Response to Canadian Police Statement Denying Misogynist Motive in Recent Mass Killing
This graphic image expresses our anger, outrage and disgust in response to the statement made in a news briefing by the investigating Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). In this CTV News report, the RCMP said they were unaware that “misogyny or hatred towards women” was involved in the mass killing of 22 people – 13 femicidal killing and nine homicides. This killing rampage by a violent man began following what the RCMP also described as the violent man’s “significant assault” of his female partner. As Linda explained in her interview referenced in the above CTV News report, there is a connecting pattern between femicidal violence and mass shootings in Canada, a pattern the RCMP appeared to be dismissing.
Captured by Nicole Munro on Twitter, April 28, 2020, was this RCMP response to the question of whether misogyny or hatred of women was a motive. Campbell of the RCMP replied that “I’m not aware of any information that has come in to the investigation team re: misogyny or hatred of women. I’m not downplaying any deaths, but from what we’ve seen, he was just targeting people he knew.” This response came following the RCMP stating the killer had a history of prior assaults.
Anger, outrage, and disgust were expressed by Linda in another interview in The Coast. She explained, “that misogyny and male violence against women is one of the red flags in mass shootings...that we can prevent...if we start taking more seriously male violence against women.”
The 2019 Canadian Femicide Observatory’s #CallItFemicide national report lists many forms of femicides that occur across the globe. In 2018 the Observatory stated that 148 Canadian women and girls died due to violence. Yes, we are angry, outraged, and disgusted by the RCMP’s dismissal that misogyny leads to violence perpetrated against women and girls including femicide. The RCMP silencing of this reality is why we now work towards achieving a provincial inquiry with a strong feminist input.