Wed Sep 5, 2012
Local News

Making the moment last

Standing at the northern edge of Christie Pits Park early Monday evening, 26-year-old Anni Spadafora was was weary from spending all day talking to reporters. As hundreds of supporters descended on the park for the rally she co-organized—to protest the sexual assaults that have plagued the neighbourhood in the past month—she expressed her ambivalence. “Christie and Bloor is an affluent neighbourhood in a lot of ways, and I find it kind of troubling that this is the moment when people rise up,” she said.

But, she added, “I do think this is a moment, an opportunity to use the recent flare-up to really build momentum.” She stressed that such assaults happen to women in all communities, yet it seems to take a string of incidents in a high-profile area for attention to be paid.*

As hundreds of people, mostly women, filled the grassy hill overlooking the park’s namesake pit to hear speeches, Spadafora added she hoped that the issue’s profile wouldn’t pass when the media spotlight moved on: “This work needs to be done all the time.

CORRECTION, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012: The original version of this article featured a misleading paraphrase of a quote from Ms. Spadafora. The text has been updated. The Grid regrets the error.

TAGS

post a comment

Anni Spadafora

Thanks for the coverage, Grid.

Just want to clarify: I most certainly do not believe that “assaults happen most often to more vulnerable women, living less in well-to-do neighbourhoods”. I believe that assaults happen to women and trans folks everywhere–mostly in their homes by people close to them. It is frustrating to me when and where and what cases of sexual violence the city/the media/the police seem to care about/respond to.

My frustrations come with the fact that because this violence is happening (often unreported) all the time, we (myself included) should be angry and taking action constantly
3 0

Report

9:16 pm on September 5, 2012

Reply

1:30

Local News
Wed May 22, 2013

It’s hard to be a saint...

With bike month around the corner, we learned what it’s like to try to follow every single...

26 COMMENTS

ILLUSTRATION: Matthew Billington/The Grid

1:30

Places
Wed May 15, 2013

Mall of justice

Inside the city’s second-busiest courthouse, where the days are short, lunch is long, and...

0 COMMENTS

3:00

Local News
Fri Apr 26, 2013

Where are Ledbury Park’...

Ledbury Park, in North York, is a sidewalk-on-one-side-of-the-street kind of neighbourhood...

0 COMMENTS

Reset your password

Reset your password

Join The Grid

City_local news

Local News

Politics

Dating Diaries

Dating Diaries

Food and Drink

Fashion

Food and Drink

Arts

Related Articles

No worries! We'll send you an e-mail containing instructions for how you can recover your password.
Email:

Username:
Password:

	_JOIN THE GRID

Sign in to The Grid

Reset your password

Reset your password

Join The Grid

City_local news

Related Articles