Culture

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Fight for Women's Rights

Tyson Kelsall
Volunteer Coordinator

Wer unite, take back the night!” was chanted
amongst the group of roughly ISO women

and children who marched around Prince George's
downtown core on Friday 20 September. “Take
Back The Night” is an annual tradition where there is
tangible action to bring awareness to violence and

sexual assault against women. According to the Rape,

Abuse & Incest National Network, | in 3 women
worldwide have been abused or raped, and only
50% report it to the police.

Dr. Si Transken, a social work professor at the
University of Northern British Columbia who read

a poem to begin the walk, says the importance of
nights like these rests in that, “it is a ‘herstoriclsic]
forum in which women can feel safe, comment on the
preceding year's episodes of social injustice, remind
each other and the next generation of women (and
men) that we are 100% sovereign Beingslsic] who
deserve to walk anywhere, at any time, dressed or
decorated in any fashion, and remain safe. No one is
entitled to touch us or verbally harass us, regardless
of whether we are wearing red, a short skirt, lipstick,
etc. The famous slogan is 'No means No!”

Take Back the Night first occurred in Italy in 1976;
Prince George began taking back the night in 1991.

The march holds particularly powerful in Prince
George, where Macleans claimed in 2011 that
the reported sexual assault rate is 84% above the
national Canadian average.

Prince George is also the gateway to the ‘Highway
of Tears’ where several women, most of Aboriginal
descent, have gone missing or have been murdered.
As Crystal Phillips noted in the pre-march speech,
Prime Minister Steohen Harper has recently gone
against the wishes of the United Nations who
recommended that Canada develop a national
review to end violence against Aboriginal women.
This summer, the Canadian provincial governments,
the Native Women’s Association of Canada,

and Amnesty International also called on the
Conservative government to fund an inquiry on
missing Aboriginal women, still to no avail. The
Liberals, NDP, Green Party and National Assembly

of First Nations have all supported the idea of an
inquiry.

Dr. Transken claimed at the march that the
Conservatives’ lack of action is because of a fear
of exposing some dark realities; “Harper and other
conservatives like him (and there are many) realize
that... collecting such data about the truths that are
going on around us would necessitate him actually
throwing money at doing the moral thing. The truths

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that would come out include: land claims must

be resolved (and thus more First Nations women
would have some economic strength): policing must
be expanded in numbers and in consciousness;
court systems must hold abusers accountable (and
provide meaningful counseling and feminist insights
to perpetrators); effective transportation must be
provided to isolated or rural communities so women
don't have to turn fo hitchhiking or riding with
people who make them uncomfortable. There are
also dozens of other social supports that would
enhance the well-being and empowerment of First
Nations women - but Harper and the other levels
of government and community leaders would have
to admit their mistakes, change their ideology, and
part with substantive resources. They don't want to
do that.”

Other speakers at the event included Frank Frederick
Sr., an elder of the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation who
gave an opening prayer to the occasion, Associate
Professor in Social Work, Dawn Hemingway, who
spoke about opening up the relatively untouched
subject of violence against women aged 49 and
over, and Tom Wainwright of the Northern John
Howard Society, who instructed men about making
anti-violence a lifestyle and take action beyond
themselves. Lanna Tosoff, the coordinator for the
event, acted as the master of ceremonies.