Several years ago I served on the Board of Directors of the Regina Women’s Community Centre and Sexual Assault Line. It was an important way for me to give back to the Centre which had helped me come to some kind of peace with my experience of a date rape that had occurred in my late teens. For too long, I had blamed myself, even though I had loudly and clearly said, NO!

It disturbed me when I saw the video featuring Premier Wall, MP Tom Lukiwski, and those anonymous Conservative men denigrating women in the way they did. It bothers me that they have not yet apologized to the women of the province, for the role they have played in promoting sexism and sexist behaviour. And it disturbed me even more, then, when I learned this:

Regina has the third highest rate of sexual assault per capita in Canada (Statistics Canada 2006).

Now, many of you know that I’m not a major fan of Mayor Pat Fiacco, but I’ll give him credit for this:

Mayor Pat Fiacco has proclaimed the week of April 13 to 19 Sexual Assault Awareness Week. It is time to Draw The Line against sexual violence in our city.

The Regina Women’s Community Centre and Sexual Assault Line have organized this event:

A Project to Raise Awareness of Sexual Violence

Bring a t-shirt to decorate to honour yourself or someone you know who has experienced sexual assault

Regina City Hall Courtyard
April 19, 2008
12:00 p.m. — 2:00 p.m.

Sexual Assault affects us all; young and old.

Please come support this event because survivors of sexual assault are someone’s mother, sister, grandmother, aunt, daughter, niece, friend, or even someone’s father, brother, uncle, or son.

Thank you in advance from all of us at The Regina Women’s Community Centre & Sexual Assault Line for sharing this message with those you know and love.

I can be at this event for only a short while as my daughter arrives home from her immersion experience that afternoon (YAY!!!). I’ll hope that this awareness campaign can prevent all of our daughters from experiencing what I experienced when I was just a wee bit older than my daughter is now.