Monday evening marked the beginning of this year’s Shine The Light on Woman Abuse campaign in London, a public awareness campaign organized by the London Abused Women’s Center. Since 2010, the campaign has been running in communities across Canada and internationally. The 2021 campaign began with a gathered crowd in Victoria Park, where one of the trees on the corner of Dufferin Ave. and Clarence St. was strung up with purple lights to commemorate the event.
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Mayor Ed Holder was in attendance and spoke before the crowd, reflecting on the loss of his sister, Donna, to domestic violence, as well his belief in the fight against women’s abuse: “The fight that we fight against women and girl’s abuse doesn’t start today. But it gets reinforced today. It gets reinforced because you’re here, because you care. It gets reinforced because our voices together can make that difference.”
Chief of Police Stephen Williams also spoke at the event, speaking on the cases of domestic violence investigated by London’s police in 2021:
So far this year, we have investigated almost 6,000 incidents of domestic violence. That is 6,000 too many, but we know that the vast majority of domestic violence incidents aren’t reported. We know that we just see the tip of the iceberg, particularly during COVID. We know that many women were stuck indoors like many of us, but they were confined in areas where it wasn’t easy to get out of, and they were more vulnerable in those situations.
Rebecca Amendola standing before the crowd, telling her story
The culmination of the event’s speakers was with Rebecca Amendola, one of the two abuse survivors being honored in this year’s Shine The Light campaign. Amendola detailed some of what she had endured as a child and adolescent, as well as spoke on her experiences with legal and psychological care she was provided with once escaping her abuser in 2011.
The most painful truth I learned through my court experience is that victims and witnesses are too often regarded as mere objects of evidence. The entire court process is designed to cater to the accused, often ignoring the humanity of others involved in the case. And I don’t really know how this could be done, but a good start to address this would be seriously overhauling the victim witness support office to specifically address ways to ensure victims and witnesses genuinely feel they are being treated with dignity.
Amendola further elaborated that she wishes to see those involved with cases of sexual assault be given extensive trauma-informed training, and improvements made to the resources that are available for victims of sexual assault.
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