This monument commemorates the local women murdered between 1990 and 2000, many by their partners.
Following the brutal murder of Pamella Behrendt, who was decapitated with a chainsaw by her husband in 1990, and the Montreal massacre in 1889 where 14 women died, the Women’s Urgent Action Committee was founded with a mission to commemorate the women and raise awareness of abuse and violence against women.
The artist C. J. Fleury created the monument (she also sculpted the Dorothy O’Connell Monument to Anti-Poverty Activism), and Mary Leigh Faught designed the landscape. Monument consists of a 2-meter-long (6.6 ft) uncut granite stone. The inside oval shape has an inscription in English and French that reads:
“TO HONOUR AND TO GRIEVE
ALL WOMEN
ABUSED AND MURDERED BY MEN
ENVISION A WORLD WITHOUT VIOLENCE
WHERE WOMEN ARE
RESPECTED
&
FREE.”
More ancient feminine symbols are incorporated on the stone, expressing that violence against women is an old problem, like the triskele spiral that signifies continuity and refers to traditional feminine divinity. Around the granite stone are smaller tombs like stones, bearing the names of the women who murdered.
“Enclave: The Ottawa Women’s Monument” was dedicated on December 6th, 1992, on the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women and three years post the Montreal massacre, and since then, it has been a gathering space on International Women’s Day, remembrance, and vigil days and more.
Since 2000, when the name of Sandra Campbell got replaced by the general name Jane Doe, due to legal issues, the Committee has dissolved. Since no group has taken over, no more names have been added, although many wish to commemorate their loved ones.
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