The Fredericton Take Back the Night march on Friday received a lot of support from bystanders this year. The march, that has been held in Fredericton 13 times, began as a way to protest rape and sexual assault.
Karla O’Regan, a criminology professor at St. Thomas University, attended this years’ march and rally. She has been a supporter of the organization for years.
“It’s a point of political activism for me, to show solidarity with female identified persons against gender based violence,” said O’Regan.
In previous years marchers have been exposed to different kinds of reactions from bystanders. This year the 350 marchers got cheers, and lots of honking from drivers going by. Some younger bystanders even stood by the Justice Building on Queen Street and high -ived the marchers while they went by.
“This is the first year that I’ve marched that I don’t remember being heckled. Once you leave city hall it gets kind of nerve wracking because you’re out there on your own in a way,” said O’Regan. “Last year somebody threw McDonald’s garbage at us.”
Some supporters ended up joining the march as they walked along Brunswick Street. Over 20 men stayed behind at City Hall to discuss their reason for attending the event this year. The allies went around in a circle and talked about what they could do to support the movement.
Troy Glover, a second year journalism student at STU, attended because his sister was always talking about how powerful the movement was.
“Even if someone doesn’t come to the march, people have heard of the march, and that within itself is progress,” said Glover.
One of the biggest criticisms of Take Back the Night is that men are not allowed to march with the protesters, but are instead asked to stay back. Attendees on Facebook asked the event organizers why men were not allowed to join in the march, and they noted that men also made up sexual assault statistics and had a right to attend and march. O’Regan agreed and said that the purpose was not to exclude anyone, just to concentrate on the original perspective.
“I think it’s one night out of 365 and that there’s all kinds of other movements. I think that Feminism is inclusive, there’s all kinds of other nights,” said O’Regan.
