Walk to End Violence marches through downtown Victoria today

Two marches are happening in Victoria on Thursday and it’s prompting road closures around the downtown core, according to Victoria Police.

VicPD say Belleville Street between Thunderbird Park and the BC Legislature will be closed from 11:45 a.m. until 1 p.m. for the Walk to End Violence.

To mark Moose Hide Campaign Day, organizers invite the public to register and join in on the annual walk, followed by a gathering on the Legislature grounds near the Knowledge Totem.

That’s where participants can witness and engage in traditional ceremonies and hear from keynote speakers, states a post on MooseHideCampaign.ca. Events will also livestream throughout the day.

“It’s a day where all Canadians are called to join together to take a stand against violence against women and children and to take practical steps for our collective journey of reconciliation,” said organizers.

As an Indigenous-led, BC-based call to action, the Moose Hide Campaign started 11 years ago and challenges Canadian men and boys to fast together from sunrise to sunset, helping to create safe families and communities for all women and children.

Support from BC officials

In a joint statement Thursday, BC officials say the world has seen a spike in rates of intimate partner violence amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Premier John Horgan, Indigenous Relations Minister Murray Rankin and Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equity Grace Lore, alarming stats are making the campaign’s work “more important than ever.”

“Today, we wear a moose hide pin to honour and amplify the work the campaign is doing and has done over the last decade—led by men and boys—to end violence against women and girls,” they said.

March for Life returns

Meanwhile, the March for Life is also happening in downtown Victoria today.

From 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m., VicPD say Government Street, between Centennial Square and the BC Legislature, will be closed for the annual march.

The pro-life movement, which originated in Ottawa in 1998, is hosted on the “Day of Infamy” and marks the anniversary of Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s 1969 bill decriminalizing abortion.

Organizers encourage pro-lifers to join in bearing signs of support, noting the event is “the most prominent forum for pro-life Canadians to demand justice for the 100,000 children who are killed in their mothers’ wombs each year by abortion.”

“Since the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide in 2016, the march has also become an opportunity to condemn the steadily increasing number of vulnerable citizens killed by medical professionals under the euphemism ‘MAiD’ or ‘medical assistance in dying,'” states a post to MarchForLife.ca.