The Mass Casualty Commission has hosted multiple panels and roundtables on the connections between GBV, misogyny and mass shootings, but who is listening? Our ED, Sue Bookchin who has been steadfast in her participation throughout the MCC calls for more attention by media, legal professionals and the public to the depth of local expertise available during the inquiry on these critical connections and needed reforms.
Stacey Godsoe, Project & Resource Coordinator at Be the Peace Institute, shared some clear and recurring patterns across the research on the connections between mass shootings and gender based violence. If we do not make these connections we fail to understand the root of the problem and cannot prevent future atrocities.
Our very own Sue Bookchin (in collaboration with Emma Halpern of the Elizabeth Fry Society) wrote this plea for a more compassionate and trauma informed consideration of the role that domestic violence played in Lisa Banfield's life and decision making during the days surrounding the mass shooting in Portapique, NS on April 18 & 19, 2020. While we need to shine a light on all that unfolded during the events in Portapique, critical context is needed including the role that IPV played in order to formulate recommendations that might prevent mass killings in the future.
"We hope to teach bystanders some simple ways to express that degrading, abusive and violent attitudes and behaviours directed towards women aren't acceptable and won't be tolerated," Spicer says.
HRP worked with the Avalon Centre to bring the campaign to Halifax. Avalon's executive director Irene Smith says the centre is proud that police are trying to change the dialogue around sexualized violence "from being the responsibility of victims to being the responsibility of the perpetrator."
But while the campaign may be a step forward, Smith disagrees with HRP's assertion that changing women's behaviour can help them "avoid" sexual assault.
“Emma Watson has definitely left Hermione Granger back with Harry Potter and Hogwarts, her rousing speech to the UN about her feminism also mentioned that men need equality too, not just women. The 24 year-old actress spoke to the United Nations at the HeforShe campaign at the New York UN Headquarters giving an in depth and passionate speech about what it means to be female not just in England but anywhere in the world…”
