Comments on: Whose deaths warrant public grief? https://pamelacross.ca/whose-deaths-warrant-public-grief/ Canadian feminist lawyer and women’s advocate Sat, 14 Apr 2018 14:28:50 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Margaret MacPherson https://pamelacross.ca/whose-deaths-warrant-public-grief/#comment-215 Sat, 14 Apr 2018 14:28:50 +0000 https://pamelacross.ca/?p=1195#comment-215 I appreciate this article very much Pamela. On Thursday I was at an event with a large group. A number of folks in the room were wearing hockey jerseys to show support for Humboldt. While I would never challenge any form of support that people want to show for others in grief, I couldn’t help but wonder why we don’t have this kind of solidarity and profound sense of loss for the fifteen women killed in Ontario that you reference. And we know that more have been killed since March. Women being killed is a number that will only increase as the year unfolds. Also in the room on Thursday were Indigenous leaders, some of whom were wearing jerseys to show their support. I couldn’t help but reflect on the high numbers of Indigenous girls and women whose deaths go unremarked in the public sphere. Last evening, I overheard two women talking about the death of a friend. They were planning a memorial to give tribute to her life and to acknowledge her death as a loss that goes unrecognized in the community because she was a sex worker.

Your title is a powerful question that begs thoughtful reflection – whose deaths warrant public grief? What do public outpourings of grief tell us about ourselves as a society? What if every death was felt or acknowledged as the loss that it is? How might that change us?

]]> By: Kristin Marshall https://pamelacross.ca/whose-deaths-warrant-public-grief/#comment-214 Sat, 14 Apr 2018 14:24:14 +0000 https://pamelacross.ca/?p=1195#comment-214 In reply to Pam mayhew.

Thank you Pam, for articulating so well what I have been thinking all week. (!)

]]> By: Lisa Widdifield https://pamelacross.ca/whose-deaths-warrant-public-grief/#comment-213 Sat, 14 Apr 2018 14:17:29 +0000 https://pamelacross.ca/?p=1195#comment-213 In reply to Pam mayhew.

Well said. I have been struggling with a similar sentiment of competing realities. What made me feel shameful for thinking this? Thank you for sharing and permission to question.

]]> By: Paul gervan https://pamelacross.ca/whose-deaths-warrant-public-grief/#comment-212 Sat, 14 Apr 2018 01:41:18 +0000 https://pamelacross.ca/?p=1195#comment-212 Agreed, save for the presumption of guilt for the gas attacks in Syria.

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