Trailblazer who helped start one of Canada’s first women’s shelters dies at 78

Trailblazing feminist Lee Lakeman – who established in 1970s Oxford County one of the first domestic abuse shelters in Canada – has died.

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Lakeman, who was 78, died Dec. 20. She is predeceased by a son, Christopher Lakeman.

Lakeman, a writer, speaker and activist, was one of the founding members of Oxford County Women’s Emergency Centre, among the first five women’s shelters in Canada, said long-time friend Brenda Boswell, former executive director of Woodstock’s domestic abuse shelter.

“Lee became involved in (domestic violence activism) in a time when nobody knew what violence against women was,” Boswell said. “They felt if you gave a woman a place to stay, the abuse would end.

“People didn’t understand the dynamics and there was no support for women at all.”

In 1974, Lakeman and her son moved into the basement of her Hatch Street home in Woodstock to open the main floor up as a shelter out of concern for a woman who was trying to care for her children after being beaten by her husband, according to a 2014 Woodstock Sentinel-Review article marking the center’s 40th anniversary.

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Known then as the Women’s Emergency Center – its name was changed to Domestic Abuse Services Oxford in 2011 – the new shelter was completely dependent on community donations at first.

“They were in every sense of the word pioneers,” Boswell said. “She could take on everything and became very politically adept, very quickly.

“She figured out in the beginning you don’t want the government involved, because then you had to play by their rules.”

In her online biography Lakeman wrote: “Feminism caught my mind and heart back when we still called it women’s liberation.”

The biography adds: “Since early in the 70s I do my best to block the hate speech, fists, elbows, boots and guns of men and little fascist gangs of men harming women. Organizing with other women and men of good will has provided both the best opportunities of my life and the most frightening and consequential challenges.”

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During the first year the shelter was open, 114 women stayed there with their children.

By 1976, pressure on the shelter forced a move to a Lawrason Street location, where it began to receive some financial support through Oxford County and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. It’s now located at 975 James St. in Woodstock.

Lakeman left the shelter in 1978 and joined Rape Relief in Vancouver, Boswell said, adding it was an organization that refused government funding.

In Vancouver her strategies weren’t always popular with some feminists, she said.

“She would circumvent the normal ways of doing things,” Boswell said. “She put signs on men’s doors that admitted they were rapists. That had its own ways of working, when other things weren’t.”

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Lakeman also became involved in getting rape kits in hospitals, Boswell said.

Giselle Lutfallah is a former manager of domestic violence at the Children’s Aid Society of Oxford County. Still with the organization in a different role, she recalled Lakeman as “a hero of the feminist movement” for her work in Woodstock.

“She was a fierce and tireless advocate for women’s rights and safety,” Lutfallah said. ”Lee’s dedication to ending violence against women inspired countless individuals and fueled transformative change.”

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@HeatheratLFP

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