Vi.olenceAgainst Women Strategies for Change

BY RUTH ROACH PIERSON

any of us will always remember where we were and murderous rampage as "a random act by an insane person," what we were doing when we first heard of the murder having "nothing to do with attitudes in society.'*Robert McKenzie, of fourteen young women, thirteen students and a staff The Star's City bureau chief, queruously in- Mmember, at the kale polytechnique in on quired on December 12, 1989: 'What's going on here? One December 6, 1989. The murder of 14 persons within a short madman falls off the edge and kills 14 women and the next thing period of time and in a singleplace in what is otherwiseperceived you know any man who has tolerated a sexistjoke to be told in his to be a society at peace is always shocking. The murder of presence is practically lumped in the same ~ategory."~In con- fourteen young women at a school "that has produced dozens of trast, at the 's memorial service for the prominent Quebecers"l sent shock waves throughout Canada. women killed, Gordon Cressy, Vice-President of Development The depth of the shock and consternation with which the Mon- anduniversityRelations, madepreciselythatconnection,calling treal killings have been viewed, the extensive media coverage on men, not simply to ignore, but to speak out and condemn sexist they have received, attest to the ivory tower reputation enjoyed jokes for the degradation of women they perpetuate. by Canada's post-secondary schools. Our institutions of higher Whether we see the gunman as "mad" or "deeply troubled,"1° learning are places where, it is believed, the pursuit of truth and we contend that Upine's targeting of fourteen young women the exercise of reason prevail, and where, it cannot be separated from widespread and is assumed, our daughters will be safe from socially validated hatred and fear of women "the lion in the ~treets.'~Formany of us who in general, that his targeting of female engi- work in university and college settings as neering students cannot be separated from students, faculty and staff, however, the tragic widespread and culturally validated resent- news of the fourteen women murdered at the ments of "uppity," "pushy" women who en- University of Montreal was a gruesome ter fields once monopolizerjby men, and that reminder of the fact that the halls and class- his anti-feminism cannot be separated from rooms of academe are by no means free of widespread media attacks on "strident," de- society's systemic devaluing of women. A manding feminists. Neither can his anti-femi- few who enjoy the privileges bestowed by 3 nism be separated from the conservative university education have referred to Mac federal government's cutbacks of funding to Upine as "a madman"3 (he himself pre- women's shelters, women's centres and dicted that the media would attribute to him G feminist publications. One lesson that might "the Mad Killer epithet'"), and some have be drawn horn the Montreal killings is that, as referred to his gunning down of fourteen there is no more risk involved in being a self- young women as a "senseless slaying,"' an aberration, an act identified feminist than in being a woman, one may as well speak committed in a social vacuum. Others among us, however, saw up, as a woman, for women's rights and against women's and see a profound social significance in Upine having yelled, wrongs. before he squeezed the trigger, "You're women, you're going to Women across Canada continue to mmthe tragically pre- be engineers. You're all a bunch of feminists. I hate femini~ts!"~ mature deaths of Genevike Bergeron, Hdlkne Colgan, Nathalie As Jane Pepino, chairwoman of METRAC (the Metro Toronto Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Havi- Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children), emick, Barbara Marie Klueznick, Maryse Laganiere, Maryse pointedly asked on December 7, 1989, "If we say this man was L.eclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Mickle Richard, crazy, does that mean every wife batterer is insane, or anyone Annie St. Arneault and Annie Turcotte. But while we mmthe who assaults a woman physically or sexually is insane?'" loss of these fourteen women and all the shining promise their What "social meaning" should be attributed to the Montreal young lives represented, at that same time we do not want to gunman's actions was at the time and continues to be sharply confer on their violent deaths a uniqueness that further obscures contested According to a poll released on December 28,1989, a the everyday violence against women endemic in our society. majority of , 59 per cent or six in ten, regarded the The Montreal massacre needs to be understood in the context of,

