Today is Canada's National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Womyn.

It happens on this date to commemorate December 6th, 1989 when 14 university womyn were murdered at school by a man who hated "feminists" and thought that his own rejection from the school was because womyn had taken his place in the STEM program.

Does this sound familiar? 

It's the same mentality that fuels harassing and assaulting womyn in the military; it's the same mentality that fuels hatred of womyn in STEM spaces; it's the same mentality that saw Hillary Clinton defeated; and on and on and on.

The idea that womyn are uppity and "taking" something from men by simply chasing their dreams.

Or the idea that because womyn kick out their abuser (or in the case of Carol, refuses his advances), they end up dead.

I will never, ever forget Anastasia, Carol and Nathalie who were murdered on September 22, 2015 by a man they had all escaped or rejected. They were murdered in a 90 mins rampage in a tiny community and their story barely made a ripple in the news. Even though it was Canada's biggest domestic homicide case. Even though the community yelled and screamed for justice.

I sat in the sexual assault centre, while we were under lockdown, and we waited to hear the body count. 

And then I watched as the news barely covered the story or gave the killer pages and pages of explanation.

Today, I'm speaking to high school students in Banff about how to prevent sexual violence.

Tonight, I'm speaking at a YWCA fundraiser about how to prevent violence and engage the folks in our lives to care about the issue.

But my heart is heavy.

I'm acutely aware that I'm alive today from pure luck. He died before I did. I'm a statistical snowflake.

And I carry Anastasia, Carol and Nathalie in my hearts today, and always, because they should be here with us, too.