Take Back The Night festivities will go on throughout the day today at the Native Friendship Centre from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., but the traditional evening walk of women is not scheduled to happen.
Tonight would have been the 24th edition of the Take Back The Night march that has pounded the pavement around downtown Prince George annually to make an all-female statement about ending society's violence against women and girls and making streets and public places safe for all.
The lack of a planned walk won't stop at least one local woman.
"I will be there. I'm going to march anyway, even if I'm the only one," said Diane Paquet, a survivor of past violence at the hands of men in her life.
She has long been an outspoken advocate for men being held accountable for violent acts and women "being treated as victims not collateral damage" in a society that still has made women its most vulnerable citizens and aboriginal women even more so.
"I've been involved in this for 17 years, and I've seen the leadership grow and the public awareness grow," Paquet said.
"I can't just let it fade away. I don't know why this has happened, but I'm going through with it."
Attempts to reach organizers of past events were not successful before press time, but even some leading women's advocates in the city were unaware the decades-old march had not been included in the day's events.
Although it may lack the usual placards, quilts, loudspeakers and human numbers, Paquet invites all women and children from any walk of life to join her at 7 p.m. tonight on the steps of city hall where she will hold her own Take Back The Night march.
