Violence Against Women

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

December 6 is Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women

December 6 is a day to remember the 14 young women killed in Montreal on December 6, 1989.

On this day we also commemorate the missing and murdered Aboriginal women, trans-women, and every woman across the world whose lives have been harmed or lost to gender-based violence.

The killing of women is an almost daily event in Canada, with over one hundred women being murdered by their male partners each year.

**On any given night in Canada 3,491 women and their 2724 children

Sleep in shelters because it is not safe at home.

**On any given night about 300 women and children are turned away because shelters are already full.

** According to the RCMP there were 1,181 cases of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada between 1980 and 2012. However, according to community organizations and the Minister of the Status of Women the number is much higher, and closer to 4,000.

** Women are at greater risk of experiencing elder abuse from a family member, accounting for 60% of senior survivors of family violence.

Please break the silence that surrounds this situation which has such far-reaching effects, not only on women as victims, but on their children as well. Some studies indicate that between 40-60% of assaultive men witnessed wife assault during their childhood, and that over 50% of young offenders charged with crimes against people were found to have been exposed to domestic violence.

For there to be any change, this dastardly situation needs to be seen as a national dilemma because violence against women cuts across boundaries of geography, wealth, race, and age.

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