In 1975, Susan Alexander Speeth, a young microbiologist from Philadelphia, was stabbed to death walking home, no more than a block from her house. The first Take Back the Night rally was organized in October of that year as a response to her murder, emerging from women’s desire to make the streets a safe place at night. Today, the movement takes place all over the world, and September is recognized across Canada for TBTN and a call for an end to all forms of sexual violence and the creation of safe communities and respectful and equitable relationships. TBTN activities include rallies, marches, dinners, coffee houses, and candlelight vigils, and are designed to raise the awareness of safety issues for women and girls, and to protest the harassment, sexual abuse, and assaults experienced by many women and girls in our society.
The Peel Committee against Woman Abuse (PCAWA), Peel's DV3C, stands in solidarity with gender-equity seeking groups locally across Peel Region and surrounding areas, and across Ontario, Canada and internationally in drawing attention to violence experienced by women and girls. We echo the call for communities to come together to keep streets safe and demand lives free from the threat of violence and a world in which women and girl's personal safety and control over their bodies and selves are not at risk.
In 2012 Justice Canada estimated that the economic cost of domestic violence was around $7.4 billion annually. In 2013 OAITH recorded that 32 women and children died in Ontario as a result of gender-based violence. Violence against women and girls affects entire communities; half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16. However, Indigenous women in particular experience violence at a disproportionate rate to other women in Canada. The RCMP recently confirmed there are 1,186 cases of missing or murdered Indigenous women, and it is expected this number is much higher than the one reported. We stand in solidarity with Indigenous communities across Canada in calling for a national inquiry into these missing and murdered women.
To mark this year's Take Back The Night, we encourage you to take a moment of silence to honour the lives of women and girls taken in 2014. Additionally, we encourage you to work in solidarity with gender-equity seeking groups in your community calling for an end to gender-based violence.
For the third year in Peel, PCAWA is a planning partner of Peel's only Sisters in Spirit Vigil taking place at 6pm on Saturday, Oct 4th at Gage Park, Brampton. We urge you to come out and stand in solidarity with Indigenous communities and allies in Peel in honouring the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Thank you,
Toni Francis,
PCAWA Coordinator
The Peel Committee against Woman Abuse (PCAWA), Peel's DV3C, stands in solidarity with gender-equity seeking groups locally across Peel Region and surrounding areas, and across Ontario, Canada and internationally in drawing attention to violence experienced by women and girls. We echo the call for communities to come together to keep streets safe and demand lives free from the threat of violence and a world in which women and girl's personal safety and control over their bodies and selves are not at risk.
In 2012 Justice Canada estimated that the economic cost of domestic violence was around $7.4 billion annually. In 2013 OAITH recorded that 32 women and children died in Ontario as a result of gender-based violence. Violence against women and girls affects entire communities; half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16. However, Indigenous women in particular experience violence at a disproportionate rate to other women in Canada. The RCMP recently confirmed there are 1,186 cases of missing or murdered Indigenous women, and it is expected this number is much higher than the one reported. We stand in solidarity with Indigenous communities across Canada in calling for a national inquiry into these missing and murdered women.
To mark this year's Take Back The Night, we encourage you to take a moment of silence to honour the lives of women and girls taken in 2014. Additionally, we encourage you to work in solidarity with gender-equity seeking groups in your community calling for an end to gender-based violence.
For the third year in Peel, PCAWA is a planning partner of Peel's only Sisters in Spirit Vigil taking place at 6pm on Saturday, Oct 4th at Gage Park, Brampton. We urge you to come out and stand in solidarity with Indigenous communities and allies in Peel in honouring the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Thank you,
Toni Francis,
PCAWA Coordinator
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