Acadia’s Women's and Gender Studies program invites you to attend a panel discussion in honour of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. As a community, we will commemorate the women killed at the École Polytechnique in Montreal in 1989 and we will recommit our efforts to end gender-based violence. This event will be an opportunity to gather members from various communities to share different insights on and plans for action against violence.

Participants will include Elder Carolyn Landry from the Annapolis Valley First Nation, Autumn Doucette from the Mi’kmaw Healing Family Healing Centre, Ginger MacPhee from Chrysalis House, University Chaplain Marjorie Lewis, Polly Leonard from the Equity Office, Jennie Rand from the School of Engineering, Kathryn Bell from Psychology, President Peter Ricketts, and Executive Director of Alumni Affairs Oonagh Proudfoot. The event is supported by Women's and Gender Studies and the Office of the President. The President has also released a statement about honouring with remembrance and action.

The event is a campus-only event. As has been the tradition, attendants will be invited to stay for hot chocolate (and other beverages). There will be music and poetry. Final touches are being added to the programme, which will be circulated later, and which may include other participants.

Remembering December 6 in 2021

In 1989, fourteen young women were targeted and killed because of their gender in a mass shooting at l'École Polytechnique de Montréal. This hate crime led Parliament to designate December 6 as The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women.

On December 6, we remember each of these women: Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte, and Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz.

Gender-based violence continues to be pervasive. The statistics are stark. One in three women worldwide experience physical or sexual violence. Emerging data show that all types of violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence, have intensified since the outbreak of COVID-19, a phenomenon the United Nations has termed the Shadow Pandemic and that speaks to the gendered impacts of the pandemic.

In Canada, higher rates of violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people remain part of the damaging systemic effects of colonialism. On November 25, the Native Women Association of Canada announced the launch of #AnswerTheCalls campaign for 16 Days of Activism on the 40th anniversary of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. “This campaign will run until International Human Rights Day on December 10. For the next 16 days, we will demand real action be taken to answer the MMIWG Calls for Justice to end the violence against Indigenous women, girls, and gender-diverse people”.