Canadian monuments bleed red in support of menstrual health
Posted May 25, 2025 11:56:36 AM.
Last Updated May 25, 2025 08:00:16 PM.
On May 28, those walking through Byward Market will see the iconic “OTTAWA” sign lit up in bright red. The same will be true for the CN Tower in Toronto, Niagara Falls and over 60 other monuments in cities across Canada.
But the red should not be confused with a symbol of national identity. Rather the monument lighting, adorned with an official proclamation, will mark Menstrual Health Day.
“One in six Canadians are making the choice between food and rent and periods every day, every month, and we go into washrooms and we see toilet paper and soap, but we don’t see period supplies that 51 per cent of the population will use at any given moment,” Kristy Van Hoven, Advocacy, Research and Communication Manager at The Period Purse, told CityNews. “It really makes people pause and think ‘oh, yeah, probably something we should be having a conversation about’.”
The Period Purse is leading the charge across Canada in the fight for period equity.
Founded in 2017, The Period Purse blossomed out of an encounter founder Jana Girdauskas had with a woman on the streets of Toronto looking for support. Girdauskas searched her car for what she could provide the woman and came up with period supplies which the woman gratefully accepted.
Girdauskas realized this woman would not be the only one in Toronto who didn’t have her menstrual needs met and soon found out that menstrual hygiene products are not on people’s minds when donating to places like food banks.
The Period Purse began collecting period products and other hygiene items, stuffing them in purses and handed them out to those in need. In the first weekend they handed out 50 purses.
Soon the purses became cumbersome, but the name stuck.
“To date, it’s been over 6 million period products that we’ve donated to communities across Canada, as well as over 11,000 people have attended our education sessions,” Van Hoven said.
The Period Purse works with 126 regular community partners. Many of those are in Toronto, but they also have support in Ottawa, Halifax and along the west coast. They provide community outreach as well as community educations sessions for anyone who has questions or who wants to learn more about menstrual health and equity.
“We’re able to talk about period allyship and what that means for anybody that doesn’t menstruate … and how they can really support the movement, even if they’re not menstruating directly,” Van Hoven said.
As an organization, The Period Purse is also forefront in advocating to all levels of government for equitable support for those who menstruate.
Under the former Trudeau government, it became mandatory for all federally-regulated workplaces to provide menstrual products in washrooms. It is also a requirement for all construction sites to have menstrual products.
On the provincial level, the Ontario government has a deal with Shoppers Drug Mart to provide menstrual products to schools.
“They should be accessible to students. We’re just we’re working on trying to take that what the word accessible means,” Van Hoven said. “Because in some cases, they’re locked in the principal’s office or drawer, and a student will have to ask administrator to go get the principal and it really becomes, impractical.”
A big part of the movement is just getting people involved and breaking down the stigma of talking about menstruation and menstrual health.
“I am super excited to be up in Ottawa,” Van Hoven said. “My favorite thing is to see somebody be a little skittish about the word period and then engage in a whole conversation with me or with a whole crowd and share their own period story. And I get to share my period story, and we just start building that community of support for anybody to continue the conversation.”
