To end Violence Against Women Prevention Month, the Chatham-Kent Women’s Centre held a luminary ceremony to remember the 29 women and children who were killed as a result of intimate partner abuse from 2013-2014 In Ontario.
Close to 20 people stood in the dark with a luminary bag naming one of the victims outside the women’s centre Nov. 30 after a short ceremony with executive director Karen Hunter and board chair Darlene Smith.
According to Hunter, data collected from media reports between 1990 and 2014 in Ontario by the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH) recorded 689 women who were killed by their intimate partner.
“And that data only included deaths reported in the media. There are many missing and murdered women whose information doesn’t make it to the media, so the number is most likely higher,” Hunter explained.
Children are also victims and the data obtained by OAITH includes 52 children killed who were 19 years or younger.
“The Chatham-Kent Women’s Centre would like to read the names of the 29 women and children murdered in Ontario to remember and honour them and lend our support to the courageous women and children who continue their journey to a violence- and abuse-free life,” Hunter said at the ceremony.
