A brisk snowy evening didn’t stop about 30 residents concerned about violence to take back the night last Thursday, November 17.
The Big Country Anti Violence Association (BCAVA) organized the candlelit march through downtown Drumheller. Mayor Terry Yemen led the march of the dedicated through the blowing snow.
It has been about 10 years since the event was held in Drumheller. It was part of the Association’s campaign to raise awareness of issues of violence in a community during Family Violence Prevention Month in Alberta.
Family Violence Prevention Month began in Alberta in 1986 through a grassroots campaign in Hinton. The Alberta Legislature supported the effort and made it an ongoing provincial initiative every November.
“It is important all throughout the world, and we are making our own statement in Drumheller as well,” said Marian Ewing of the BCAVA.
The ceremony began at the Civic Centre when participants lit 14 candles representing the 14 women killed at the École Polytechnique Massacre in 1989, while reading out the names of the victims. Within the dark hall were the Silent Witness project silhouettes, each representing an Alberta mother or child who was murdered by a husband, parent, partner or intimate acquaintance.
Support for ending the silence that allows violence to permeate was shown as dozens of residents signed their names to certificates pledging the speak up for those who are silenced.
After the ceremony, participants lit their own candles and proceeded into the night, heading south on Centre Street to Railway Avenue and heading west to 1st Street and looping back to Centre Street on 3rd Avenue before returning the Civic Centre.
The BCAVA hope to revive the Take Back the Night march to make it an annual event.