Tara Jeffrey
A crowd gathered at Sarnia City Hall Monday for a vigil to honour the victims of the 1989 École Polytechnique murders, as well as all women in Sarnia-Lambton who have died from femicide.
“Femicide is the intentional murder of women because they are women,” said Trish
Vanoosterom, public education coordinator at the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Centre,
pointing to 58 Ontario women and girls killed in the past year, according to the Ontario Association of Interval & Transition Houses Annual Femicide List.
The list includes four Sarnia-Lambton women who were killed between Nov. 26, 2020 and Nov. 25, 2021: Natalie Bartlet, 39, Sue-Elin Lumsden, 66, Cheryl VanHuizen, 51, and Myrna Herd, 84.
The vigil included guest speaker, Bluewater Power President and CEO Janice McMichael-Dennis, as well as victim tributes for the 14 women killed in what’s known as the Montreal Massacre, from members of the Sexual Assault Survivors Centre Sarnia-Lambton, Women’s Interval Home, Reseau-Femmes du Sud-Ouest de l’Ontario, and the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario.
