Members of the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women met earlier this month.
More community engagement is needed to end violence against Canadian women, say anti-violence advocates in Ottawa.
Communities as a whole need to value women more as human beings, says Lula Adam, education co-ordinator of Interval House of Ottawa, a women’s shelter.
“(Unless) all of us – women and men – get together and say we want this to end and there’s no room for violence against women in our community, it’s not going to happen,” she says.
International Women’s Day is a way to bring the community together to celebrate women’s contributions to society, Adam says.
“If we focus on that, then people will see the value of women and that in turn will make people see women as human beings that are making changes.”
To this end, the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women is trying to engage men as allies with its Don’t Be That Guy poster campaign promoting non-violence, says Stefanie Lomatski, the head of the coalition.
A recent Statistics Canada report on violence against women found men committed 83 per cent of police-reported violent acts against women. In nearly half of the cases, the accused was the woman’s intimate partner.
The report also found about 56 per cent of the crimes against girls under the age of 12 were committed by a family member, including primary caregivers, siblings, or extended family members.
“If the abuse starts then, what kind of mentality would this young woman grow up in thinking that she can accept or expect abuse from a community that would allow this to happen?” Adam asks rhetorically.
The report is based on data from police services and a Statistics Canada survey conducted every five years. It focused on gender-based violence such as physical or sexual assaults, uttering threats, and homicides.
While police-reported attempted murders and physical assaults against women decreased between 2009 and 2011, sexual assaults increased in 2010 and remained stable in 2011.
Statistics Canada also acknowledged that many women do not report violent incidences, which means police data only offers a glimpse of the whole issue, says Lomatski.
For example, nine out of 10 non-spousal sexual assaults were never reported to police, according to the report.
Meanwhile, less than one-third of female victims of spousal violence said they reported to the police, down from 36 per cent in the previous Statistics Canada survey of 2004.
Stigma surrounding sexual assault and the lengthy processes of the criminal justice system keep some women from reporting crimes, says Lomatski.
“Women are consistently re-victimized just by that whole system,” she says.
Ottawa has seen increasing education about the issue, says Nancy Worsfold, executive director of Crime Prevention Ottawa.
“There’s been huge progress made both in terms of the discussion about the issue and the acceptance that this is a big issue,” she says.
But Adam says she has not seen much improvement because women’s shelters are still full.
She says that the founders of Interval House weren’t thinking that 37 years later, shelters would still be full.
Ultimately, women have the right to feel safe, she says. “It’s not a privilege. It’s not something we beg for. It’s something that we demand.”