With the goal of ending domestic and sexual violence, more than 100 people gathered Thursday evening to Take Back the Night.
Organized by Green Haven Shelter for Women, attendees heard harrowing statistics on domestic and sexual violence, as well as stories from women with lived experience at the Orillia Public Library before marching through downtown Orillia together.
Originating in the 1970s, Take Back the Night is now an international event that protests and takes direct aim against sexual and domestic violence in communities around the world.
“It's happening everywhere, and we all must stand up and demand the end of violence,” said Green Haven executive director, Linda Reid. “These are your mothers, your sisters, daughters, friends and colleagues. On behalf of all the murdered and missing women and the courageous survivors of intimate partner violence, we're asking you to be the change, for you to be their voice, and to help end violence against women.”
Reid spoke of how 44 per cent of Canadian women have experienced some form of abuse in their intimate partner relationships, and how figures have grown worse since the onset of the pandemic.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, incidents of domestic violence rose dramatically, and since that time we've only seen cases increasing,” she said. “Last summer, at the University of Waterloo, women were attacked with a knife while they sat in their gender studies class. Countless women are living in fear across Ontario and Canada.”
Between January and June 2022, the OPP received 4,900 calls for assault, over 1,000 for sexual assaults, and around 15,000 calls for domestic disturbances, Reid said.
Locally, 2023 stats show 276 incidences of intimate partner violence, 13 human trafficking cases, and 142 sexual assaults across Simcoe County – with Reid highlighting up to 70 per cent of such cases go unreported, meaning the total figure is much higher.
As a result, she called for direct action by community members, including reaching out to local MPPs to ensure the passage of provincial Bill 173, the Intimate Partner Violence Epidemic Act.
“When we raise our voices together for victims of femicide and the courageous survivors of domestic abuse, the more chance we have at addressing this epidemic on the national level,” Reid said.
Ashley Porte, from the Orillia Native Women’s Group, highlighted how violence disproportionately impacts Indigenous women — with 56 per cent experiencing physical assault, and Indigenous women representing 16 per cent of homicides in Canada despite making up only 4.3 per cent of the population.
“There's a worldwide spread of anger and sadness that continues to work in our First Nations communities — babies are without mothers, our daughters and mothers are without granddaughters,” she said.
“We recently had a Red Dress Day on May 5 — it's held every year and that's to bring awareness to MMIWG (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls). The campaign was started to put pressure on the Canadian government to do more when our women go missing.”
As the group took to the streets Thursday evening, passersby cheered them on and vehicles honked in support as they made their way through the city’s core, chanting “Whatever we wear, wherever we go, yes means yes, no means no,” among other calls.
At the gathering, Orillia Mayor Don McIsaac said the statistics were “embarrassing” and that action needs to be taken against violence of all forms.
“Quite frankly, they're embarrassing, just the number of people who have been assaulted and victimized is just not acceptable,” he said. “We need to do better and this group here, strong as it is, is a strong statement about what we're going to do better. Certainly, Bill 173 is important, and I think that's something that we could probably get council to support.”
