It’s being called a shadow pandemic—as if it has just appeared on the horizon like COVID-19 did.
But this has been part of my life and that of many of my friends, colleagues and indeed the Canadian population for decades and decades.
One of the most important things I believe I have done to combat it is raise my two children to not only be aware of it, but to stand against it every time they see it.
What is it? It is gender-based violence and discrimination. It is misogyny, sexism, femicide.
It happens at work, at home, while women are living their lives in a thousand ways on and offline. There are still too many women living in fear, who do not know how or cannot reach out for support. And, as we have seen in this coronavirus time, women on the margins are most at risk—women of colour, Indigenous, racialized, new immigrants and those in the north or rural areas.
A woman is killed every six days by her intimate partner in Canada.
Today, Dec. 10, is the last day of the annual observance of 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, started by the UN. It began Nov. 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and finishes Dec. 10, World Human Rights Day.
During this time, Canada also marked the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women on Dec. 6. That was the day, 31 years ago, a gunman entered a classroom at École Polytechnique Montréal, deliberately separated the women and the men, and opened fire on the women, killing 14. He shouted, “I hate all feminists.” He injured many more before turning the gun on himself.
Canada was shocked, and the mostly white, male government took immediate steps to investigate how this could possibly have happened, forming a committee to study violence against women.
It didn’t get to travel across this great country collecting evidence, nor did it even get any real funding! But despite this, it produced a report, “The War Against Women,” from the Subcommittee on the Status of Women, with meaningful recommendations, which were... ignored.
COVID-19 has caused a 20- to 30-per-cent increase in rates of gender-based violence in some parts of Canada.
Every time this type of violence happens we are shocked and outraged as if it never happens in Canada. But it does and we need to stop pretending that we are too civilized here for this horrendous gender-based violence to be an everyday occurrence, because it is. This is terrorism.
It happened again in 2018 when a young man used a van as a weapon to hit women in Toronto because he couldn’t get a date. Eight women and two men were killed in his attack and he was charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder.
Last year, a serial domestic abuser went on a shooting spree in Nova Scotia that left 22 dead, the majority women. In May, a woman was held for hours in a tent in an Oppenheimer Park camp and repeatedly assaulted. She was held captive in the tent screaming for 15 hours before she escaped, and no one did anything to help her in that time. And there are murder-suicides, never-ending cases of domestic abuse and homicides.
Connect the dots... this is rooted in misogyny.
Women make up 79 per cent of homicides by an intimate partner and about 40 per cent of women in Canada have been physically or sexually assaulted at some point in their lives (since the age of 15).
Governments are recognizing the issue perhaps more deeply than ever before. (Maybe one of the only things we can thank COVID-19 for). Over the past four years, Ottawa has developed and implemented its first Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence, it has increased financial supports to frontline organizations more than fivefold since 2015 and as part of the COVID-19 Economic Response Plan, $100 million is being provided to sexual assault centres, shelters and organizations providing supports and services to women and children experiencing gender-based violence.
The government has built 7,000 new shelter units for survivors of violence, created 45,000 new affordable housing units and repaired or renovated another 60,700 units. It has also reviewed nearly 30,000 sexual assault cases categorized initially as “unfounded” and through legislation it has clarified the legal definition of consent.
All I can say is, it’s a start.
If you need help please reach out to the Women’s Centre at hswc.ca. Or call the crisis line at 1 877 890 5711.
