Fifteen candles were lit at the Kanata Baptist
Church on Monday, Dec. 6,
while Christina Aguilera’s song Beautiful played through the silence.
Fourteen of the flames honoured the women killed in 1989 by
Marc Lépine at École Polytechnique, the last
represented all the nameless women who have suffered violence at the hands of
others.
“We need to stand up and not let
this happen anymore,” said Cathleen Lavoie from her wheelchair.
Lavoie was shot in the neck in
2008 by her boyfriend, Alvin Persaud, who she
had broken up with earlier that same day.
“The doctors said I shouldn’t have
lived,” she said. “It’s a miracle.”
Lavoie and her boyfriend were
together for five months, she said. During that time she saw warning signs but
didn’t heed them.
“It’s not until he has a gun in
his hand that you’ll know if he's a psychopath.”
Her three children are still adjusting,
she said. All three were home at the time of the shooting.
“He blames himself,” said Lavoie
about her middle son.
Christian, who is now 15, let Persaud
into the house.
“He didn’t know,” said Lavoie. “He asked (Persaud) what he
had in his hand. He just answered, ‘Something for your mother.’ And it was.”
Christian, who was 13 at the time
of the incident, helped save her life by alerting their neighbour.
During her recovery, Lavoie
couldn’t speak or move. Today, she is only paralyzed from the waist down.
“I hope to walk again one day,”
she told the crowd of around 50 people who came out for the vigil.
Lavoie said she is hoping to speak
at schools, to tell her story and save others from having to experience what
she did.
“I’m not worried about me,” she
said. “I’m worried about the teenagers. Guys out there, it’s not cool to carry
a gun. They hurt, they kill people. It doesn’t just hurt one person, it hurts
the whole family.”
‘IT’S FOR THE NAMELESS ONES’
On Dec. 6 1989, Marc Lépine walked
into engineering school École Polytechnique in Montreal.
He entered a classroom, separated
the men from the women, then shot the females, claiming he was “fighting
feminism.”
He shot 28 people, killing 14,
before turning the gun on himself.
In 1991, parliament recognized the
tragic event by declaring Dec. 6 the National Day of Mourning and a National
Day to End Violence Against Women.
“It’s not just for them even though the day is for them,” said Phyl Powell, who
lives in Stittsville and works with the Western Ottawa Community Resource
Centre (WOCRC). “It’s for the nameless ones.”
Powell said she goes into schools
in the area and talks to students about healthy relationships and how to see
the signs of unhealthy ones.
“We want to think everything’s
OK,” she said. “If it’s not happening to me then it’s not going on.”
But violence against women isn’t
going away, said Lynn Clouthier, who also works with the WOCRC.
“You get to a certain age and
realize some things will never change but it doesn’t mean you stop trying,”
said the West Carleton resident. “(The vigil) it’s important to observe, it’s
important to stop and remember and find the meaning in it.”
Kanata North Coun. Marianne
Wilkinson spoke to the crowd gathered at the vigil.
“We need to not forget,” she said.
“We need to remember, because violence has not gone away. We’ll come back each
year just to refresh our minds and remember.
“Our community really doesn’t need
any violence.”
For the past two years, members of
the Kappa Sigma fraternity at Carleton
University have been attending the Kanata vigil.
“It was something we figured we
could help,” said president Cameron Lowe. “Being a group of guys it’s a good
example. It builds awareness. It shows it’s not just women who support the
cause.”
The WOCRC’s Terry Longhorn said
violence against women is something we need to be aware of in our society.
“As long as the word gets out, if
you get the message to even just one woman, it helps break that cycle,” she
said.
jessica.cunha@metroland.com