10 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME and on a continuum with, the myriad program, the CBC, would not have given hours," Chia-Tsu stayed up late at night forms of violence directed on a daily ba- air space to the recent Report of the On- learning English. "Determined not to sis against women of all races, classes and tario Association of Interval and Transi- reconcile with her spouse[,] she found an ages in our society. "Right now," Michele tion Houses.13 Our "nationalwnewspaper, apartment and was on the road to inde- Landsberg wrote on December 8,1989, The Globe and Mail, would not have pendence." But the abusive husband she "somewhere in Canada, women's bones covered the report recently produced by had fled, tracked her down and attacked are being cracked, their eyes blackened, Aruna Papp of the South Asian Family her with a knife at the Warden subway on arms twisted, [and] minds and hearts Support Services on the epidemic of vio- March 6th, 1989. Charged with carrying a stabbed with abusive words."ll And that lence against South Asian manied women dangerous weapon, not with attempted is as true today as it was theday she wrote in Scarborough." murder, he was placed on probation. On it. There were experts at that time who But it is a perpetual struggle to prevent April 20,1990, at her apartment, he hacked sought to bracket the Montreal slayings indifference from closing in again on all Chia-Tsu to death with a meat cleaver.16 within the category of mass murder and these issues. On the one hand, we have to We are led to believe that if the woman the serial killing.12 Lest the deaths of the negotiate our way very carefully to avoid leaves the abusive relationship, she leaves fourteen young women at the holepoly- being assailed in Hollywood movies, rock the abuse. But, as surfaced briefly in a technique not be in vain, let us not isolate videos and popular television series by background special to The Globe and their killing from the weekly killing of women-hating sentiments and women- Mail on the "Abuse of Women: an In- girls and women, the daily assaultsagainst disfiguring images; and it does seem hard timate Crime," "many women who have female human beings in our society. But to believe that long-term exposure to such endedrelationshipswith violent men find let us also reflect on the apparent contra- misogyny has no negative effect. On the that the violence does not end with the diction between the shockand horror with other hand, the sporadic and decontextu- relationship." The article cited a 1987 which the Montreal massacre has been alized reportage in our press of the real York University study which "found [in met and the "ho-humness" with which the daily violence against women contributes one sample] that 46 per cent of separated quotidian violence against women is ac- to our acceptance of it as the natural state and divorced women are abused by their cepted as ordinary, as normal, aspart of an of affairs. former [partners]."17 According to the most unchanging and unchangeable status quo. Like poverty, it will seemingly always recent data from the CdanCulture for The instances of men's violence against be with us. It took a particularly dramatic Justice Statistics, in 1988,70women were girls and women in our society are legion. spate of eleven women and six of their killed by their husbands, a little more than The feminist movement, in all its diver- children being killed in one month in one a week. The Canadian Centre for sity, can take credit for creating a public Montreal by their male partners for the Justice Statistics, however, does not keep discourse that has raised society's con- nation's "national" newspaper, in late statistics on the murder of female mates sciousness of men's violence against September 1990, to devote some journal- by former boy friends or ex-husbands. women as a societal problem. For in- istic analysis to these killings beyond their The York University study was carried stance, feministscommittedto the struggle mere itemization as crime statistics. Bat- out within a framework created by the against racism in our society are increas- tered women are frequently blamed for feminist discourse on men's violence ing our awareness of how the colour of a staying in abusive relationships, but in against women. woman's skin, or the economic insecurity