Author: Najat McFarland

Photo credits:

Ruth Patrick & Jan McMillan, a CUUWA supporter who drove Ruth to the ceremony

Rev. Audrey Brooks, Retired Unitarian Community Minister and CUUWA member, has 42 stones in her Edmonton Genocide Garden. Each memorial commemorates a horrific genocide event that has occurred somewhere in the world. On December 8, 2023, during the Ignite Change 2023 Global Human Rights Convention, at Siloh Baptist Church, a featured event will be the dedication of the CUUWA Memorial stone. It is the first stone to focus specifically upon violence against women and features 2 never-to-be-forgotten Canadian tragedies that target women.

Let us remember:

• Dec 6, 1989 – During the Montreal Massacre, 14 women, mostly students but some staff, were murdered at an engineering institute in Montreal because they were women. Most were enrolled as students in a professional career that is predominantly male, but a few were staff. Discrimination against women continues to be a bias in many workplaces.
• Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) is a movement that acknowledges the thousands of women who have disappeared, many along the northern BC “Highway of Tears”, near camps and some reserves. This violence is ongoing.

Violence against women is a component of patriarchal society that is international. Such brutality results in a generational loss that destroys individual lives, depletes families, and reduces humanity in everyone. The CUUWA stone is intended to be a memorial to all women who die violently because of their gender. The aspiration is that such highlighted public attention will inspire us to live more thoughtfully, honourably, and peacefully. We thank the two organizations (Lil Red Dress; Montreal Memorial Monument) for permission to use their images and are grateful for their ongoing advocacy.

The CUUWA supports initiatives that develop various personal, professional, public, and political aspects of women’s lives. We invite you to explore our website.

Please see below for the program for the 15th Annual Genocide Memorial Service.

For further information about the Genocide Garden in Edmonton, please contact:

Rev. Audrey Brooks, (retired) Unitarian Community Minister; 
Member, Edmonton Interfaith Centre for Education and Advocacy
Interfaith chaplain, University of Alberta
Member of the Raging Grannies
Phone 1-780-489-8842
audbrook@telus.net  -or- audbrook@telusplanet.net

We had 30+ participants attend our 2023 Pink Tea & AGM, both virtually and in-person at the Ottawa Unitarian Fellowship.

El Jones delivered an impactful performance and everyone went home with a different message.

If you are among those feminists who missed this powerful speaker, El Jones’ performances are available on youtube, and she also has two volumes of poetry published, Live from the Afrikaan Resistance! and Abolitionist Intimacies.