Just go

Shortly after we moved here I was given two sage pieces of advice for living on the North Coast by a long-time Rupertite:

1) Always attach the lid to your garbage can with some sort of line or else it will disappear quickly in the wind on stormy garbage days

2) If it's nice out, GO!  Don't wait, don't delay.  You never know what the weather will be like later and if you squander a sunny day, you'll regret it.

It was number two I was thinking of as I stood outside on the most gloriously sunny Remembrance Day I've ever experienced.  I had planned on working that afternoon following the ceremony at the cenotaph, but it was so exquisite out that I quickly abandoned that well-intentioned idea.  Instead, I traded my laptop for a paddle and headed out with a few friends for a couple of hours on the harbour.

It's not that the Prince Rupert harbour is the most scenic paddle; industry, cargo ships, and the Port predominate the view, but there is still nothing nicer than being on the water on a calm, sunny day.  We headed across the water to Digby Island to stretch our legs and explore a bit before heading back as the sun was setting.

As daylight has become a precious commodity now that we are so close to solstice, and drizzly, stormy days are more the norm, these memories and taking advantage of good weather adventures are increasingly valuable.  I spent the sunny moments this weekend inside working on Christmas gifts and I've regretted since it started raining yesterday.  Still much to learn, including always heed the rule: When it's sunny, just go...

I remember, I remember, I remember.

Heading into Northwest Community College last week, I went to open the front door and felt the breath go out of me.

Geneviève Bergeron.   

The name was pasted to the glass.  Seeing it gave me that kind of gut feeling you sometimes have when you glimpse a long lost love or read a name of a long-passed person that was special to you.  Breathlessness.

Down the hall there were more names: Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz.

I remember, I remember, I remember, I repeat under my breath.

Fourteen women, none of whom I knew, cause tears to come to my eyes every December. 

I was 9 years old when they were separated from their male classmates, lined up and shot or hunted down in the halls of  École Polytechnique in Montreal.  Their killer was a man whom I don’t care to name who blamed “feminists” for the shortcomings in his life.

7 years after their murder I attended a memorial at the college in New Westminster where I grew up with other high school classmates to remember this tragedy.  To call to action the end of violence against women.  I was asked to lay a rose when they read out Genevieve’s name.  It was the first time I really contemplated this issue. 

It is now 25 years later and the issue of violence against women has been on my mind more than ever before.  It’s not simply the big news stories that have been dominating the media in 2014: the Ghomeshi allegations and the Ray Rice incident.  Living in the north, this issue is bigger and scarier than I've ever realized. 

From 1969-2011 at least 18 women have gone missing or were found murdered along the 800 kilometre length of highway 16 - the so-called Highway of Tears.  Some estimate the number of victims may be closer to 40.

In September, Canada’s youngest serial killer, Cody Legebokof was convicted of murdering four women in the North: Loren Donn Leslie, Jill Stacey Stuchenko, Cynthia Frances Maas and Natasha Lynn Montgomery. 

The list of names adds up.  I try hard to remember.

I wish I had the answer.  I wish there was a quick prescription to write for a more equal, compassionate, safe society.  There isn’t.  I do know, however, that our governments are not taking this issue seriously.  Two years after the Missing Women’s Commission in B.C. said offering safe, accessible transportation along the Highway of Tears was an urgent recommendation which should be implemented immediately, there is still no shuttle.  According to our local MLA, Jennifer Rice, instead the B.C. Liberals have made a webpage of transportation resources including limo services.  This is almost laughable.  Likewise, our federal government has refused to hold an inquiry into the shameful national issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada.

But beyond our governments, we all have a role to play in not only contributing to an equal and safe society for women, but in continuing the conversation about violence. Keep talking about it, friends.  Keep talking and thinking and working.

It may be clicktivism, but each year on Dec 6^th, I copy Genevieve’s name and those of her 13 other classmates into the status bar of my facebook account, if to do nothing more than say :

I remember, I remember, I remember. 

25 years has passed.  We have to do better.