As part of the international 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign, St. Jerome’s University, together with the department of sexualities, relationships, and families, hosted a student-led forum on Thursday, Nov. 27. The event brought students, staff, and community members into the same room to talk openly about gender-based violence, what causes it, how it’s sustained, and what we can actually do about it.

The forum’s agenda included several sessions on key topics. Mimi Mahmoud shared insights on gender-based violence in Bangladesh and the Waterloo region, Leanne Sztorc led an interactive “choose your own adventure” activity about stalking, and Jacob Pries unpacked the role of male allyship by examining Hockey Canada’s London 2018 sexual assault case, using it as a concrete example of how institutional culture can either reinforce harm or push back against it.

One of the presentations came from UW students Ollie Dietrich and Atlas Morris, who took the audience on what they called a “Road Trip Down Highway 16.” Their session explored the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse+ people (MMIWG2S+), specifically focusing on British Columbia’s Highway of Tears.

They talked about how Indigenous gender minorities are still made invisible across Canadian institutions, something they described as an extension of the genocide against Indigenous peoples. Dietrich explained that invisibility isn’t just symbolic: “It shows up in how blood quantum works, in the lack of media representation, and in how Indigenous communities are continually overlooked in policy.” 

They also pointed out that this invisibilization actually enables other forms of violence, because people and systems are conditioned not to notice or care.

Another major point Dietrich and Morris raised was how the MMIWG2S+ crisis didn’t just happen randomly, it is directly connected to Canada’s ongoing colonial project. “We talk about Canada’s genocide like it’s something that ended with residential schools,” they said. “But the crisis we’re seeing today is part of that same system.” They used the example of children being labelled “runaways” in residential schools and how that same excuse is still used when Indigenous youth go missing.

They were clear that what they shared was only a fraction of the crisis. They explained that even gathering information was difficult because “there’s no consistent stream of data” and because government statistics often underrepresent the scope of violence. For example, the “RCMP reported about 1,200 missing and murdered Indigenous women between 1980 and 2012, while Indigenous communities estimate the number is well over 4,000.”

“It’s impossible to capture everything,” they said. “Every time you look up #MMIWG2S+, there are more people being searched for. This exhibit can only ever be a moment in time.”

The project originally came from a class assignment where students had to explore intersecting forms of systemic oppression. Dietrich and Morris, along with a third group member, Rasleen, who couldn’t attend, chose Highway 16 because it allowed them to tell a story that was both deeply personal and widely systemic. “The Highway of Tears is a concentrated location where these issues collide,” Dietrich said. “It lets us create something that people would actually feel and think about.”

One of the most striking parts of their talk was when they discussed the biggest misconception among non-Indigenous Canadians: the narrative of blame. They explained how government institutions and mainstream media often frame victims through stereotyping or even by using mugshots instead of family photos, something that subtly shifts public perception and makes victim-blaming easier.

The 16 Days of Activism is meant to inspire action, and this student-led forum did exactly that. It created space for the campus community to confront hard truths, learn from peers, and think critically about the systems that shape gender-based violence, both globally and right here in Canada.