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Marchers demand safe streets
Nicole Veerman Northern News Services Published Wednesday, October 6, 2010
The annual Take Back the Night march was held in conjunction with Family Violence Awareness Week, which kicked off on Monday. "We're all walking together in unison to end violence for women on the streets," said Lorraine Phaneuf, executive director of the Status of Women Council of the Northwest Territories. "We need to do a lot of awareness and prevention and work with families in the North, so that we can all live together without violence, and so women aren't scared to go out at night and families can just lead healthy lives," she said. Take Back the Night marches are held annually around the world to denounce sexual abuse and reassert a woman's right to safety. The enthusiastic Yellowknife participants followed Gail Cyr who, with a megaphone in hand, led the pack with empowering chants. "Wherever we go, however we dress, no means no, and yes means yes," she yelled to a receptive crowd. The march started at the Centre for Northern Families on Franklin Avenue and weaved through the downtown streets until its last stop at the Salvation Army. Along the way, there were stops at city hall, the RCMP station, the Yellowknife Courthouse, the Native Women's Association and the Northern News Services parking lot. "We picked the route because those are the most unsafe areas in the city for women and children and families to walk, so we want to represent that those areas should be safe for all people in Yellowknife and people shouldn't be afraid to go out at night," said Phaneuf. Within the group, were survivors of sexual violence. Fifty-seven-year-old Louise Beaulieu was one of them. She was assaulted by her common-law spouse in 1982. "I was one of the lucky one's to still be here today," she said while walking with a sandwich board depicting a battered woman hanging from her neck. Beaulieu is now going to Aurora College to become a social worker. "I'm taking back the power and nobody's going to take it from me again," she said.
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