BCNU Calls for Action to Address Gender-Based Violence

Dec. 6 is Canada’s annual National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. Parliament designated this day to commemorate the 1989 murder of 14 women at École Polytechnique in Montréal, when a gunman opened fire at the school, ending the lives of 12 engineering students, one nursing student, and one university employee. Fourteen others were injured. BCNU honours these women and reaffirms our ongoing commitment to ending gender-based violence in all its forms.

Gender-based violence disproportionately affects Indigenous women and Two Spirit people, immigrants, people of colour and visible minorities. Trans and gender-diverse people in the 2SLGBTQI+ community, as well as those with disabilities, are especially targeted by violence.

BCNU’s membership is made up of 90 percent women who far too often face violence and harassment, both on the job and outside the workplace. The union recently presented provincial health employers and MLAs from all political parties with a list of measures to address the violence nurses experience and build a culture of workplace safety.

Health-care workers play an important role in reducing the impact of gender-based violence on the public, not only by treating physical and psychological injuries, but by supporting women and gender-diverse persons in health facilities and referring them to other needed support services. Visit bcnu.org for more information on violence prevention in the workplace and resources on the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

To mark Dec. 6, many people wear a white ribbon to honour the victims and call for an end to gender-based violence. The White Ribbon Campaign is a movement in more than 60 countries working to engage men and boys as allies to promote gender equality. It began in Toronto in 1991 in response to the École Polytechnique massacre. 

Dec. 6 falls within the United Nations’ 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, an annual campaign that began on Nov. 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and runs through International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10. 

Add your voice to the conversation and share ways you can be part of the solution to end gender-based violence using the hashtags #16Days and #NDRAVAW in your online postings about this commemoration.