It seems like this year has been a particularly violent one for women in Canada — violent in the public sense, at least. From Stephen Harper’s recent slashing of funding and closing of offices at Status of Women Canada to Peter McKay’s public denigrating of Belinda Stronach (and the ensuing women-hating remarks from the likes of Norman Spector) to the ongoing disappearance of Aboriginal women. At my university, there has been a string of sexual assaults and muggings on campus that the administration has seemed to keep very quiet about, presumably not wanting to attract attention to crime on campus, leaving organizing around this issue to campus groups like the Centre for Women and Trans People.

This excellent piece, linked from the Canadian Dimension site, briefly covers the Montreal Massacre and outlines some of the very important reasons we need to mark December 6th as a day of awareness of the violence inflicted daily upon women in Canada (see, for example, this list of women killed in Toronto this year), not to mention around the world.

Heres a list of events and memorials coming up in Toronto, feel free to post events and memorials happening in your city or town. And heres information about a Dec. 10 action in Ottawa to protest the cuts to Status of Women.