A grim memorial was displayed on the steps of New Westminster City Hall Friday.
The display included 1,000 pairs of shoes, each one representing a woman or a girl killed by violence in B.C.
Women have been gathering yearly on Dec. 6, the anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique massacre in Montreal in 1989, to remember those lost and to raise awareness of violence against women.
“It’s heartbreaking because these deaths are needless,” said Tima Dickerson, one of the event’s organizers.
“They didn’t have to occur, and we really need to make a difference.”
Organizers say they felt the weight of the lost lives as they set out the shoes one at a time.
“We want people to remember the woman, or the young girl, who lost their life because of violence,” said Teresa-Lyne Dziedzic, another one of the event’s organizers.
“We want them to be remembered. We don’t want their names to be forgotten. We want them to know what we still think about them daily.”
There are names on the memorial sretching back nearly 100 years, but organizers want people to understand that this isn’t a thing of the past. Among the names, 14 were killed just this year, including Roshnee Gurung, a 26-year-old woman killed inside her East Vancouver home, her husband charged with the crime. Also included was Tori Dunn, killed in her Surrey home in 2023.
Awareness is a key part of the Shoe Memorial. In part, it is meant as a way to let women suffering from violence and in abusive relationships know there are other options.
“They’re not alone, like, there’s help out there, and you can get out of that situation,” Dziedzic said.
The new and lightly used shoes in the memorial are donated, and afterward, they’ll be passed along to women in need.