Take back the night is not needed..

The annual "Take back the Night" event in Ottawa is tonight, and the Ottawa Citizen has an article claiming that it is even more significant because of the recent murder of Jennifer Teague.

However, I object to these annual evenings for a couple of reasons. First, they seem to be only concerned about violence against women...in fact, men are not allowed to March in these events, but only 'cheer' from the sidelines. The plain fact of the matter is that the streets are more dangerous for men - as evidenced by the latest Stats Canada data. About 70% of the victims of homicides are male - and males are by far the largest number of victims of crimes committed by strangers.

Secondly, Ottawa is a very safe city. If you look at the most recent set of statistics, Ottawa the second lowest homicide rate of Canada's 9 largest cities....4 times lower than Winnipeg, almost 3 times lower than Vancover, more than 3 times lower than Edmonton, and almost 50% lower than Toronto.

Events that make men out to be perpetrators, and make women out to be victims serve nobody.