Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 19/01) - A rash of attacks on women in the summer of 1990 fuelled Yellowknife's first Take Back the Night march.

Lynn Brooks

Some of the men who assaulted women that summer reportedly held high-profile positions -- they were political leaders and chiefs.

Lynn Brooks was the executive director of the Status of Women Council of the N.W.T. at the time. It was only then, she said, that the media began to shine a light into the dark tunnel of centuries of violence against women.

Unfortunately, she said, judges and the police didn't understand the issues.

"Judges would make absurd remarks," Brooks recalled. "Like, 'you two should just kiss and make up' and 'what did you do to make him hit you?' "

What was needed, was a way to get the public involved, she said.

So, one evening 11 years ago, Yellowknife joined cities across the world and held a march to call attention to the problem. The marchers -- about 200 of them -- gathered across the street from the Gold Range. Armed with signs trumpeting women's right to freedom of movement and freedom from violence, they circled the downtown core and ended their march on the steps of the Yellowknife Inn, home to the legislature at the time.

Brooks said she was overwhelmed by the response.

"The greatest thing about the first march was the number of men who came out," she said. "We always wondered if there was a basis of support out there, so it was heartwarming for us."

But has any real progress been made since the summer of 1990?

Brooks said she's seen people's attitudes change.

"The police have come along way," she said. "They have done a lot to educate themselves."

Barbara Saunders, the current executive director of the Status of Women Council, is less positive.

"We should be able to answer that question very quickly," she said. "We should be able to say women are feeling safer, but we can't."

Saunders pointed to a recent case in which a man beat and held his former partner hostage for almost 12 hours on the Ingraham trail while their helpless two-year-old daughter watched.

He was allowed to serve a nine-month sentence in two-week stints while on time off from his job at BHP.

A more recent case involved a woman struck in the head an axe.

And while Saunders said she expects the recent attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., will draw more people out this Thursday, she believes the march should stay focused on women.

"People are making those links," she said.

"I think people are going to be talking about violence at all levels this year, agreed Brooks. "They are thinking about the real horror of violence -- that it's never an answer, never a solution."

Preparation for the march begins this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the council's office opposite the Yellowknife Inn on 49th Street. The march starts at 7 p.m.