CALEB NICKERSON
FORT COULONGE Nov. 26, 2018
Despite the dreary weather on Nov. 26, more than a dozen Fort Coulonge and Mansfield residents gathered to march through the town and raise awareness about an important topic: domestic violence.
Organized by staff from local women’s shelter L’EntourElle and the Fort Coulonge Knights of Columbus, this is the ninth year the walk has been held. Organizer Marc Boisvert explained that he began to put the march together three years after a local tragedy.

“On the tenth of October, 2006, a young woman from Fort Coulonge – 39 years old – lost her life to domestic violence,” he said, adding that he decided to keep the march going after the victim’s family organized the original demonstration. “I picked it up from there [two years later], because I couldn’t leave it alone.”
Kim Laroche, a community worker with L’EntourElle, explained that the walk isn’t to raise funds, but to bring attention to an issue that is usually confined to the shadows.
“The more we’re out there, we’re showing these women that we’re here to speak up and we’re here to listen to them. We tell them to break the silence,” she said. “It might be just one woman that sees that she won’t be judged and that there is someone here for her.”
Laroche was also distributing white ribbons to mark the 12-day campaign to end violence against women. The campaign was started in 1991 in response to the École Polytechnique massacre that claimed the lives of 14 women in 1989. It runs from Nov. 25 until Dec. 6, which will be the 29th anniversary of the shooting.
“We ask that people wear this for the 12 days of action to support against domestic violence, or violence done to women,” she explained.
Participants in the walk were escorted by officers from the Sûreté du Québec and members of the Fort Coulonge Mansfield Fire Department as they made their way through the drizzle and traffic. They returned to the Knights of Columbus hall following the walk to warm up with some refreshments.