Support Centre is reflecting on the women who lost their lives in a grievous act of gender-based violence.
“It feels like we’re talking about something that happened in another time and across the country, but the underlying issue of violence against women remains so relevant, particularly right now, when people are overwhelmed with outside stress and pressures due to the pandemic,” says Christa Daku, executive director of Envision Counselling and Support Centre.
Dec. 6 is a chance to focus on women and girls who are experiencing violence in their everyday lives and shine a light on how these issues affect our local communities.
“Our counsellors are responding to family violence situations in the southeast, helping mothers and their children to flee dangerous relationships, and preparing safety plans and providing counselling for those who have no option but to remain in the home,” says Daku.
She adds that Saskatchewan continues to have one of the highest rates of police-reported intimate partner violence among the provinces.
Intimate partner violence happens among legally married, separated or divorced persons, current and former common-law partners, dating partners and other intimate partners.
Daku says that with more of us turning to the internet to communicate and to connect, it helps to be aware that gender based hatred and cyberviolence are often on the other side of the screen.
“We currently have our ROAM educational programming going into schools in the region, which we hope will prevent the issues that our organization deals with later on,” says Daku.
“By educating youth in our region about topics such as healthy online behaviour or toxic masculinity, we hope to prevent gender based violence in the future. We talk to students about the pyramid of violence, where hate culture can escalate into violence if the progression isn’t stopped” says Daku.
