Nearly 2,500 people walked through the streets of downtown Vancouver for this year's Women's Memorial March.
missing and murdered women
How we remember missing and murdered women in Canada
In a nation that has shown itself incapable of respecting the dead, how do we honour the memories of women killed by their families?
Related rabble.ca story:
Why the B.C. Missing Women's Commission of Inquiry fails
The very same grassroots community of women who have been advocating for a public inquiry into the deaths and disappearances of women in the Downtown Eastside for over two decades are now denouncing the B.C. Missing Women's Commission of Inquiry as an insult to the women of this Vancouver community.
West Coast LEAF and EVA BC withdraw from B.C.'s Missing Women Inquiry
Aug. 9, 2011 - The Ending Violence Association of BC (EVA BC) and West Coast LEAF (the Coalition) have withdrawn from the Missing Women Inquiry, citing the government's failure to provide funding for counsel for community groups (full letter below).
Inquiry Commissioner Wally Oppal granted standing to 13 community groups and recommended that these groups receive funding commensurate with their differing levels of participation. Commissioner Oppal found that the participation of these groups was necessary to the work of the Commission and that they required counsel in order to participate.
However, on July 22, Deputy Attorney General David Loukidelis confirmed the government's decision not to fund any of the 13 groups.
Survival, strength, sisterhood: The women of the Downtown Eastside
Today: 20th Annual DTES Womens Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Women in Vancouver
Related rabble.ca story:
Groups petition for limited spots in Missing Women Commission
The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry held hearings in Vancouver on Monday to determine which groups and individuals should be granted standing at the Inquiry, which will begin later this year.
Commissioner Wally Oppal began the proceedings by addressing a roomful of lawyers who represented victims' family members, women's rights advocates, aboriginal leaders, and other interest groups seeking standing.
In his opening remarks, Oppal explained that the government of B.C. established the Commission of Inquiry in September 2010 to answer questions raised during the Robert William Pickton trial.
Stop violence against women as we remember the Ecole Polytechnique murders
To commemorate December 6, the day when 14 women were massacred in Montreal's Polytechnical Institute in 1989, and in protest of the violence which women continue to suffer in Québec, Canada and around the world, we, the Collective of Women of Diverse Origins whole-heartedly supports the resolutions which came out of the Workshop on Violence Against Women, at the Montreal International Women's Conference August 13-15, 2010.
The workshop was attended by women from around the world; the conference brought together over 400 participants from 32 countries. It culminated in the forming of an anti-imperialist International Women's Alliance.
On The Farm gives voice to Pickton's victims
Journalist Stevie Cameron speaks to rabble.