women march

21st annual February 14 Women’s Memorial March — Their spirits live within us

Two events: Monday February 13, 2012 and Tuesday February 14, 2012.

1: Murdered women, missing justice

Monday February 13th from 9:30 a.m. till 2:00 p.m.
Rally outside sham inquiry 701 West Georgia (Georgia and Granville)

Every week since the beginning of the sham Missing Women’s Inquiry, the Women’s Memorial March Committee has been rallying to denounce the disrespect and injustice happening inside. Dozens of DTES, Aboriginal and Women’s organizations were shut out from participating in the inquiry.

Now we are hearing numerous stories, directly and as reported in the media, of family members’ outrage and anger and frustration with this inquiry as there are no answers, no apologies and authorities are just protecting themselves and each other.

We invite you all to join us — for five minutes or five hours — on Monday February 13 to show your disgust at this coverup sham inquiry and to call instead for for a new fair, just and inclusive Inquiry that centers the voices and experiences and leadership of women, particularly Indigenous women, in the DTES.

See Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre and Women’s Memorial March Committee Statement of Non Participation In Sham Inquiry from Oct 2011:

Followed on Tuesday by:

2: 21st Annual February 14 Women’s Memorial March

Web link: http://womensmemorialmarch.wordpress.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/236552276421022/

The first women’s memorial march was held in 1991 in response to the murder of a Coast Salish woman on Powell Street in Vancouver. Her name is not spoken today out of respect for the wishes of her family.

Out of this sense of hopelessness and anger came an annual march on Valentine’s Day to express compassion, community and caring for all women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Unceded Coast Salish Territories. Twenty one years later, the women’s memorial march continues to honour the lives of missing and murdered women.

On Tuesday February 14 2012, we will gather at noon at the Carnegie Community Centre Theatre, 401 Main Street (corner Hastings, Vancouver) where family members speak in remembrance. Given space constraints, we ask the broader public to join us at 1 pm, when the march takes to the streets and proceeds through the Downtown Eastside, with stops to commemorate where women were last seen or found; speeches by community activists at the police station, a healing circle at Oppenheimer Park around 3 p.m. and finally a community feast at the Japanese Language Hall. Thank you to Buffalo Spirit for the big drum.

Increasing deaths of many vulnerable women from the DTES still leaves family, friends, loved ones and community members with an overwhelming sense of grief and loss. Over 3,000 women are known to have gone missing or been murdered in Canada since the 1970s, and annual women’s memorial marches now occur in dozens of communities across these lands.

This year, the February 14 Women’s Memorial March occurs in the context of the sham provincial missing women’s inquiry headed by Wally Oppall, which we are boycotting because we have been shut out from it and it has continued to marginalize the voices and experiences of women from the DTES. Women continue to go missing or be murdered with no action from any level of government to address these tragedies or the systemic nature of gendered violence, poverty, racism or colonialism.

The February 14 Women’s Memorial March Committee and DTES Women’s Centre have recently made submissions under Article 8 of the Optional Protocol of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, and are now seeking justice internationally.

This event is organized and led by women in the DTES because women — especially Indigenous women — face physical, mental, emotional and spiritual violence on a daily basis. The February 14 Women’s Memorial March is an opportunity to come together to grieve the loss of our beloved sisters, remember the women who are still missing and to dedicate ourselves to justice.

For more information, please see here.

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February 10, 2012 Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories — The February 14 Annual Women’s Memorial March is held on Valentine’s Day each year to honour the memory of women from the Downtown Eastside who have died due to the violence of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual abuse. Now in its 21st year, the March is an immensely powerful women’s action that brings courage and commitment to remember and honour murdered and missing women, and to end the violence that vulnerable women in the DTES face on a daily basis.

“We are here to honour and remember the women, and we are here because we are failing to protect women from the degradation of poverty and systemic exploitation, abuse and violence. We are here in sorrow and in anger because the violence continues each and every day and the list of missing and murdered women gets longer every year,” says Marlene George, Memorial March Committee organizer.

This year, the Annual Women’s Memorial March will be preceded by a rally on Monday February 13 at Georgia and Granville against the sham provincial missing women’s inquiry headed by Wally Oppall. Says George: “We are boycotting this sham inquiry because we have been shut out from it and it has continued to marginalize the voices and experiences of women from the DTES. Women continue to go missing or be murdered with no action from any level of government to address these tragedies or gendered violence, poverty, racism or colonialism.”

The February 14 Women’s Memorial March Committee and DTES Women’s Centre have recently made submissions under Article 8 of the Optional Protocol of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, and are now seeking justice internationally. The organizations formally submitted that “The Commission continues the pattern of grave and systemic discrimination against women in the Downtown Eastside which the Commission was supposed to investigate.”

Marches will also be held in at least 12 other cities including Victoria, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Penticton, Calgary, Kelowna, Merritt, Thunder bay and London. In Vancouver, friends and family members led by Indigenous women move through the DTES and stop at sites where women died or were last seen. At these sites, women offer prayers, medicines, ceremonies, and lay roses in remembrance.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Marlene George: 604-665-3005, Carol Martin 778 322 3069, Lisa Yellow-Quill 604 618 1061, Mona Woodward 604-697-5662, Stella August 604 833 8516, Corinthia Kelly: 778 709 6494 (French) Website: http://womensmemorialmarch.wordpress.com/

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Krystalline Kraus

krystalline kraus is an intrepid explorer and reporter from Toronto, Canada. A veteran activist and journalist for rabble.ca, she needs no aviator goggles, gas mask or red cape but proceeds fearlessly...