A group of 150 strong walked down Young Road chanting “equal rights” and “my body, my choice” as they took part in the second annual Fraser Valley Marches for Women in Chilliwack on Saturday.
The right northbound lane of Young Road was closed to traffic due to the march, but passing motorists still honked in support.
With signs reading “women’s rights are human rights”, “we still have a way to go”, “girls just wanna have fun-damental rights”, and “no means no — always”, the group of mostly women marched from Ann Davis Transition Society to City Hall where a handful of them spoke.
“Today we marched for women in the Fraser Valley, we marched for women across Canada and around the world,” said Marnie Wright, associate vice president of human resources at UFV. “This year was an important year for women. It’s a year when our voices were heard, when the discrimination and mistreatment of women that existed in the world was heard, through the Me Too movement.”
She also spoke about Canada’s wage gap between men and women, stating working women make only 74 cents for every dollar that a male worker makes. That statistic has not moved in two decades.
READ MORE: Women’s March in Chilliwack taps into worldwide movement
“We are gathered here, we are sharing. This is an outlet, and an avenue, and is a movement,” said DJ Pohl, president of Fraser Valley Labour Council. “The movement, any movement — a feminist movement, a women’s movement — is not a movement if it does not include everyone. It needs to include: queer, black, poor, disabled, trans, Muslim, refugees, immigrants, students, elderly, Indigenous leaders, all people and communities.”
Patti MacAhonic, executive director with Ann Davis Transition Society, also spoke during the event.
“We work every day to support women who have been affected by violence, but the numbers aren’t going down,” she said. “This is why it’s so important that we come out and we put our voices together and we let people know that we are going to keep raising our voices together until things improve.”
The march also included a women’s warrior song and a heartbeat song by Sto:lo elder Dionne McGrath, plus drumming, and sign-making.
READ MORE: Women’s March Canada coming to Chilliwack
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