Todd Minerson is Executive Director of the White Ribbon Campaign: Men Working to End Violence Against Women, in Canada.
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The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
—Albert Einstein
If there is anything hopeful to come out of the recent murderous attacks on girls in Pennsylvania and Colorado, it will rest in one of the inherent ironies of tragedy.
Too often it takes a tragedy of shocking proportions to galvanize communities, act as a catalyst for change, and to shed light on the dark corners of our society.
On December 6th, 1989 Canada experienced just such a tragedy.
Shortly after 5:00 pm, a man walked into Montréal’s École Poyltechnique engineering school and killed 14 women, injured dozens more, and traumatized a nation before turning his gun on himself.
It was subsequently discovered that this event was a calculated femicidal rampage. The killer attributed feminism for his life’s troubles. He yelled “I hate feminists” as he stalked the halls looking for female victims. He blamed his rejection by the school on “affirmative action” for women, and left a vitriolic, misogynist suicide note to ensure his motives were understood. Like many other organizers, I choose the term “femicide” to name the specific intent of such attacks on women and girls.
While women’s organizations had been working to end violence against women for decades, it took the December 6th Montréal massacre to bring these issues to the forefront of Canadian consciousness. What resulted was a difficult national discourse on issues we had been reluctant to acknowledge and address as a society, gun control and men’s violence against women. What also resulted was action for social change.
As the second anniversary of December 6th approached in 1991, a handful of men in Canada decided they had a responsibility to speak out and act to end men’s violence against women. In the time before the proliferation of symbolic ribbons we know today, they decided that wearing a white ribbon would be a symbol of men’s opposition to men’s violence against women.
After only six weeks’ preparation, as many as one hundred thousand men across Canada wore a white ribbon. Many others were drawn into the discussion and debate on the issue of men’s violence for the very first time. There was an outpouring of media attention and support for the “novelty” of this approach to the issue.
The concept of the White Ribbon was affirmed; it is a man’s pledge never to commit, condone, or remain silent about violence against women. It quickly became apparent that there was a desire for this kind of venue for men to express their will to end violence against women, as the concept spread to several countries, including the United States, the UK, and Scandinavia.
In the following years the White Ribbon Campaign in Canada evolved mostly as a volunteer-driven organization, focusing its efforts between November 25 (the UN International Day to End Violence Against Women) and December 6th, which remains a national day of remembrance for all women affected by violence in Canada.
The transition from conceptual statement to social movement did not come without challenges and mistakes. After the initial media swoon and donor support, funding the work became the perpetual challenge that it is for all social causes. This initial attention also caused some real friction with the women’s movement in Canada; many longtime feminist activists were frustrated that a men’s group suddenly could claim the space and support they had been working in for years. Finally, in its enthusiasm and ambition, the campaign suffered from a lack of focus and strategic direction.
As we approach our 15th year, the White Ribbon Campaign has made real efforts to address these challenges and learn from our mistakes. We have learned by listening to the women’s movement that we need to do things differently as a men’s organization in this field of work, and we have become a strong ally and partner with many amazing women’s organizations in Canada and beyond. Our commitment to them is to prove our dedication through our partnerships and actions towards ending men’s violence against women.
While funding and support remain a challenge we continue to work on a diverse range of revenue streams: Government support for violence prevention work with young men and boys, foundation support for the creation of educational materials and training for teachers, and of course, our own corporate and individual fundraising.
Strategically we have also determined that our efforts are best focused on three specific areas: the development of our national campaign in Canada, education and awareness work with young men and boys, and our historical role as a catalyst and facilitator for White Ribbon Campaigns across the globe. To these ends we have a national presence in Canada, our education resources are widely recognized as unique and important tools for promoting equity, healthy gender relationships, and anti-violence options, and there are White Ribbon Campaigns now in 52 countries around the world.
We hold no proprietary notions that the only way to work towards ending men’s violence against women is by wearing the White Ribbon. We cannot tell people in New York, or in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania the most appropriate strategies for their own communities. What we can do is share our experiences, provide resources, and facilitate connections for important work to happen. It is this approach that has led to the education of Canadian teens, the change of domestic violence laws in Sweden, and an emerging White Ribbon movement in Pakistan, among other small steps towards a future that has no violence against women.
We can only hope that after the sorrow, grief, and anger of the recent femicides in Pennsylvania and Colorado, a similarly hopeful legacy will emerge.