The Canadian Press
MONTREAL — A large number of protestors marched through Montreal's Plateau borough this afternoon to denounce what many of them described as a "pandemic" of violence against women.
Eight women have been killed by current or former intimate partners in Quebec over the past eight weeks.
The Montreal protest, which stretched more than six city blocks at times, was one of 20 scheduled to take place across Quebec today.
Manon Monastesse, the executive director of the Quebec federation of women's shelters, says the number of deaths in recent weeks is shocking, noting the province tends to record 12 femicides over the course of a normal full year.
Monastesse, one of the organizers of the protest in Montreal, says the 36 shelters in her organization are at 97 per cent of their capacity.
She says the effort to fight violence against women will need serious action from the provincial government and broader social change.
