Occupy Niagara: December 6, 2011 Speech on the Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre

On this tragic anniversary it is entirely appropriate for the Occupy movement to consider the events of 22 years ago in a more profound way than has been customarily the case. Marc Lepin's murderous actions were a response to the presence of women training to become engineers.

This begs the questions of what its larger meaning is and why we would gather outside a Federal Tory MP's office. The larger meaning of his actions is that they were directed against women who by their career choices were striving to challenge gender inequality and were therefore challenging male domination meaning patriarchy. This means that these women were not content to be consigned to a position of economic subordination due to their gender and exemplified by gender based job ghettos. Insofar as they were challenging patriarchy these women were also challenging the principal source of violence against women. That being a patriarchal society in which violence against women is for all intents and purposed a logical if not inevitable outcome. Violence against women is intrinsic to the patriarchal society we live in.

So how does this relate to the Harper government. Quite simply its policies with respect to women and efforts to achieve gender equality are anything but conducive to realizing gender equality and challenging the underlying source of violence against women.

The Harper government has obstructed the struggle for pay equity and in doing so has reinforced the existence of lower wage gender based job ghettos and the subordinate position of women in our economic system. Consistent with this the Harper government stopped funding court challenges which enabled women to bring equity cases before the court system. In addition and consistent with this it cancelled child care agreements with the provinces effectively undercutting a woman's ability to equally participate in the workforce again reinforcing male domination within it.

And it is no secret that the Harper government does not support reproductive choice for women and has only held back restricting it because of a preponderance of public support for reproductive choice. In short it follows that when it comes to the problem of violence against women this government comprises an integral part of the problem and addressing the problem of violence against women is synonymous with standing up against the Harper government's policies and standing with women in their struggle for gender equality as a prerequisite for eradicating violence against women and manifestations of misogyny such as that which occurred 22 years ago in Montreal.