Horror Undimmed

In the current moment, violence against women is positioned as both a raw memory of the past as well as an evocative spectre of our present. The 25th anniversary of the Montreal massacre has now passed. Aboriginal families continue to press for a federal inquiry into the disappeared women from their communities. Speeches in Quebec recently commemorating the horrific violence of December 6, 1989, made direct links to women’s ongoing experience of sexual assault, domestic violence and the epidemic of violence visited upon aboriginal women. Thirty-three of the 36 female members in the National Assembly spoke across party lines in a tribute to the women murdered, echoing a call to end the violence women face across the globe. Solidarity was expressed in the use of the collective “nous”: “nous sommes Rinelle Harper, 16 ans, violée et laissée pour morte … nous sommes ces 1500 Québécoises tuées depuis 1989 par d’ex-conjoints … nous sommes ces 200 étudiantes enlevées...