OSSTF/FEESO commemorates December 6, 1989

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) is working to end violence against women. During the week of December 1–December 5, OSSTF/FEESO members will have displays in their work sites to commemorate the 25th anniversary of The Montreal Massacre, December 6, 1989. Fourteen women were killed BECAUSE they were women. What is even more tragic is that the women, men, parents and children who live with the trauma of that day in 1989 represent a tiny sampling of the suffering that is lived daily due to violence against women.

“Twenty-five years have passed since that day and violence against women continues to plague our society,” said OSSTF/FEESO President Paul Elliott. “We continue to witness federal funding cuts to women’s programs and shelters, and the failure of the federal government to act and develop a national program to raise awareness of the issue or to push back in a meaningful way against something that has become a systemic blight upon us all.”

OSSTF/FEESO was a proud sponsor of and participant in White Ribbon Canada’s panel discussion ‘Gender-Based Violence for Women and Girls in Canada: 25 Years After December 6th’ at the What Makes a Man Conference last week. OSSTF/FEESO has further partnered with the White Ribbon Campaign to provide White Ribbon Signing Posters for secondary schools and all our OSSTF/FEESO work sites throughout the province.

“Our Status of Women committee has created 25th anniversary commemorative posters, buttons and pins which will accompany the White Ribbon materials in our work site displays,” said Elliott. The rose, which has become the symbol of December 6, is different this year on the OSSTF/FEESO materials. It is unfinished; as were the lives of the 14 murdered women; as is the work to end the ongoing violence against women.

Elliott pointed out that OSSTF/FEESO members believe strongly in the transformative power of education and look forward to the learning and discussions that will take place with students as the displays are made visible next week.