Montrealers march to Take Back the Night

Montrealers took to the city'sstreetsThursday for the fourth annual Take Back the Night march organized by two Concordia University groups.

Around 200 people took part in the march against gendered violence and harassment on the city's university campuses and streets.

Marchers gathered at Concordia University and made their way through the downtown core toMcGillUniversity.

Shayna Rosemarine, a volunteer with march co-organizer A Safer Concordia, said the annual event aims to create safer communities for women and support victims of gendered violence.

"This is still very much an issue within society, especially among those who are more marginalized," she said.

"It's something we really need to work towards to stop."

The event aims to bring attention to the fear women continue to feel while walking on city streets.

"There's a sense of paranoia that a lot of people feel when they're walking myself included. It's a heightened awareness of feeling unsafe," Alex Friedman said.

James Kolla was one of the many men who came out for Thursday's march.

"I came out to show solidarity," he said.

A Safer Concordia and theConcordia Centre for Gender Advocacy organized theirfirst Take Back the Night march in 2012.

"The march is meant to create a space for supporters and allies, and also to highlight the need for a continued university response to sexual violence," said Anais Cadieux Van Vliet, anadministrative coordinator at the Concordia Centrefor Gender Advocacy.

Universities have been under pressure to enact policies that deal with sexual assault on campus after high-profile cases on campuses in Canada and the United States.

This year, Concordia released a report recommending more training on consent and more resources for victims. But Van Vliet said there is still work to do.

"Many of these [recommendations] are really positive, as well as a commitment for creating a policy, to strengthen the guidelines for how the school responds to sexual violence.

What remains to be seen though is the follow-through, the implementation," she said.

The centre doesn't keep stats on sexual violence because figures are often unreliable. It insteadrelies on victims coming forwardbut many do not, Van Vliet said.