Clothesline Project: Friday December 2nd, 2011

Dear AVP Friends,

We hope that you made it to the film screenings and panels happening for the National Day of Remembrance and Action On Violence Against Women. We are so grateful to the organizers of these screenings, the panelists and to Christine Welsh for sharing her incredible film, “Finding Dawn”. If you weren’t able to make it to the screening, please see Christine’s film here, available on the National Film Board website

On Friday Dec. 2, AVP will be hosting the Clothesline Project from 11am – 2pm, to bring awareness to the community resistance to violence on and off campus and to provide a space for advocacy groups to share their work with the community. Please join us – there will be coffee and tea provided by the UVSS.

In previous years, AVP has taken a larger role in organizing events for the National Day of Remembrance and Action On Violence Against Women. This year we decided to step back in favour of putting more energy and support into events such as the Red Umbrella March and the Memorial March. We feel that this is critical as, while violence against women happens all the time and to women of all racial, ethnic, cultural and national backgrounds, there is additional and intersectional violence targeted against many women which includes the violence of colonization, racism, land theft, genocide, environmental racism, poverty, homophobia, transphobia, classism, ableism, state violence (including police brutality, criminalization, child apprehension and incarceration rates), imperialism, war, occupation, legislation, poverty, globalization, indentured slavery, cultural appropriation, denial of reproductive justice, and more. Our concern with the centering of December 6 is that we feel this has used the murders of women at the Ecole Polytechnique as a focal point in addressing violence against women, without addressing the full reality of the many forms of violence against women.

Sincerely,
Annie and Alyson, AVP