Violence Against Women Analysis

The Canadian Governmental Response to Violence Against Women

As long as there is gender bias, it will be reflected in rates of gender-based violence. For most of history, women have largely been on the receiving end of such violence. Women were, and in many cases are, seen as the lesser sex, with an extensive lack of rights granted to them in most historical and religious contexts. It is only in the 20th century that females began to see some of the rights males have always enjoyed extended to them. However, the fact remains that there is still a startling amount of violence against women, even in the developed world. The question Canadians need to ask is whether or not their government has done enough to help stop violence against women?

The evidence would suggest that they have not. This is apparent in the still concerningly high rates of gender based violence, extremely high violence rates among Aboriginal women, and the overall lack of investment to help victims.

The rates of violence against women in Canada are still extremely high, and in some cases they are rising.

Women are still highly prone to violence; particularly young women. The most recent Statistics Canada data reveals that 67% of Canadians know a woman who has been the victim of abuse, and that 66% of victims are under the age of 24 (Sinha 2013). This is a statistic which is concerning to say the least. Over half of the Canadian population can name at least one woman they know who had to suffer abuse simply because they were a woman. On the ‘snapshot day’ [day of data collection by Statistics Canada] of April 15th, 2010, there were 4,645 women residing in shelters. Seventy-one percent of these women were escaping abuse (Sinha 2013). Often, the abuses women face stem from their romantic partner, and rates of this type of violence are on the rise. In 2010, the rate of intimate partner homicide committed against females increased by 19%. Unfortunately, this is not an anomaly in the statistics. Intimate partner homicides have seen three increases over only four years. During that same period of time, however, the rate of homicide caused by intimate partners for male victims fell by almost half (The Facts About Violence Against Women). Why is it that female victims saw the third increase in four years, yet in one year the number of male victims was essentially halved? Certainly, crime trends may be attributed to some of the fluctuations, but this is a change which can hardly have no cause. Women also face concerningly high rates of sexual assault. This problem is only magnified given the lack of knowledge and stigma surrounding discussions about consent and safe sex. According to a 2015 survey commissioned by the Canadian Women’s Foundation, only one in three Canadians knew what sexual consent means (The Facts About Violence Against Women). If only 33% of the populous can identify what it means to engage it healthy, consensual sex, then it must be considered that

the issue need be more thoroughly addressed. The startlingly high number of Canadians who cannot distinguish consensual and nonconsensual sex is reflected in the number of yearly assaults. It is estimated that yearly in Canada there are approximately 461,000 sexual assaults, and females account for 91% of the victim toll. However, less than 10% of sexual assaults are ever reported to the police (The Facts About Violence Against Women). In the category of sexual assault too, younger women are at a higher risk -- 66% of all female victims are under the age of 24, and 11% are under the age of 11 (Sinha 2013). Clearly, there is still a significant issue that needs to be addressed when it comes to violence against women. The numbers are far too high to suggest that effective action is being taken to combat gender based violence, however the situation for Aboriginal women is far worse.

The amounts of violence faced by Aboriginal women every year should be considered a national crisis, yet little has been done, as the number of violent incidents rise yearly. Nunavut, where 83% of the population is Aboriginal, reports a rate of violence against women 13 times higher than the rest of Canada (The Facts About Violence Against Women). The extreme risk of violence for Aboriginal women is not exclusive to the territories, as all accross Canada Aboriginal women are three and a half times more likely to be victims of violence (compared to non-Aboriginal women) (Sinha 2013). Nahanni Fontaine, a Sagkeeng Anicinabe Aboriginal, is a special adviser on Aboriginal women’s issues for the government of Manitoba. She is one of thousands who have been the victim of abuse, and was very close to becoming added to the number of missing and murdered Aboriginal women. In a special article for Maclean’s magazine, created by Nancy Macdonald, she shared her story along with 12 other Aboriginal women with tragically similar stories. Fontaine writes: “The reality is many of us have been sexually and/or physically abused as children or as adults, as were our mothers, and grandmothers—in some ways the abuse has become normalized, pervasive and constant...I remember staring down at my mom in her coffin and coming full circle to understand that my mom’s story is illustrative of so many Indigenous women and girls’ stories and journeys—it is our collective story of struggle and the long, ongoing discourse of being constructed as “less than,” as “savage,” as “disposable” or as “squaw” (Macdonald). This is the appallingly common reality for so many Canadian Aboriginal women.

