Toronto’s women’s shelters highlight links between mass violence and domestic violence, a crisis that has worsened during COVID-19

_{From PRNewswire/ YWCA}

Today, YWCA Toronto and eight other Toronto women’s shelter service providers raise our collective voice to both remember the 14 women we lost at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal on Dec. 6, 1989 and urge policymakers to act on the links between mass misogynist violence and the dangerous situations women continue to face in our communities.

COVID-19 has increased domestic violence by 20-30% nationwide and disproportionately impacted racialized women, whom we know are already suffering the brunt of this pandemic in our city. As we mark Dec. 6^th in a second lockdown, we are worried about the well-being of women heeding public health advice to stay home and away from others instead of seeking safety.

We can no longer afford to treat mass murders as one-offs, undertaken by violent individuals. Misogyny’s role as a motivator or catalyst in recent attacks should give us pause that if we do not understand the connections and root causes of violence against women, all of us will suffer. We owe it to the women we’ve lost to do better.

Please take a moment to read this statement from YWCA Toronto, The Redwood, Red Door Family Shelter, North York Women’s Shelter, Women’s Habitat of Etobicoke, Anduhyaun Shelter, Ernestine’s Women’s Shelter, La Maison, and Homeward Family Shelter – Julliette’s Place.