Since 1992, the Women's Memorial March has made its way through Vancouver's Downtown Eastside on Valentine's Day.
The march, to honour women who have been murdered or gone missing from the area, returns on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, with thousands of participants expected.
"The Memorial March is an opportunity to come together to grieve the loss of our beloved sisters and relatives in the Downtown Eastside," reads an online poster for the event.
"Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and trans people disproportionately continue to go missing or be murdered with minimal to no action to address these tragedies or the systemic nature of gendered violence, poverty, racism, or colonialism," reads the website.
In recent years the march targeted the statue of "Gassy" Jack Deighton which once stood in Gastown. Deighton, often cited as the founder or as a founding figure for Vancouver, took a 12-year-old Squamish girl as his bride when he was 40.
The statue was toppled during the march in 2022 and remains down.
This year's event will take place in three parts.
Starting at 10 a.m. family and community members are asked to gather at Main and East Hastings streets in the DTES.
At noon, the march will begin at Main and East Hastings, stopping at locations connected to missing or murdered women.
At 4 p.m. a feast will be held at the Japanese Language Hall at 487 Alexander St.