Intimate partner homicide is another area of high risk for Aboriginal women. Statistics Canada data shows that First Nations, Inuit and Métisare are more than eight times more likely to be killed by their intimate partner than non-Aboriginal women (Sinha 2013). Furthermore, a report done by the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters noted that while non-Aboriginal women reported a small decline in more severe forms of violence (43% in 1999 to 37% in 2004), the rate for Aboriginal women has remained at 54% (Sweetgrass 2011). Overall, as of 2010, there were over 1,200 known cases of missing or murdered Aboriginal women in Canada (Sinha 2013). According to the Native Women’s Association of Canada, “if this figure [1,200] were applied proportionately to the rest of the female population there would be over 18,000 missing Canadian women and girls (The Facts About Violence Against Women). All of the data points to a clear, statistical trend in which Aboriginal women are experiencing extreme rates of violence, yet what has been done? Both Amnesty International and the United Nations had called upon the Canadian government to take action, without success (Sinha 2013). The rates of violence against Aboriginal women are steadily increasing, and Aboriginal women are still at a high risk of violence, yet the Canadian government fails to provide adequate aid.

In Canada, there is a concerning lack of resource dedication into stopping violence against women, particularly Aboriginal women. Firstly, there is a lack of current and updated information. The Canadian Government has done only one comprehensive survey on violence against women, which occurred 23 years ago, in 1993 (VAWS 1994). The international community has not failed to notice these shortcomings, even if the government has. Canada has been harshly criticized by a United Nations committee for a broad range of human rights failures, including an inadequate response to the concern of missing and murdered aboriginal females, and gender inequality (Vincent 2015). At least 26 human rights organizations used a United Nations body in 2013 to criticize Canada’s human rights record, yet the Canadian envoy rejected calls to develop a comprehensive national review to end violence against aboriginal women (Blachfield 2013). Despite both international and domestic outcry concerning the crisis Aboriginal women face, the Canadian Government provided only $1 million per year from 2005-2010 towards Aboriginal women’s research into gender-based violence (Rob Nicholson, personal communication, March 5 2013). Furthermore, until the 2015 federal elections, there seemed to be little hope of improvement. When asked about a public inquiry into the incredibly high numbers of missing Aboriginal women, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated that “it isn't really high on our radar, to be honest" (Kappo 2014). One thousand two hundred missing and murdered is 1,200 too many, and the governmental response has been bleak to say the least. However, while certainly a large area of concern, it is not only Aboriginal women who need more aid. There needs to be dedication to stopping violence against all women, and catching those who do. Yet of 460,000 reported assaults in 2009, only 1,500 offenders were apprehended - less than 1% (The Facts About Violence Against Women). That means that 99% of sexual assault offenders walk. The Canadian government needs to make more of an effort to prevent sexual assault, apprehend offenders, and aid victims.

In Canada, the government has not done enough to stop gender based violence, clear in the high rates of violence women experience, the crisis faced by Aboriginal women, and the lack of commitment to the prevention of violence and helping women. It is only with the election of the new Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, that there has been any promise of an inquiry and a national action plan addressing the extremely high rates of missing and murdered Aboriginal women. The Canadian Justice Department states that “laws help to ensure a safe and peaceful society,” yet for many women in Canada, our government fails to deliver on this promise, and they are subject to violence simply because they are women. The Canadian government needs to become more proactive and engaged in the movement to end gender based violence. As said by Rebecca Solnit in her book, Men Explain Things To Me: “We have an abundance of rape and violence against women in this country and on this Earth, though it's almost never treated as a civil rights or human rights issue, or a crisis, or even a pattern. Violence doesn't have a race, a class, a religion, or a nationality, but it does have a gender.”