By Andrew de Souza

Hundreds gather to end violence against women

Dec 7, 2010 | 5:35 AM

Hundreds of students, shoppers, and community members gathered in the Gateway Mall on Monday to march together to end violence against women.

The group gathered to commemorate the Dec. 6, 1989 shooting at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, which saw 14 women shot and killed and ten injured.

The day began with students from St. Mary High School’s Mad Hatter Theatre group performing a play about violence in relationships for teens from both the perspective of the male and the female in the relationship.

The play showed the difficulties of realizing there is a problem and finding the strength to talk about it and leave the relationship.

For Grade 12 student Karlee Halco, performing in front of many of her fellow students was important for getting the message across.

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“Lots of times its hard for teenagers to realize that something is wrong in a relationship and it’s not ok to be pushed by someone and we all have rights and women should be treated right,” she said.

“It helps to make everyone else aware of what goes on in the world in regards to violence against women in relationships in and what some women have to deal with and how hard it is — and that they’re not alone.”

For organizer Sandy Pitzel, there’s definitely a need in the community and the country at large to have such public displays of solidarity for abused women.

“In Canada it continues to be an issue that we work constantly towards eliminating. One in four Canadian women, that’s present day statistics, will be physically injured in intimate partner violence,” Pitzel said.

After the play, the crowd marched up and down the mall’s hallways before returning to the food court and performing another play specifically about the Montreal Masacare in 1989. The students lit candles and gave a brief biography of the women who died before a loud gunshot — that was part of the play — ripped through the crowd and all candles were blown out.

adesouza@panow.com