UFCW Canada activists gather in Winnipeg at December 6 memorial

Click on the image above to see the photo gallery.

Winnipeg - December 6, 2012 - UFCW Canada members and activists gathered with other community members at the Manitoba Legislature on Thursday to commemorate Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

UFCW Canada Local 1869 Executive Board member Carmela Abraham, Shop Steward Jennifer Mitchell and UFCW Canada national representative Lily Olson joined more than two hundred others in attendance from labour, community, women's, and faith-based based organizations, along with Members of the Legislative Assembly including Premier Greg Selinger.

“Canada’s Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women is a time to reflect on the sisters, daughters, mothers, aunts, cousins and friends who have suffered and died as a result of gender-based violence," said the Honourable Jennifer Howard, Minister responsible for the Status of Women in her address to the gathering. "They were loved; they are missed; they are remembered. In their memory, we renew our commitment to take a stand against the violence that occurs against women.”

The program included a presentation by guest speaker Wanda Siatecki on the impact of violence against women on friends and family. Siatecki spoke of her personal experience providing emotional support to a friend who was a victim of domestic violence.

The Sunrise Memorial event commemorated the 23^rd anniversary of the massacre of 14 young women at École Polytechnique in Montreal by linking the name of each of the women with a symbolic rose.