The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women is an opportunity to honour lives lost to gender-based violence, including the 14 women killed in a violent act of misogyny at École Polytechnique in Montreal in 1989 — the tragedy that led to this annual observance.
At McMaster, a ceremony and memorial walk on Dec. 3 called on the community to remember, reflect and resist. Whatever brought attendees together — remembrance, solidarity or a desire for change — the event served as a powerful reminder that action begins with awareness.
“Being here is an important step in finding solutions,” said panelist Mirand Jurilj, Public Education Coordinator at SACHA — the Sexual Assault Centre (Hamilton and Area) and chair of Hamilton’s Take Back the Night initiative.
Organized by a pan-institutional committee of faculty, staff and students, the event featured a video tribute with reflections from McMaster leaders and future engineers, including President and Vice-Chancellor Susan Tighe, Dean of Engineering Heather Sheardown, and student leaders.
A panel discussion was moderated by Rusan Lateef, associate director of McMaster’s Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Office and a gender-based violence researcher. The World Health Organization reports that nearly one in three women will experience intimate partner or sexual violence in their lifetime, she noted.
“This day calls us to reckon with the systemic injustices that have facilitated and maintained these high rates of violence against women,” Lateef said. “We need to consider the root causes of gender-based violence, which also contribute to the lack of action and often the lack of justice for survivors.”
The panelists discussed the disproportionate impact of violence on women-identifying people from marginalized communities.
From left: Panelists Mirand Jurilj, Omolola Alade and Catherine Anderson discuss gender-based violence with moderator Rusan Lateef, at the ‘Remember. Reflect. Resist.’ event.
“To be able to name a problem is the only way to address it. This is femicide,” said Jurilj, noting that stressors like the COVID-19 pandemic and the housing crisis have accelerated rates of intimate partner violence.
“It’s not an interpersonal issue — it’s systemic. We’re starting to use the word femicide to describe the murder of women and talk about it as an epidemic. We have to name it to find solutions and prevention.”
Professor Catherine Anderson, the director of the Gender & Social Justice Program, shared her concern with the scapegoating of trans people in the media. “Elected leaders target and blame marginalized people, which creates a permission structure for violence,” she said.
Omolola Alade, a PhD candidate in the Mary Heersink School of Global Health and Social Medicine and a former public health dentist in Ibadan, Nigeria, shared her journey from dentistry to studying intimate partner violence at McMaster.
“I was often treating women with facial injuries who were reluctant to share how they became injured. I wanted to help but wasn’t sure if I was skilled, and there were many barriers for these women to speak up,” she explained.
The ceremony also featured a musical performance by Aidan Lao, a Software Engineering student and Royal Conservatory of Music Licentiate Diploma holder, who played Jeux d’eau by Maurice Ravel — a piece he explained represents water and quiet introspection.
Engineering student Aidan Lao performs at the commemorative event.
In her closing remarks, President Tighe reflected on being a first-year engineering student when the tragedy in Montreal occurred. While acknowledging ongoing challenges, she noted progress in gender parity in engineering at McMaster. “That is a welcome sign of improvement, and evidence that efforts like today’s matter,” she said.
Event emcees Emma Dyck and Sophia Aslanidis, EDI Resource Coordinators for the Women in Engineering Society, encouraged peers to have difficult conversations about gender-based violence and discrimination, educate themselves and take action to show solidarity.
Emcees Emma Dyck and Sophia Aslanidis speak at the commemorative event.
Following the ceremony, participants in a memorial walk visited sites of significance across campus, where they placed roses and held moments of silence.
Stops included:
- a memorial for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
- a commemorative garden in honour of Nina De Villiers, a first-year McMaster student killed in 1991 while on a run in Burlington
- a student memorial garden outside of the McMaster University Student Centre in recognition of all students who have passed during their time as a student
- the Joan Heimbecker Memorial in honour of a student shot by an ex-boyfriend in her on-campus apartment, and
- a tribute outside John Hodgins Engineering Building to the 14 women killed at École Polytechnique on Dec. 6, 1989.
The memorial walk stopped at the Nina De Villiers garden.
Memorial walk participants placed roses and observed moments of silence at each memorial site on campus.
The memorial stone outside John Hodgins Building bears the names of the 14 women who were killed in 1989 at Ecole Polytechnique.
Leading up to the event, volunteers hosted an information booth in Thode Library, distributing white ribbons—symbols of remembrance for Dec. 6—along with moose hide pins and resources for those affected by gender-based violence. Donations were collected for the Hamilton Native Women’s Centre.
Click here for a recording of the commemorative event.
Click here for supports and resources for the McMaster community.