PUBLICATION:
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
DATE:
2004.12.07
PAGE:
A12
SECTION:
Focus
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Editorial
- Lepine's legacy
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It's
been more than 20 years since a member of Parliament rose in the House of
Commons to ask what the government was doing to reduce violence against women in
Canada, only to hear other members joking and laughing. Television cameras, new
to the Commons, caught the event and a public uproar ensued. It is unlikely that
MPs or anyone in a position of responsibility would be caught laughing today
about violence against women. It is not only politically incorrect, but widely
regarded as something decent people just don't do. Attitudes have changed in 20
years and the Montreal Massacre in 1989 most certainly played into that fact.
When
Marc Lepine carried his semi-automatic rifle into Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique
on that Dec. 6, he separated the men from the women and lined up the female
engineering students against the wall and gunned them down, declaring they were
all feminists and feminists had ruined his life. He killed 14 women and the
debate about misogyny and the fight for women's equality took on a new dimension
in Canada.
Many
regarded him merely as a madman and the massacre a product of a deeply troubled
mind, refusing to see any connection to attitudes towards women or the reasons
underlying violence against women.
The
deaths of the 14 students served as a catalyst among women's groups who demanded
better of government and the courts to battle that violence. Laws are tougher
today and public campaigns about violence against women are commonplace.
It
is not easy to discern whether it is the hammer of law or the education
campaigns or the combination that has had an impact, but fewer females are dying
of homicide. Statistics Canada surveys show a marked drop in female homicide
victims since 1983, a trend that began about 1994, when the annual toll fell
below 200. In 2003, there were 156 female victims. Yet the number of wives who
died at the hands of a husband or ex-spouse has not dropped. Clearly, there
remains work to be done.
That
work must be done in the home. Marc Lepine was raised in a home where violence
was a part of life; he was abused and saw his mother regularly beaten by his
dad. StatsCan surveys find violence in the home -- everything from harsh words
or shoving to physical attacks with weapons -- is underreported. Men and women
are the aggressors in roughly equal numbers, but women were far more likely to
be injured. The foundation of society is the family. Reducing violence in the
home begins with teaching children there's no excuse for it.
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STATISTICS
CANADA: UPDATED DOMESTIC HOMICIDE TABLES http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/publications/DomesticHomicides-1995-2003-2004-10-07.xls