Yesterday I reflected on the insurrection in Ottawa and my own involvement in peaceful, lawful protests and marches through the decades. When we lived in Bowmanville. Ontario, Ruth, my wife, worked for a decade for a women's shelter and so each year was involved in the Take Back the Night walk/march through the community.
The organization came from the shelter which is called Bethesda House (a biblical reference reflecting its origins) but there was strong support from the local RCMP detachment which was situated close to the 401 highway, a major artery which traverses Ontario. They were involved in monitoring the dark world of human trafficking, a scourge in our society. Communities along the 401, including our current home town, Belleville, are way stations for the trafficking of women in the sex trade. The reasons they become involved are complicated but the outcome is that these women, usually young, are caught in a web of control from which it is difficult to exit. Most years someone from the detachment would speak briefly.
This is Human Trafficking Awareness Day in Canada and we need to remind ourselves of this reality which is hiding in plain sight.
Before these Take Back the Night marches I would announce the date and time from the pulpit for a couple of weeks prior to the event. If my memory serves me correctly, only one congregant every joined us, even though it passed close by the church building and these were caring people who were strong supporters of Bethesda House in other ways. It is an "inconvenient truth" for so many of us, but we can be mindful today, wherever we may be.
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