On December 6, 1006A activists, staff and officers will be coming together at a Shoe Memorial for the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
The Shoe Memorial is taking place at Mississauga Civic Centre’s Great Hall (300 City Centre Drive) from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Members are welcome to join us.
Twenty-six years ago, the lives of 14 young women were brutally cut short on December 6 when a lone gunman entered their college, Ecole Polytechnique, and shot them dead. He wounded 14 others, including 10 women and four men.
In the midst of Marc Lepine’s rampage, he screamed, “You're a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists.”
The events of December 6, 1989 would come to be known as the Montreal Massacre. Today, December 6 is annually observed across Canada as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
Members, and stewards, along with the local union’s Women’s Issues Network (WIN), collected hundreds of shoes, purses and toiletries. The display of shoes will serve as a symbolic remembrance of all the women who have lost their lives to violence. Following this year’s campaign, the shoes will be donated to a Women’s Shelter in the GTA. 1006A will also be participating in the #NotOkay campaign, a campaign to help end violence against women. On December 6, we encourage members to utilize the hashtag, #NotOkay, to raise awareness about this important issue.
The statistics are sobering. The Canadian Women’s Foundation reports that “67% of all Canadians say they personally know at least one woman who has been sexually or physically assaulted.” Every six days on average, the foundation notes that “a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner.”
