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PHOTOS: Quesnel car parade hopes to Take Back the Night

The annual march was turned into a car parade to help lower the risk of COVID-19
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Maureen Trotter kept her message simple when decorating her car. (Cassidy Dankochik Photo - Quesnel Cariboo Observer)

More than a dozen cars, decorated with phrases like “no more stolen sisters” circled Quesnel on Friday, Sept. 18.

The annual Take Back the Night march had to be changed this year so participants could properly physical distance.

Instead of a march ending with speeches at the Women’s Memorial Monument, a line of cars, with signs taped to their sides and words of encouragement drawn on their windows, circled the area around the monument.

“Take Back the Night is an opportunity for people to come together to raise awareness, protest and reclaim women’s right to be safe and free from violence in their homes and their communities,” the Quesnel Women’s Resource Centre (QWRC) website reads.

Take Back the Night started in the 1970s and is recognized every third Friday in September.

The first march in Canada was held in Vancouver in 1978.

“One out of every three women will be a victim of violence in her lifetime,” the QWRC website reads. “One to two women are murdered by a partner or ex-partner in Canada per week. Each year, women’s shelters take in between 90,000 to 100,000 women who have experienced violence. In our own community, our transition house shelters over 200 women annually.”

READ MORE: Provincial funding expands Quesnel Women’s Resource Centre counselling services

READ MORE: New posters prepared for Friday’s Take Back the Night march in Quesnel

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Rick and Bev Faulkner took part in the parade in honour of their daughter, Leah. (Cassidy Dankochik Photo - Quesnel Cariboo Observer)
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Logan Marsh watches as Brittany Marsh decorates her car before the parade begins. (Cassidy Dankochik Photo - Quesnel Cariboo Observer)