On this day in 1989, a terrible act of violence was perpetrated in our country against a group of young women. So we use this National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women to reflect on that tragedy and what we can do to prevent similar things from happening in the future.

I suppose because I am a father of daughters I feel a particular urgency about the need for Canadian men to participate in the effort to end violence against women and girls, and -- to be blunt about this -- feel particular contempt for Canadians who stand in the way of this effort for self-interested or self-indulgent reasons.

This is not just a "women's issue." This is an issue for all of us.

As a woman, Nora Hassaan has to think about the safest way to walk home. She has to think about the safest way to dress. Possible escape routes when a man is following too closely behind her at night. The safest way to meet men. To constantly look after her drink when out for an evening in a bar or a club.

“As women we are told repeatedly how to be safe and how to protect ourselves from the dangerous, strange men out there,” says Hassaan, volunteer outreach coordinator at the Ryerson Students’ Union Women’s Centre.

The 20th anniversary of the December 6th Montreal Massacre was recently recognized as a grim reminder to Canadians that male violence against women is real. This violence takes a heavy toll on our mothers, sisters, friends, partners, neighbors and also on their loved ones.

In 1989, I was writing a feminist column for The Daily News in Halifax. As I read those columns 20 years later, I am disheartened to find that too much has not changed, that many of the columns are as relevant today as they were when I wrote them.

Case in point: This column was first published on Sunday, Dec. 10, 1989. The only changes I've made today are in square brackets or are added links.

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On Thursday morning, distinguished lawyer and former MP George Cooper made a little joke on CBC Radio's Information Morning. He was discussing the recent NDP leadership convention with host Don Connolly and panel mates Dale Godsoe and Ray Larkin when he decided to use a colourful comparison to express his opinion about some aspect of the race.

It’s December 6th 2009, and many people have been asking me what I’m thinking today. What do I think about this day where 20 years ago, a man walked into a Montreal engineering college and shot 14 women, specifically because they were women. Interestingly enough, I had to fight to have a female Aboriginal Elder open and be present at the event I’m speaking at today because the organizers “didn’t want to detract from the meaning of the day” by me asking her to say some words. It’s the 20th anniversary of the École Polytechnique shooting, and people keep asking me, so what do I think about that?

Like many others, I am sick with some kind of flu but this is an emergency so I am posting the fact sheet from the Coalition for Gun Control.  On Wednesday November 4 just one month short of the 20th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre when a single gun man slaughtered 14 women shouting, "you are all a bunch of feminists" the Conservatives are hoping to pass a private member's bill that will gut the gun registry, What's worse is that the NDP and Liberals could defeat it if they would impose party discipline on their members, but they won't.  You can make sure they do by flooding Layton and Ignati