ENDING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Principal wants male students to realize their ‘unique ability’
27 YEARS AGO,
14 women were gunned down at the École Polytechnique in Montreal. The carnage sparked a national debate on gun control that continues today. Since the shootings, Dec. 6 has become a national day of commemoration and has served as a call for action on violence against women, with events held across the country. Locally, there were social media campaigns, ceremonies and talks to mark the day. Above, dozens of red dresses were displayed around the McMaster University campus as a visual reminder of missing and murdered aboriginal women.
At 10:15 a.m. Tuesday — on the 27th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre — a man’s voice crackles over the public address system at Nora Frances Henderson Secondary School on the Mountain in Hamilton.
“If all male students could come to the auditorium, it would be greatly appreciated,” says Timothy Powell-McBride, the principal of the school named for the first woman to be elected to Hamilton city council.
Within minutes, more than 350 teenagers have taken up seating along the long wooden benches in the hall and Powell-McBride confidently lifts the microphone from its stand.
“I want to talk to you about an issue that I am passionate about, that I want to share with you over a few minutes of your time.
“The issue is violence against women.”
It’s a presentation PowellMcBride has been giving for more than a quarter of a century on anniversaries of the shooting spree in 1989 that saw 14 women murdered at the École Polytechnique de Montréal.
He takes the opportunity to tell the students about what took place on that day, several years before any of them were born, and how it can be a teachable moment to deal with a critical issue.
“My key message is that I would never say that all men are assaulters,” he says in an interview. “That would be absurd. But I do make the point that virtually all assaulters are men. So we, as males, have a unique ability and responsibility to try to end this issue.
“There is a continuum. They may see the murder and violence and say that is not me. But I want them to look further down the continuum and ask themselves, ‘Am I pressuring someone into a level of physical involvement that they are not comfortable with?’ or ‘Am I making comments and jokes or staying silent when jokes and comments are made that demean?’”
Powell-McBride got the idea shortly after the 1989 massacre. He noted how the gunmen herded women together before he carried out his terrible deeds. He felt it was time to have a male-only gathering for a frank conversation about the fact that “half the population does not have the same level of physical and sexual safety that we do.”
Powell-McBride’s presentations were honoured with a Zonta Club of Hamilton “Zonta Says No” award in 2014.