It is, of course, no normal year. The COVID-19 pandemic has either cancelled or moved popular events virtual.

Breaking Boards, Breaking Chains 2020, held by Martial Arts for Justice (MAJ) was no different.

Martial Arts for Justice is an “alliance of martial artists who choose to fight to prevent violence against the most vulnerable in our world. MAJ also recognizes that together we can achieve more. If the millions of martial arts practitioners united globally, there would be an end to gender violence, slavery, human trafficking, and other forms of violence.”

Joining the fight against oppression was Whitehorse gym Makoto Shori Ryu (formerly known as N60 Combative Arts) led by Sensei Graeme Campbell.

“The whole essence is about resiliency,” said Campbell to the Zoom presentation. “To have to do this on Zoom it might be tricky to get organized but if everybody does their bit, it adds up.”

Young students from the Yukon joined other martial artists, from Canada, Los Angeles, Great Britain, and Rwanda, on Zoom to break boards and demonstrate their resiliency.

Because of the global pandemic, MAJ said poverty is expected to increase this year.

“More people in need translates into increases in mental health issues, self-harm and gender-based violence.”

Master Dean Siminoff, president of Martial Arts for Justice lead the Zoom call.

“As you can imagine, the various effects of the lockdown will hit those already in poverty even more harshly,” he said.

“People in poor countries with the lockdowns have suffered exponentially more than the rest of us. Our work is about mental health, and we’re seeing even more reason why our work needs to continue.”

Each year, money is raised through the Breaking Boards, Breaking Chains competition. The money raised supports efforts to end modern-day slavery, rescue victims of human trafficking, and help survivors of the Rwandan genocide overcome trauma and begin to rebuild their lives.

This is being achieved by Project Rusizi Resilience. Rusizi is a district in Rwanda hit hardest by the 1994 genocide.

MAJ uses Enhance Resilience Training to help victims through the debilitating effects of trauma.

And the young Yukon martial artists are doing their part. Although over Zoom, the martial arts practitioners showed off their skills, as they kicked or punched their way through their boards.

They were breaking boards for those people who can’t defend themselves and to be advocates for them, by unifying for justice.