The Womyn’s Centre held a vigil Dec. 6 in the Unicentre atrium to commemorate the Montreal massacre and address the three recent sexual assault incidents reported on campus.
Pictures of 14 smiling women, who were all shot to death by gunman Marc Lépine at Montreal’s École Polytechnique in 1989, hung on the wall of the atrium.
“We want to show people that we remember and we will continue to remember,” said Womyn’s Centre programming co-ordinator, Kandace Price.
The Womyn’s Centre at Carleton opened in 1976 and was used as a women-only space. When it first opened, there were panic buttons on every desk for security reasons.
Price said while they have come a long way since then, more has to be done.
The Womyn’s Centre used the day as an opportunity to speak about the recent alleged sexual assaults on Carleton’s campus.
“Violence against women is happening constantly and women need a space to disclose their experiences as victims of sexual assault,” Price said. “The administration is trying to create a false sense of security by placing more safe walkways and security buttons even though these buttons are inaccessible to people in wheelchairs.”
Some of the speeches addressed Carleton’s need for a sexual assault support centre.
Patrizia Gentile, a sexuality studies professor at Carleton, said the university needs to initiate a more proactive campaign by creating a sexual assault support centre that will tell people the university doesn’t tolerate sexual abuse.
“Carleton has failed us by not creating a sexual assault centre,” Gentile said.
Remembering is important because it’s the first form of resistance, Gentile told the group of about 25 people who stood around the stage.
After the speeches, the names of the victims were read out followed by a moment of silence.
Some of the students, professors and supporters then marched around the engineering building at Carleton, holding up photos of the victims, to commemorate the massacre.
The victims in Montreal were engineering students.
“Even though there have been many reported sexual assault cases at Carleton there are still many that go unreported,” said Amy Ramnarine, a third-year psychology and sexuality studies student. “These women need to have somewhere they can tell their story.”
Carleton has been stalling because they say they have no space and that a sexual assault centre would have stigma associated with it, Price said.
The Coalition for a Carleton Sexual Assault Centre is asking for a support centre that is run by students and funded by the university. The centre would be available to all students, Price said.
A referendum in January 2009 showed that 80 per cent of students wanted a sexual assault centre, according to the coalition’s website.
The coalition is currently working with Carleton’s space committee to find a space for the centre, according to Carleton president Roseann Runte.
Carleton students are committed to this fight for a sexual assault centre, said coalition member Sarah McCue.
Gentile ended her speech with a quote by an activist named Audre Lorde: “My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. But for every real word spoken, for every attempt I had ever made to speak those truths for which I am still seeking, I had made contact with other women while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all believed, bridging our differences.”