3.17.2011

Canada

Three truly Canadian Women!
Love you guys!

Population: 34,030,589
Capital: Ottawa
Language: English, French
Religion: Roman Catholic 42.6%, Protestant 23.3%
Life Expectancy: 81.38 years
GDP per Capita: $39,600


So I was trying to figure out what to focus on for women of Canada, in doing research I came across at lot of information on Violence against women in Canada, and then in class today that was actually exactly what we talked about, here is what we looked at in class;

The following statistics come from the Violence Against Women Survey of 1993,

• Half of Canadian women have experienced some type of physical or sexual violence since the age of 18
• 3 out of every 10 Canadian women currently or previously married, or in a common-law relationship have experience at least one incident of physical or sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner
• 29% of ever-married women have experience wife assault
• 16% have been kicked, hit, beaten, choked, had a gun or knife used against them, or have been sexually assaulted
• 11% have been pushed, grabbed, shoved, slapped
• Children witness violence against their mothers in 40% of violent marriages


I found the following statistics from this website, more heartbreaking numbers; isn’t it crazy that this is happening in our very own country?

• Spousal violence makes up the single largest category of convictions involving violent offences in non-specialized adult courts in Canada over the five-year period 1997/98 to 2001/02. Over 90% of offenders were male.
• Thirty-six percent of female victims of spousal violence and less than 10% of victims of sexual assault reported these crimes to the police in 2004.
• Physical and sexual abuse costs Canada over $4 billion each year (factoring into account social services, criminal justice, lost employment days and health care interventions
• Violence against women occurs across all ethnic, racial, religious, age, social and economic groups. Some women are more vulnerable however, and are more likely to experience violence, including women with disabilities, geographically-isolated women, young women and Aboriginal women.


On a different topic, if you are interested in history here are two sites that talk about the Women’s suffrage movement in Canada 1 and 2
Women in Canada have fought quite hard to achieve the status we have today. It’s amazing; I just want to send out my thanks and appreciation to the women who worked so hard for equal rights for Canadian women!

Moving on, back to violence, another issue that was briefly discussed in class today was the “Montreal Massacre,” I had never heard of it before but it broke my heart and I decided to research it a bit more. This is what our handout in class said about it;

“1989-Montrel Massacre: On December 6th, at L’Ecole Polytechnique (School of Engineering), Marc Lepin murdered 14 women, and injured 9 women and 4 men, before killing himself. In his suicide note, he blamed feminism for ruining his life and described the murders as a political act, he also identified 19 prominent Quebec women as on his ‘hit list,’ saying that they lived because he started to late.”

I found this website which describes the event in much more detail and calls it “the worst single-day massacre in Canadian history.” Here is what his suicide note said;

“Please note that if I am committing suicide today ... it is not for economic reasons ... but for political reasons. For I have decided to send Ad Patres [Latin: "to the fathers"] the feminists who have ruined my life. ... The feminists always have a talent for enraging me. They want to retain the advantages of being women ... while trying to grab those of men. ... They are so opportunistic that they neglect to profit from the knowledge accumulated by men throughout the ages. They always try to misrepresent them every time they can.”

The act of the genocide is also described in detail on the website, I encourage you to check it out, I can’t believe I had never heard of this horrific event before today. It’s heartbreaking, and my condolences go out to the loved ones of those killed and to the entire school.


Thanks for reading.

No comments:

Post a Comment