Canada News on Gender-Based Violence

Some History

In the late 1960’s women began to speak out more loudly about assault and rape, including rape being legal within marriage. We fought for reproductive rights, the right to have a safe abortion and the right to birth control. Too many women were dying. We pushed for a formal National Inquiry on the Status of Women. We opened women’s centres where women came for support, to tell their stories, and where we began to plan action. Most women had been assaulted physically, psychologically and/or sexually, and incest of children, particularly girls was rampant. There were no funded women’s centres, no rape crisis centres, no battered women’s shelters. Estimates were 1 in 5 assaulted, 1 in 4, 1 in 3. Given different forms of assault and different degrees finding a woman who has not experienced violence was rare. In the early 1970’s the law changed to make it illegal to rape within marriage. Our reports of high numbers of women and children being assaulted were beginning to be believed. The Government created a new department, Status Of Women-Canada. The Government began to fund Women’s Centres, Rape Crisis Centres and Women’s Shelters. There are now hundreds across Canada, strongly connected with each other. The question is, why do we still need them?

Current Hurdles

Trends show a continuing increase in violence against women. One partner is killed every 6 days within relationships, 86% women and with no statistics on whether the other 16% were women acting in self defence;

Only 10% of women experiencing violence report to the police, and women continue to be victimized, disbelieved and blamed by police, in courts and by the public. Less than 4% have a successful outcome in court;

Police have been sexually assaulting policewomen;

There are many reports of police sexually assaulting women and girls in their police cars. A stunning example was the recent reporting of a number of young Indigenous women having been regularly driven out of town, raped and left to walk back in the snow;

The trafficking of very young women into forced prostitution, in which they have been “groomed” with promises of a wealthy life, a nice home and a loving husband, instead locked in hotel rooms for months with no escape from a stream of “johns”, with no pay and no way of escape. Many are trafficked far from home and across borders;

Major child pornography and prostitution rings have been identified in some of Canada’s major cities;

Online exposure has resulted in the tragic suicides of two teenage girls, one who was being blackmailed to send photos of herself shirtless, and one who was gang raped by boys in her school who later circulated a video. We are far from having solutions in place;

A most active movement has been the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s movement. An extremely high number of Indigenous women in Canada (at first believed to be 1,400, of late quite possibly 4000) are missing or murdered. The police and courts still showing little sign of being held accountable for inaction;

Successes

A strong network of local, national and international agencies based here and working together against violence against women and girls;

Women’s Centres, Transition Houses and Rape Crisis Centres in place and in good contact with each other;

Young people in universities speaking out about rape on campuses;

Some anti bullying work being done in schools;

Some discussion by men for men and boys on changing male dominant behaviour and culture. Movements like the Moosehide Campaign and Purple Bow Tie Movement are taking form (men outspoken about equal rights and respect for women);

Economic independence for women continues to grow;

The trafficking of girls into sexual slavery is beginning to be uncovered and some girls rescued;

Prostitution and pornography rings are being broken;

The voices of Indigenous women calling for an Inquiry and for Government action have resulted in violence against women being taken more seriously. Recently a formal Government Inquiry into the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women has begun;

In the past two years our ability to raise our collective voices strongly enough to not be ignored has increased significantly;

Violence against women is beginning to be recognized for how prevalent it is. Women are less often ridiculed for speaking out about violence against women.Women speaking are being met with somewhat less resistance. Men expressing disbelief are more often seen as part of the problem, and are more often being asked why they are not helping end it.

Knowledge of what is being done by women globally is beginning to be more widely known. Women here learning about all that is being done are tremendously encouraged, and have trust that together we can effect this monumental change, also that we are not satisfied until everyone is free.