This year’s Take Back the Night march participants in Thompson were dressed up in tuques, mitts and winter jackets to contend with the snowfall that took place the afternoon of Sept. 21.
Despite this inhospitable weather, the marchers still completed their loop around the downtown core in an effort to raise awareness about violence against women.
This year’s march kicked off at Robin’s Donuts, where several guest speakers put the event’s proceedings into the proper context.
Harlie Pruder, the chairperson of the board of the Thompson Crisis Centre, said sexual and gendered violence continues to be a lived reality for many Northern Manitoba residents.
According to Discourse Media, Thompson has the ninth highest rate of police-reported violence against women in the country.
“Violence is a complex issue that comes in many forms and affects every person in a community,” said Pruder. “Whether you are on the street because it is safer than going home, or walking to work in the early morning, you do not deserve violence.”
Even though Take Back the Night marches have been held in Canada since 1978, attitudes towards events like this have undergone a significant transformation over those 40 years.
A lot has even happened socially since Thompson’s last Take Back the Night event in September 2017, since the #MeToo movement was brought into the public eye during October of that year.
Deputy mayor Colleen Smook alluded to this increased public awareness around sexual violence by observing that the Take Back the Night march she attended several years ago saw participation from mostly women, as opposed to the healthy mix of the sexes on Friday night.
“It is so nice to see the men joining us here tonight and the children that are out so that we are passing down the information, that we’re not hiding it,“ she said.
Smook also made reference to the broader concern about public safety in Thompson, which has been a hot topic of conversation online and within the walls of City Hall over the last couple weeks.
“I have seen stabbings in the last two days, somebody that was attacked by a machete,” she said. “There should be no need for people to be scared to walk down the streets, whether it’s in Thompson or an outlying community.”
