For over three decades, people throughout the world have used Take Back the Night marches to bring awareness to the issue of violence against women.
The residents of Thompson are no different and took to the streets Sept. 21, since the Hub of the North is not immune from the sobering reality of domestic abuse.
“At least one out of every three women worldwide have been beaten, forced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime,” said Mary Demare, a representative from the Thompson Crisis Centre. “Of these crimes, less than 50 per cent are reported to the police. It’s time to make a change.”
With these statistics in mind, the 45 or so people on hand for Thursday’s march began their journey at Robin’s Donuts and made their way into Thompson’s downtown core via Selkirk Avenue before eventually looping around Thompson Drive and Mystery Lake Road to reach their original starting point.
This section of the city has been known as the site of many assaults, especially in a year where overall cases of violent crime have shot up by 28 per cent.
“Take Back the Night events are geared towards empowering women to confront fears about assault by reclaiming the evening streets en masse,” said Elizabeth Lychuk, a representative from the Northern Regional Health Authority. “The events call for safety and equality for women in all places at all times.”
While the number of overall participants was definitely down from the last couple iterations, this year’s Take Back the Night event still attracted a number of influential figures from the surrounding area.
Thompson city councillor Blake Ellis represented Mayor Dennis Fenske at the event’s opening ceremonies, where he reminded everyone that domestic abuse disproportionately affects women and girls in the Indigenous community.
“There’s far too many in the province and across the country, and especially from the north,” he said, referencing the national inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls. “Many of our sisters and our mothers and our friends and our neighbours that have gone missing are no longer with us because of violence.”
