This Saturday marks the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. All flags at DC will be lowered to half-mast.
On Thursday, staff and students gathered in the Rotary Global Classroom to remember the 14 women whose lives were taken on Dec. 6, 1989, at the École Polytechnique de Montréal in an act of hate.
The ceremony also highlighted the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, a global campaign that runs from Nov. 25 until Dec. 10, Human Rights Day.
Marisa Mei, the college’s Sexual Violence Education and Prevention coordinator, organized the event.
“It represents courage, healing and responsibility,” she said. “For our college, it reinforces our commitment to creating a campus where safety, dignity and equality are not just ideals, but lived realities.”
The DC ceremony was hosted and live-streamed to the Whitby campus. The event was intended to challenge gender inequality and to learn how every person can make a difference.
Attendees were encouraged to sign a pledge card, writing down one concrete action they could take to end violence against women.
At the ceremony, Aqua Nibii Waawasskone, an Indigenous drummer, singer and songwriter, performed two songs alongside jingle dancer Rachel Taunton, who also works in DC’s First Peoples Indigenous Centre.
Waawasskone also performed an original song, “My Girl.”
“[This song] is to honour their lives, and a prayer of peace that they’re in a good place with the creator and their ancestors, it’s also to soothe our hearts,” she said.
The ceremony included a moment of silence as well as a wreath being placed to commemorate survivors and those lost to gender-based violence and femicide.
Gender-based violence (GBV) is an ongoing epidemic in Canada. In 2024, more than 120,000 victims of intimate partner violence were reported to police, according to Statistics Canada. Yet, 80 per cent of survivors never report.
GBV refers to harmful acts directed at a person based on their gender, gender identity, or perceived gender.
It includes physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, and economic or financial abuse, as well as threats, coercion and stalking.
One of the most prominent forms of gender-based violence is femicide. According to a news release from the Government of Canada, a woman or girl is killed in an act of GBV every 48 hours in Canada,
In 2024, 240 women and girls were murdered, a 54 per cent increase over pre-COVID rates.
“Gender based violence is rooted in systemic inequality, intensified by racism, colonialism, and it’s also rooted in power and control,” said Mei. “Gender-based violence is a human rights violation and calls us to take action through education, advocacy and allyship.”
Mei told the audience this means not laughing at sexist jokes, for example, because it perpetuates a society that allows GBV to happen, something people may not recognize.