virtually every one of the Montreal cases, Clearly, to combat men's violence of immigrant status, or the political pre- "the woman had recently left her part- against women, there is much work yet to cariousness of refugee status can expose ner."ls In one case, the man "picked up his be done. Surely, when territorial circuit women to violence in stark ways. Simi- wife of 32 years" from her place of work, court Justice Michel Bourassa can be larly, feminists organized in older ostensibly "to take her toa lawyer's office exonerated for saying to a reporter that women's networks and disabled women's to sign divorce papers"; but instead "he "The majority of rapes in the Northwest networks are alerting us to the increased took her to an isolated field and Mew off Territories occur when the woman is vulnerability that age and disability can her head before killing himself." In an- drunk. The man comes along, sees a pair bring. Likewise, lesbian-feminist analy- other, the former husband who had "visi- of hips and helps himself';18surely, when ses are educating us to the heightened risk tation rights [W his children," aged two Ontario Provincial Court Judge Sidney of harassment directed against women and four, "shot them to death while they Harris can get away with ruling that wife who publicly defy heterosexual norms. slept, but not before calling his estranged assaults that "result from 'momentary Without these political movements, we wife and telling her of his intentions." passion'.. . shouldn't lead to prosecu- would not have women's shelters. We Afterwards, he killed himself. On June tionw.l9, surely, when the British Colum- would not have had protest against the 20, 1990, the Emily Stowe Shelter for bia Court of Appeal upholds Judge Peter police shooting of Sophia Cook, a young Women in Toronto held a vigil for one of van der Hoop's judgement that an adult black woman from Brampton whosecrime its ex-residents, Chia-Tsu Hsu. She had male sexual molester of a three-year old was to be a passenger in what was sus- come to the shelter on December 6,1988, female child should be given a suspended pected to be a stolen car. We would not just one year to the day before the murders sentence because he was the victim of the have had the painful breaking of the con- at the &ole polytechnique. According to girl's aggression;"surely, in light of these spiracy of silence that kept the crimes of the Emily Stowe Shelter for Women decisions, we can say that the justice incest and child sexual abuse locked away Newsletter, in addition to her "low-pay- system is in need of reform. But it is the in the paaiarcha1 closet. Our national radio ing job that kept her on her feet for long conviction of many who work in the front

VOLUME 11. NUMBER 4 11 lines against men's violence against man LeftThe-pageLetter Spewing Hate study is totally bereft of gender analysis. women that there is a fundamental pre- at Feminists," Toronto Star, 7 December " Lobby Committee of the Ontario condition to such reform. Attitudes have 1989, A34, continued from Al. Association of Interval and Transition to be changed. As Claude Roy, president ''Text of Letter Written by Mmwine Houses, Balance the Power, Background of a Quebec association for counselors of on Dec. 6,1989," Gazette, 25 November Report, Annual Lobby of MPPs, 19 violent men, remarked, "the greatest chal- 1990. November 1990. lenge is to get violent men to take re Elliott Leyton, an anthropologist at l4NicolaPulling, "Wife Assault Called sponsibility for their actions, which is Memorial University of Newfoundland, 'Epidemic' Among S. Asians," Globe & difficult in a society that condones [male] was so quoted by Robert McLeod, "Mass Mail, 19 November 1990, A8. violence against women through silence." Murders Not Increasing, Canadian an- l5 Anclre Picard and Michelle Lalonde, And in the words of Frangoise David, co- thropologist says," Globe & Mail, 8 "Killings of Women Are 'Routine'," ordinator of a coalition of 80 women's December 1989, A13. By 11 December Globe & Mail, 26 September 1990, Al. centres in Quebec,"the only way to elimi- 1989, Leyton had changed his tune, now l6Joan Greene, "A Tribute to Chia-Tsu nate violence against women in our soci- saying in interviews with the media that Hsu," Emily Stowe Shelter for Women ety is to change attitudes through educa- the slaying of the 14 women "is 'a griev- Newsletter, Summer 1990, pp. 4-5; Bal- ti~n."