By SHEEMA KHAN

Tuesday was a gruesome day for news.

First, there were the heart-wrenching victim impact statements by relatives of the six women murdered by Robert Pickton.

Next, the jury at an inquest into the murder of Windsor, Ont., nurse Lori Dupont tabled recommendations for occupational safety. Ms. Dupont was killed in 2005 in the hospital where she worked, by her former boyfriend (a doctor at the hospital), who later killed himself. She had repeatedly expressed fears for her safety to the hospital administration, to no avail.

Finally, there was the killing of the 16-year-old Mississauga student, Aqsa Parvez, allegedly by her own father. Reports indicate that trouble had been brewing at home since September. Aqsa did not comply with her family’s views of modest dress. There had been violence. Friends say that she feared her father and brother, and was about to leave home.

I’m reminded that just last month, an Ottawa mother and her two adult daughters were killed by her husband in a murder-suicide.

All these cases should give us pause. All these vulnerable women, were killed by men committing the ultimate abuse of power. We do not know the details of Mr. Pickton’s relationship with his victims. However, we do know that both Ms. Dupont and Ms. Parvez were struggling to break away from situations each considered suffocating. It is not easy to do so, especially in a relationship based on an imbalance of power. The courage mustered to break free is seen as a mortal threat by those who refuse to let go. In the last decade alone, more than 200 Canadian women have been murdered as a result of domestic abuse. Violence against women knows no particular ethnicity, religion or class.

We must learn from the circumstances of each of these deaths in order to help those who face similar vulnerable situations.

The Pickton trial has not yet led to any action plan to address the endemic poverty and drug abuse of Vancouver’s notorious Eastside.

The Dupont inquest jury concluded that workplace law should cover domestic threats. It also highlighted the necessity for zero tolerance of sexual harassment in the workplace.

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