With Corinne Ofstie.

Content note: this episode addresses femicide. “December 6, 1989 was a terrible moment that became a transformative movement,” writes Canadian Women’s Foundation President and CEO Paulette Senior in The Toronto Star. “Every year on December 6, we need to revive the momentum anew. Advocates made sure that the 1989 massacre led to stricter firearm laws and new anti-violence efforts. We need the same energy in 2022 to end abuse in sports and male-dominated sectors, build safety for Indigenous women, Black and racialized women, women with disabilities, and others at elevated risk, and reverse rising rates of femicide, family violence, and sexual assault we’ve seen in Canada over the last few years. There is never a year when Dec. 6 should not rejuvenate our movement.”

We still have much to do to end this preventable violence. Many of us are mindful of and mourning the recent Winnipeg police announcement of charges laid against a man for the murder of four Indigenous women, a man linked to white supremacist ideology. Many of us are mindful of and mourning these rising rates of gender-based violence, the impact of which will reverberate for years.

Corinne Ofstie (she/her), Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services (AASAS), addresses the issue of femicide today. Amongst her other work, Corinne is a member of the Rebuilding Lives Committee for the Canadian Women’s Foundation and an Expert Advisory Panel member of Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability.

Corinne is a registered social worker with expertise working as a cross-sector coordinator within community, system and government organizations in both the sexual and domestic violence services sectors.  In her role with AASAS, Corinne works to achieve the goals and objectives of numerous special projects including the Healthier and Safer Alberta Workplaces project which includes an anti-workplace sexual harassment awareness campaign and training.  Among her many achievements, Corinne co-chaired the provincial Collaborative Justice Response to Sexual Violence Committee and was a member of the Gender Equality Network of Canada from 2017 to 2020. In 2018, Corinne was awarded Avenue Magazine’s #Top40Under40.

Relevant links: Be a Signal for Help Responder

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