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Media contact:
• Beth Ward, Executive Director, YWCA Muskoka, telephone: 645-9827


 MEDIA RELEASE

MPs Playing Dangerous Politics with Women’s Lives says YWCA Canada

Calls for Honouring the Montreal Massacre and Preserving the Gun Registry

Toronto, November 4, 2009 No greater impetus should be needed for the retention of gun control in Canada and the defeat of Bill C-391 than the looming shadow of the 20th anniversary of the 1989 murders of 14 women at L’École Polytechnique says YWCA Canada, the nation’s oldest and largest women’s multi-service organization. 

“What is often lost in the complaints of gun owners against the registry is that on the evidence, gun control saves lives. 88% of Canadian women killed with guns are killed with a shotgun or rifle. Rifles and shotguns are the guns most often used in domestic violence and suicide,” says Paulette Senior, CEO of YWCA Canada.

 Statistics prove the case. Police services in Canada check the registry 9400 times a day. The registry has the strong support of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police who state forcefully: “Gun laws save lives.” It’s true.

·           In 1991, more than 1400 Canadians were killed with guns. Now it is fewer than 800.

·         The rate of murders with rifles and shotguns dropped by more than 78% from 1991 to 2007.

·         Murders of women with guns plummeted from 85 in 1991 to 32 in 2004. 

·         Suicide rates, particularly among youth, have also declined.

The gun registry was established in response to the killings at L’Ecole Polytechnique. Twenty years later some MPs seem to have lost sight of that event,” says Marlene Gorman, Executive Director of YWCA Sudbury. “Right now, when police get a call about violence in the home they can check in advance whether a rifle or shotgun is present.”

I worry about Aboriginal women, who surely must have a right to protection,” says Lyda Fuller, Executive Director of YWCA Yellowknife. “I’m asking rural and northern MPs to think about the safety of Aboriginal women and about rates of teen suicide before they vote today.”  

Polls have shown that while only half of gun owners oppose the law, 77% of people living with a gun owner support it. As the nation’s largest provider of shelters for women, YWCA Canada urges decisive defeat of
B
ill C-391.

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 For further information on YWCA Canada and its Member Associations, or to set up an interview with:

Paulette Senior, CEO of YWCA Canada, contact Laura Tilley, Communications & Marketing Manager at 416.962-8881 x 233. 

Sudbury: Marlene Gorman, Executive Director, YWCA Sudbury at 705.673.4754

Yellowknife: Lyda Fuller, Executive Director, YWCA Yellowknife at 867-920-2777

 About YWCA Canada:

YWCA Canada is the country’s oldest and largest women's multi-service organization. With 33 Member Associations operating in more than 400 districts and communities across the country, our Turning Point Programs for Women™ - which address personal safety, economic security and well-being – reach out to 1 million women and girls in nine provinces and one territory. YWCA is the largest national provider of shelter to women, serving 25,000 women, children and teen girls, including 6,000 fleeing domestic violence, each year. We are the largest provider of literacy, life skills, employment and counselling programs in the country, and the second largest provider of childcare services. YWCA Canada is a member association of the World YWCA which unites 25 million women and girls worldwide and spans 125 countries. For more information about YWCA Canada and our Member Associations, visit www.ywcacanada.ca.

 


   YWCA Supports Boys' Day

   For the past three years, St. Dominic's Catholic Secondary School has hosted a day to celebrate the
   power of being a girl for grade 9 and 10 students.
   For the first time the school offered the Power of Being a Boy conference for grade 9 and 10 boys on June 8.

   For the whole story in pdf format, click here

 

EXAMINER-BANNER, Wednesday, August 6, 2008.

Shining a light on poverty

by Matt Driscoll

On July 31, 2008, a Town Hall Meeting to End Poverty,  hosted by provincial New Democratic Party poverty critic and candidate for the provincial leadership of the party, Michael Prue, took place in Bracebridge.

For full article in PDF format follow these links:

Shining Light on Poverty Part 1

Shining Light on Poverty part 2

 

Check out the editorial on this subject (PDF File): Translating empathy into action

 

EXAMINER-BANNER, Wednesday, April 2, 2008. A7

Dealing with the reality of domestic abuse

Muskoka Domestic Abuse Review

Team hosts annual conference

By Jacqueline Lawrence

For full article (PDF) Click here

 

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