Step It Up Ontario!

Demand Government 'Step Up' Action To End Violence Against Women

TORONTO (October 30, 2006) Women from across Ontario will be launching a campaign this week to demand faster, better action on ending violence against women in Ontario. The "Step it Up!" Campaign will launch simultaneously in Toronto and Ottawa on November 2.

November is Woman Abuse Prevention Month in Ontario, traditionally the month when the Province of Ontario boasts of the work it is doing to provide services to women and children fleeing abuse, and perhaps to announce some new initiatives.

But women's advocates say government needs to act faster and to start taking a much broader perspective not only on what women need to escape from violence and start new lives for themselves and their children, but on how to end violence against all women.

"Governments seem bent on looking narrowly at violence against women, providing poorly funded emergency services and largely post-violence responses that are still inadequate," said Eileen Morrow, Coordinator of the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses, one of the groups involved in the Campaign.

"Survivors and women's advocates are saying that 'big picture' items like the way governments understand the issue, poverty, lack of housing and child care, the additional barriers for marginalized women and others are also 'woman abuse prevention' measures that need to be vastly improved, in addition to better services, if government is really interested in ending violence against women, and not just managing it."

The Campaign has a list of "10 Steps to End Violence Against Women" that Campaign organizers agree must be put in place if women are to be freed from the current epidemic of violence against them.

'Step it Up!' is the message women's advocates want the government to hear. They will be organizing across Ontario, not only in November and December, but throughout next year when political parties will be asking voters for support to become the next Ontario government. "We'll be tracking their actions and platforms carefully this year and letting communities know what issues are important to women and children in towns and cities all over Ontario," said Erin Lee-Todd, an Ottawa area Step it Up Campaign organizer.

The Ottawa Step it Up! launch will take place at Parliament Hill at the same time as the Toronto launch. Both events will feature media conferences and rally activities, including speakers and entertainment.

The Campaign will also launch its website for the public to access information about how to support the campaign, as well as to receive Campaign materials (buttons, sticker and posters) available to individuals and groups that want to join the campaign. Organizers of the campaign include women's shelters and rape crisis centres, women's centres, anti-poverty activists, equity-seeking groups, labour unions, community services and individual women's advocates.

For more information:

Eileen Morrow, OAITH Coordinator 416-977-6619

Erin Lee-Todd, Interval House Ottawa 613-234-8511

SPEAKERS BIOGRAPHIES

Press Conference Speakers:

Eileen Morrow: Eileen Morrow is Coordinator of the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH), the Ontario provincial women’s anti-violence emergency shelter association.

Marilyn Oladimeji: Marilyn Oladimeji is President of the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC), the Ontario provincial coalition of sexual assault centres, and an anti-violence worker and community activist.

Marianne Park: Marianne Park is a member of the Board of Directors of the DisAbled Women’s Network of Ontario, or DAWN Ontario. She has worked in the Violence Against Women field for 20 years as a trainer and researcher. Marianne is from Woodstock, Ontario.

Josephine Grey: Josephine Grey has been an activist, both locally and globally, in the struggle for economic and social justice for over 20 years. Because of her experience of poverty and homelessness, she became a founder of Low Income Families Together (LIFT) in Toronto, a resource centre run by and for low-income people since 1986.

Rally Speakers

Beth Jordan:  Beth Jordan is an anti-violence activist, anti-racist/anti-oppression expert and educator. She is a recipient of the Women of Distinction Award of the YWCA and a well-known long-time advocate for women. Beth will facilitate the rally speaking activities for the launch.

Lorraine Whitecrow: Lorraine Whitecrow is a member of Seine River (Chimaaganing) First Nation, and also a member of Northwestern Ontario Women's Action Group. 

Gwen O’Reilly: Gwen O’Reilly is Coordinator of the Northwestern Ontario Women's Centre in Thunder Bay, a member of the Northwestern Ontario Women’s Action Group, the Thunder Bay Economic Justice Committee and an organizer for the Step it Up Campaign.

Fran Odette: Fran Odette is the Program Manager of the Women with Disabilities and Deaf Women's Program at Springtide Resources (formerly Education Wife Assault).

Tatjana Sekulic: Tatjana Sekulic represents Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes, a coalition of Francophone groups across Ontario working to end violence against women. She works at Oasis centre des femmes in Toronto.

Nneka MacGregor: Nneka MacGregor is an activist, an advocate, working to ensure that voilence against all women and children is eradicated. She is a survivor and a lawyer, as well as the President of the Women's Institute of Social Justice and sits on various committees, developing training for system workers around the issues of violence against women.

Magaly St. Martin: Magaly St. Martin is a member of Toronto Women Against Poverty.

Leighann Burns: Leighann Burns has been working to end violence against women for the past seventeen years. She started as a rural outreach worker where she got the best possible education on the shortcomings of the system designed to assist abused women and their children. She is now Director of Harmony House, a second stage housing program in Ottawa and a member of the Social Justice and Action Committee of the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH). Leighann is a member of the Ottawa Step it Up organizing group.

Terry Downey: Terry Downey was elected Executive Vice-President of the Ontario Federation of Labour in November 2005 at the OFL Convention becoming the first African-Canadian to serve as an OFL executive officer.  She has been a member of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union for 17 years.

Julie White: Julie White is Director of the Womens Programs for the Canadian Auto Workers union. Julie is a long time trade union activist, feminist and advocate working within the broader labour and Women’s movement fighting to improve Women’s economic, political and social equality. 

Pauline Kajura:  Originally from Hamilton, Pauline is a singer/songwriter who has been performing for the past 15 years.  She has played in venues in Montreal, Toronto and Hamilton both as a solo artist and with musical groups.   Pauline often lends her voice to issues of social justice. Pauline works at the Sexual Assault Centre in Hamilton working toward ending Violence Against Women.