Stand Up to Stop Violence

Local and international leaders fighting violence against women urged people to make a stand at a ceremony at Province House in Halifax today, Dec. 5, to mark the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

"Violence against women affects our ability to achieve equality," said Carolyn Bolivar-Getson, Minister responsible for the Advisory Council on the Status of Women. "We worry about how we dress, where we go, and with whom, how we will get there and back. Fear of violence limits our lives and shrinks our daily existence."

The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women on Saturday, Dec. 6, has become a day to remember all women who live with, or have died because of, violence. It was established to honour 14 young women who died at École Polytechnique in Montreal.

Representatives from the province's Domestic Violence Prevention Committee, the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia, the Girl Guides of Canada and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights joined the minister at the ceremony.

The transition house association displayed the art therapy show Putting a Face on Abuse which featured masks by women who "show their faces" and experiences of abuse.

The minister asked the crowd of 60 to "stand up with women and their families ... This vigil, and others across the province, will make a difference. Our everyday efforts to stop violence in our homes and our communities will make a difference -- in the lives of our mothers, our daughters, our sisters, our friends, and the lady next door or down the street."

Statistics presented by the advisory council state:

• two-thirds of spousal violence incidents are not reported to police
• aboriginal women are at least three times more likely to have experienced spousal violence than non-aboriginal women
• about 88 per cent of sexual assaults in Canada are not reported to police. In more than two-thirds of reported cases, victims know the accused. Forty-four per cent of all victims are younger than 25.
• about two-thirds of calls that come in to the Nova Scotia Senior Abuse line are from women
• between 1975 and 2007, there were 90 spousal homicides in Nova Scotia. In 66 of these cases (73 per cent), the victims were women.

Read more at women.gov.ns.ca/pubFactSheets.asp .