~l ous blow' to relations between men and ance the Power, p. l l. And that brings us back to the murder of women," demonstrating "how malechau- l7 Michelle Lalonde, "Abuse of Women: the fourteen young women in Montreal a vinism threatens women's lives." "Slay- An Intimate Crime," Globe & Mail, 26 year ago on December 6, 1989. Some ings deal blow to gender relations, mur- September 1990, A6. Presumably she was large measure of the shock and horror der expert says," Globe & Mail, 11 De- citing D. Ellis andL. Wight, "Wife Abuse occasioned by that tragic event was due to cember 1989, A9. Among Separated and Divorced Women," the disbelief that such murderous acts Editorials: "Montreal Massacre: A Victimology 12 (1987). could occur in the hallowed halls of aca- Country Mourns," Toronto Star, 8 De- l8 "Judge's Regrets Over His Remarks deme. But journalists who have labeled cember 1989, A30. on Sex Assault Leave Women Cold," the Montreal massacre the act of a mad- 'Frances Kelly and Bill Taylor, "'Never Toronto Star, 18 January 1990, A12; man are recipients of university educa- again' Should be Vow Women Plead," "Women Upset as N.W.T. Judge tions; and the justices whose decisions Toronto Star, 8 December 1989, A17. Exonerated," Toronto Star, 14 October condone men's violence against women "59% Call Massacre Only Random 1990, A9. all have not only university educations, Act, Poll Finds," Toronto Star, 28 De- l9 Rick Haliechuk, "Don't Prosecute but also post-graduate degrees. What is cember 1989, Al. All Wife Assaults, Judge Suggests," the record of our inptitutions of higher In the same column, he complained Toronto Star, 16 January 1990, A2. learning with regard to cornbatting racist that "In the past few days, we've seen "Women Assail Judge's Remarks in and sexist attitudes? What is the institu- Marc Upine transformed into a symbol Sex Case," Globe & Mail, 27 November tional backing given to the Ethnic and not only of rapists and wife-beatersbut of 1989, A9; "'Aggressive' Tot Ruling Women's Studies programs that have men who consume pornography, who Upheld in B.C. Sex Case," Toronto Star, trailblazed the research revealing, and the opposeabortion-on-demandor,even, who 14 January 1990. courses sensitizing students to, the deeply leer at women in swimming pools." Robert 21 Picard and Lalonde, "Killings of embedded racism and sexism in our cul- McKenzie, "Ontario, Quebec See Mas- Women Are 'Routine': Montreal Killings ture? And if, as the title of Dio~eBrand's sacre Differently," Toronto Star, 12 De- Largely Unnoticed by Public," Globe & latest book of poetry declares, No Lan- cember 1989, A21. Mail, 26 September 1990, Al, A6. guage Is Neutral,= what about the lan- l0 Victor Malarek and Benoit Aubin, "Dionne Brand, No Language Is Neu- guage policy of our "national" English- "Killer's Letter Blames Feminists: Man tral (Toronto: Coach House Press, 1990). language newspaper that persists in using Very Intelligent, But Deeply Troubled, " This policy was changed in 199 1. the term spokesman when referring to Police Say," Globe & Mail, 8 December spokeswomen of organizations and gov- 1989, Al. This article was adapted from Ruth ernment offi~es?~ l1 Michele Landsberg, "Killer's Rage Roach Pierson's introductory remarksfor Too Familiar to Canadians: Culture Con- the recent corgference,Violence Against l "Policeman finds daughter dead," dones Violence Against Women, Women: Strategies for Change, Novem- Toronto Star, 7 December 1989, Al. Children," Toronto Star, 8 December ber 1990. The cogerence, in commemo- John Bemrose, "Lionhearted drama: 1989, Al, A16. ration of thefourteen women murdered at Judith Thompson Explores the Urban lZRobertMcLeod, "Mass Murders Not the holepolytechnique of the University Jungle," review of Lion in the Streets, by Increasing, Canadian Anthropologist of Montreal, was organized by the Centre Judith Thompson, in Maclean's, 19 Says," Globe & Mail, 8 December 1989, for Women's Studies in Education of the November 1990, p. 69. A 13. The Globe and Mail and other media Ontario Institutefor Studies in Education Slinger, "There's No Place to Hide perpetuated this association by seeking (OISE). From a Madman," Toronto Star, 10 De- repeated interviews with the anthropolo- cember 1989, A2. See also "14 Women gist Elliott Leyton and regarding him as a Ruth Roach Pierson is Head of the Killed in Massacre: Montreal Gunman's "murder expert" because he wrote a book OISE Centre for Women's Studies in Letter Spewed Hate at Feminists," "Gun- on serial killers and despite the fact his Education.

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESLES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME