Other Press
FEATURE

December 13, 1993

Remembering Montreal

students and staff gather to honour the murdered women of Ecole Polytechnique

It was-a solemn day at Douglas College Decem-
ber 6 as faculty, staff and students gathered to
pay their respects to the women murdered at the
Ecole Polytechnique, an engineering school in
Montréal. Events were scheduled both to pay
tribute to the women who were killed, and to
raise awareness of violence against women, as
the killer took action against the women because

they were women.

clockwise from bottom left: A speakers addresses the
gathered crowd at the ceremony; a circle was formed to
listen to the speakers; a woman lays flowers in honour of
the women (inset); a forum afterwards disscussed ways
to stop violence against women; the concourse back to
normal shortly after the ceremony, except for a table set

up to talk about the issues.

Photos: Jim Irving

 

 

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by Marina Jurlina

On Thursday, December 2, Douglas
College held the first open community
forum on the violence perpetrated by

the Men’s Group (all three members)
as a way of commerating the tragic event

White Ribbon Campaign (MenAgainst
MaleViolence), the group hoped to in-

munity so that it could collectively ad-
dress the issue and generate construc-
tive responses and solutions in se
discussion.

The panel included Claudia Beaven,
who teaches gender issues, Bruce
Landon from the psychology depart-
ment, and Rob Buris, counsellor in the
SHARE community service in
Coquitlam. Stephen Mainprize from so-

 

men in our society, It was concieved by _

of December 6. In conjunction with the -

troduce the topic to the college com- _

cial sciences facilitated the forum,
guided by the recent StatsCan report
entitled “The Violence Against Women
Survey” released November 18.

_ Social, economic and physical expla-
nations on why men are violent were

provided by the panelists. A strong em-

phasis was placed on the general accept-
ance of violence in our society, and the
need to change these behaviours.

- “Offensive things culturalize chil-
dren and anyone who is susceptible. If
you see something, act on it. It has im-
pact - do something - respond,” saidTom
Childs, organizer, activist, and learning
resource person.

Unfortunately, not many practical
solutions were provided: the forum
stayed on a very intellectual level. Many
of those in attendance.were disappointed
with this theoretical approach, since eve-

ryone there was already aware of the
problems and was looking for practical
solutions.

Men are beating on women. Not just
here, but all over the world the con-
tinuum of violence done is escalating.
Fully 19 per cent of all Canadian women
have experienced it. Only the instiga-
tors can stop it. The rest of us can help
only by providing alternate behaviours
to the violent response that is chosen to
vent our emotions. So I have provided a
few of the projects currently happening
that you can get involved with.

The Douglas College Womens’ Cen-
tre is currently working on a safety sur-
vey based on a successful system based

in Ontario called METRAC. It attempts

to pinpoint the causes of feelings of
unease and danger created by some en-
vironments. This provides specific and

practical problems: that can be resolved
through either physical planning or
community awareness. The surveys cir-
culated in October brought to attention
the areas of greatest concern, such as the

parking lots, parkades, stairwells and
Skytrain stations. Adminstration has —

agreed to make any physical changes
necessary,

They hope to have a physical’ walka-
bout’ around the campus and surround-

ing three block radius. If you're looking

for practical - you can’t beat making your
environment safer. Let the Womens’ Cen-
tre know if you're interested.

The Student Society is also organiz-
ing a Safe Walk program. This program
is for the use of students who feel un-
safe walking around campus, to their
cars, to Skytrain, etc. The people in the
program are student volunteers who

Mens' forum too intellectualized, says student

have been scleaed after their interview
and records check.

In addition, the College now has a
written Standards of Conduct policy, in

_ addition to the Sexual and Personal

Harrassment policy in which they have
comitted to “providing a learning and

_working environment which is free

from sexual and personal harrassment...
in which students are entitled to en-

__ gage in the [educational or work] proc-

ess, free from disruptions, harrassment,
or threat to personal safety.”

Marina Jurlina is a student at Douglas Col-
lege, and a work-study student at the Womens’
Centre.