Take Back the Night aims to break through isolation of sexualized violence
CBC
Women and their allies marched to Take Back the Night in Charlottetown Thursday, and help deliver the message to survivors of sexualized violence that they are not alone.
March organizer Rachel Adams said because P.E.I. is a small place, people may believe sexual assault is not a problem, but the statistics say otherwise. The number of reports of level-one sexual assaults on P.E.I. more than doubled from 2014 to 2019.
"Even though this is a small place, this is still a prevalent issue here," said Adams.
As a movement, Take Back the Night dates back to the 1960s, and marches are held in cities and small towns all over the world.
The march serves two purposes. It raises awareness of the problem — the fact that women, as well as LGBTQ folk, are not as safe as men when out at night — and it helps people realize they are not alone when trying to recover from a sexual assault.
"As a survivor myself, I found all the work leading up to this to be really helpful to see that there are other people in my shoes," said Adams.
"The stats tell us that one in four women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime and that number is much higher, as I mentioned, for non-binary, BIPOC, LGBTQ folks."