A coalition of women's groups is launching a 12-day campaign leading up to the 25th anniversary of the Montreal massacre.
On Dec. 6, 1989, Marc Lepine marched into Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique and killed 14 women, injuring another 14, before killing himself.
Lepine said he was "fighting feminism."
The Quebec Women's Federation says one in three women is the victim of violence, and it should stop.
"Statistics Canada did a very profound research a number of years ago into violence against women and that is what came out of that," said Alexa Conradi.
"We are talking about family violence, conjugal violence, sexual assault, workplace harassment. So when you count all of those factors or all those types of violence, the number is one in three."
"There is more legislation and more services, but the actual rates of violence don't seem to be going down when it comes to violence against women.
"So we need to keep thinking about the causes and try to understand the connections between every day sexism and violence against women," she said.
Nathalie Duhamel is on the organizing committee for the campaign, and she re-iterated this willingness to discuss violence, especially in the light of the recent allegations of sexual violence concerning former radio host Jian Ghomeshi.
" We were surprised though because at last sexual assaults gained a certain notoriety, public recognition through the actions of these women who went on social media to speak," said Duhamel.
Conradi added that it is crucial that people be willing to listen to women when they report violence, saying she is "really calling on society to recognize the violence that we experience, to actually trust us and listen to us, and when we reveal what we've been through to believe us and also to make some serious changes in how we view the depth and breadth of violence in women's lives."
Montreal's campaign will end on Dec. 6 with commemorative events to mark the 25th anniversary of the Polytechnique shooting, but an international campaign will end four days later, on Dec. 10, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women.
