December 6, 2008: National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women
BCGEU media release
By: Judi Filion BCGEU Treasurer and Chair, Provincial Executive Women's Committee
Dec 5 '08

December 6 is a time for us to remember all those who have died as a result of gender-based violence, and a time to acknowledge that daily violence is a reality that many women and girls continue to live and die under.

Established in 1991 by the Parliament of Canada, this National Day of Remembrance marks the anniversary of the 1989 massacre of 14 female engineering students at l'École Polytechnique de Montréal. They died because they were women.

In many communities in this province, women who need help have nowhere to turn. Under Gordon Campbell, the B.C. Liberal government closed the Ministry of Women's Equality and cut hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from key services needed to ensure women's safety, access to the legal system and social assistance. Women who have witnessed a violent crime no longer have access to the Crown Victim Witness Services Program and the Violence in Relationship Program for women being abused by their spouses has been severely cut.

At the federal level in Canada, Harper's Conservatives cut five million dollars from the Status of Women. It no longer funds womens' groups that do advocacy, lobbying or gender-based research and has also eliminated early learning and child care funding agreements.

These assaults on women's equality and rights have pushed more and more women into poverty and vulnerability.

A report just recently released by First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition and the Social Planning and Research Council, stated B.C.'s child poverty rate is the highest in Canada for the fifth year in a row. And women and children in poverty are often the most vulnerable to violence and exploitation.

At the November 2008 BC Federation of Labour Convention, delegates from BCGEU and other affiliates voted on resolutions demanding that government address violence against women and threats to women's equality. The BCGEU remains committed to raising public awareness of and mobilizing on these issues.