[Toronto] December 6th: Societal Indifference, Is It Costing Native Women Their Lives?

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The following activities tomorrow in Toronto:

Free Public Forum:

Societal Indifference: Is It Costing Native Women Their Lives?

Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2006
8:00-10:00 pm

following the Candlelight Vigil (see below)

Location:

St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts,
27 Front Street East,
2 blocks east of
Union Stn. Toronto

To download printable flyer click here!

Young Indigenous women are at least five times more likely than all other women to die as the result of violence. Hundreds of native women have been murdered or disappeared and their stories are only now being told. A few police forces and the Canadian government have taken some steps but statistics suggest a lot more needs to be done.

Consider this: 32 women - many of them Native - disappeared or died on a 500-mile stretch of road in Western Canada dubbed the Highway of Tears. Many of these crimes were not investigated and most are unsolved.

And this: Of the 60 women who disappeared from Vancouver's downtown eastside almost half were native. A British Columbia pig farmer is charged with the murder of 26 of these women. Jury selection begins in December and the trial is expected to get underway in January.

Join us for an art exhibit, a film showing and a panel discussion of the racial and social dimensions in the murders of native women and their treatment by the police, the courts, the media and a society that is slow to demand action.

What can you expect:

• Walk the Talk shoe exhibit (see below for more detail)


• film showing of The Heart Has Its Own Memory

Engaging speakers:

• Dawn Lavell-Harvard: Wikwemikong First Nation, President of the Ontario Native Women's Association


• Audrey Huntley: filmmaker of The Heart Has Its Own Memory and Go Home Baby Girl; member of No More Silence Network.


• Sherene Razack: A Professor of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education, The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto.

Moderator: Naomi Clarke, Producer of Contact, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN).

Presented by the St. Lawrence Centre FORUM, the Native Women's Association of Canada and Aboriginal Peoples Television Network in cooperation with Women Won't Forget and the Women Abuse Council of Toronto.


Women Won't Forget Candlelight Vigil to Remember all Women Murdered by Men
Gather at Philosopher's Walk on Wed. Dec. 6 at 6 p.m. (S/W corner Bloor & Avenue Rd, enter off Bloor St.) All women, men and children are welcome to attend.

WALK THE TALK to End Violence Against Women & Children is an exhibit of shoes symbolising the women and children killed this year in Ontario. The exhibit will be on display the night of the FORUM. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. For more information contact Margo Kennedy at the Woman Abuse Council of Toronto at 416-603-5800 x3214