Sunrise Memorial

It was chilly and dark when my roommate woke me to get ready for the memorial. In a sleepy haze, I pulled on the clothes I’d laid out the night before. The half moon was bright in the sky as we walked to the Legislative building.

The building was decorated for Christmas with red bows, green trees, and golden bells everywhere. Fourteen of us gathered in a circle near the stairs and were each given a red rose and a name. We lived up as marchers from the very early morning walk from Union Street trickled in, holding small flickering candles in their gloved hands. After the guests had seated themselves, we walked in, dividing into two lines and surrounding the circular marble gate that enclosed the opening in the floor. Fourteen cream coloured candles were already in place and at each one we laid a rose.

Twenty years ago on December 6th, fourteen women were killed in Montreal at L’Ecole Polytechnique. December 6th has since become Canada’s Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

We were welcomed by the Chairperson of Manitoba Women’s Advisory Council, Marlene Bertrand, and Jennifer Howard, the Minister responsible for the Status of Women. Our first speaker was Karen Busby from the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law. I listened with interest as she spoke of the changes that had taken place in our society regarding women and the things that still needed changing. She spoke of the fourteen women who were killed twenty years ago, but also the ten women who were lost to violence this year in Manitoba. She spoke of the issues regarding Aboriginal women and the need to move beyond acknowledgment of the wrongs done in the past to reconciliation between peoples. My heartbeat pounded in my ears.

Leanne Ogloza from Osbourne House, a women’s shelter in the city, shared with us the story of her marriage, the partner she had loved and trusted, who had scared, controlled, hurt, and finally terrorized her and their beautiful daughter. She shared how she had to learn to throw off the label of victim and don the badge of survivor, finding a strength she’d never known existed within her. My vision blurred and wavered as she spoke and as the applause was loud and long when she finished, leaving us with a poem she had written during that dark night before she’d found her freedom.

The rose bearers were called up again and we stood in a circle. The candles smelled sweet as one by one, we called the name of one of the fourteen and lit one for her. In a ring of lights and roses, we all stood for a moment of silence.

The memorial closed with Laurie Favell-Mowat singing “Arms of an Angel”. I held back tears and hugged my roommate, who let herself cry.
We passed some time socializing after the ceremony, sharing a light breakfast and mingling. My roommate shared that one of the themes of the events held that week had been the invisibility of violence against women. She mentioned that some of the events had held a moment of screaming instead of silence in retaliation. We decided to talk to the river and have our own ceremony.

As we hurried down the stairs, a woman holding the roses we had laid down earlier walked by us. We asked if we could have one and she gave us two. We walked out into the daylight and towards the river. Within moments, the roses were frozen and stiff. We looked out at the frozen water and each said a small prayer of remembrance and hope. On the count of three, we dropped the roses into the snow and screamed as loud as we could.

{The Sunrise Memorial was held December 7th, 2009 by the Manitoba Women’s Advisory Council (Status of Women). Their website is http://www.manitoba.ca/msw.}

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