A sea of purple flooded to Victoria Park in London, Ont. on Tuesday as the London Abused Women’s Centre (LAWC) kicked off the 13th annual Shine the Light on Woman Abuse campaign.
The crowd included local politicians like mayor-elect Josh Morgan, various city councillors, as well as survivors and LAWC team members. Due to unforeseen circumstances, this year’s honouree, Jennifer Kagan-Viater, was unable to attend.
Kagan-Viater is an honouree as well as her daughter, Keira, who was killed by her biological father.
“Keira was a beautiful and bright-eyed baby,” said Kagan-Viater in her prepared speech for the event. “While I was able to safely leave the relationship and fortunately had the resources to do so, I then sought protection for Keira via the family court system.
“I begged and pleaded with the judges and child protection workers to help Keira. She was completely failed by the family court and Jewish Family and Child Services.”
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A big focus in this year’s campaign is coercive control. This is something Marsha Ackland-Parker, another abuse victim who was present in the crowd, is grateful to see highlighted.
“The vast majority of the abuse that I experienced was between sexual and coercive control,” said Ackland-Parker.
For all abuse victims, what they experience leads to PTSD and trauma, regardless of whether they have physical scars or not.
“Women need to know they’re not alone,” said Jennifer Dunn, executive director at LAWC. “It’s time for the shame and the blame that women feel to be shifted to the shoulders of the perpetrator and we need to continue these conversations.”
The Shine the Light campaign has already grown so much in the last 13 years, but moving forward, LAWC wants to continue the conversation about legislation, funding, and education.
As the event kicked off in the park, purple lights could be seen appearing on buildings around the park as the sun set.
“That’s so impactful,” said Dunn. “It means a lot to the women and girls in our community because for the entire month of November, they see purple and hopefully they know they’re not alone.”
A tree was lit Tuesday evening as well, adding to the purple within the city.
In front of the tree, there were 15 Silent Witnesses highlighted.
“Every witness is in honour of a woman that was killed in London, Ontario or in the area,” said Dunn. “These are just the women whose families wanted to have them recognized and wanted to work with us.
:There are so many more women that have lost their lives to violence against women than what is right here.”
On the outlines, there were plaques that included words from the family.
The Shine the Light event will continue through the month of November. Anyone experiencing domestic violence can go to the LAWC, or contact them via email or phone for help.
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