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The event’s theme focused on the fact that most cases of sexual and gender-based violence go unreported, and survivors often face disbelief or worse if they do speak out.

Rallies and marches are held each year all over the world, and ���߲ݴ�ýresidents sought to reclaim the streets as they marched from Marianne’s Park up Gordon Street to ���߲ݴ�ýCity Hall on Thursday, Sept. 19.

“We will always be louder together than we ever are alone,” said public educator Cindy McMann from Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis. “When we gather at events like this, we have an opportunity to not just break the silence, but to smash it.”

She stressed the importance of the community creating safe spaces for people to speak out and discussed the difficult decisions survivors face. Many feel responsible for reporting or not reporting because they are made to feel that way.

“That’s what’s commonly called a trap,” said McMann. “And it’s frankly not our fault that somebody else woke up one day and chose violence. It’s not your personal responsibility to speak up about sexual violence in a world that is likely to retraumatize you if you do so, that’s not on you, that’s not the silence we have to break.”

She said folks need their communities and the system to have their backs.

McMann said progress has been made in Canada since the federal government declared intimate-partner violence an epidemic in 2023. The City of ���߲ݴ�ýjoined 94 other cities in declaring this last December and, since then, in April, a bill to declare it an epidemic across the province passed its second reading.

But McMann said the rates of sexual and gender-based violence are higher than they’ve been in decades.

Speaker Amber Spence said connecting with other people helped her to understand what happened to her when she was young.

“If I had continued to be trapped in silence, I don’t think I would still be here,” she said.

She called the silence “deafening,” and said she could hardly think or feel anything after being drugged, passed around and raped as a 14-year-old girl. She tried to forget it had happened and changed everything she could about herself.

“I took out the rage and despair that burned deep down inside, so low that I could hardly feel it, on my wrists. They bore the scars of the pain I refused to feel. They still do,” Spence said.

She said as a desperate and young survivor she didn’t know about crisis centres or available support. She didn’t have that help. It took years for her to name and face her trauma and learn language to express it safely.

“Thank you for coming out and supporting survivors like me and helping us to break the silence together,” Spence said.

For more information about events, or to seek resources or support, visit or call 519-836-1110. Reach the 24-hour crisis line at 1-800-265-7233 or 519-836-5710.