BWSS is honoured to receive the BC Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Award

Attorney General Niki Sharma and Mable Elmore, Parliamentary Secretary for Anti-Racism Initiatives, awarded Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) with a Breaking Barriers Award, for our work in tackling systemic and institutional racism and reducing barriers for marginalized communities.

The 2023 British Columbia Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Awards Ceremony was held privately on March 21, 2023, on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

The ceremony was so inspiring; congratulations to all the other nominees and award recipients. And thank you to all the wonderful people that nominated us. We thank you so much.

94,736 is the alarming number of times someone experiencing domestic or sexualized violence has reached out to BWSS, between March 2020 to March 2022.

Battered Women’s Support Services has been at the forefront of the national conversation about domestic and sexualized violence against women since 1979.

The founding women at BWSS recognized that gender-based violence does not only take place between two individuals in isolation, but, rather, in a social context and a world view that systemically reinforces the power of some people to oppress others, including through gender, race, ability, citizenship, sexuality, and more.

BWSS continues to work to deepen the understanding of gender-based violence, beyond the narrative of the perfect victim, and to break barriers and exclusions in the delivery of anti-violence programs and services.

BWSS is committed to all victims and survivors of gender-based violence.

BWSS continues to address systemic racism and to increase access and safety for Indigenous, Black, newcomer immigrant/refugee, amongst many others.

Angela Marie MacDougall, Executive Director of BWSS, says: “Receiving the Breaking Barriers Award is recognition of our work on gender-based violence, and the intersection of racism as established by the founding women of BWSS in 1979. There is no universal victim of domestic or sexualized violence, and so we link arms with our communities of survivors across B.C. to support and continue our work on ending gender-based violence and racism.”

The honour of receiving the Breaking Barriers Award comes ahead of an upcoming launch of BWSS’s revised legal advocacy program.

This program will support increased access to justice, including culturally-appropriate, multilingual legal information, education and supports for racialized women and gender-diverse survivors of gender-based violence in B.C.

The program represents a significant investment in the fight against systemic oppression, and will serve as a powerful tool for driving change and creating a more just and equitable future for survivors.

Multiple forms of oppression are simultaneous and cannot be separated from one another; ending gender-based violence requires dismantling racism and all structural oppression.

This is why we work from an intersectional, anti-racist, decolonial and feminist perspective to eliminate gender-based violence and promote gender equity.

Responding to gender-based violence through working to end racism is challenging, but necessary.

Our report Colour of Violence: Race, Gender & Anti-Violence Services explores the extent to which gender and race influence system-based responses to gender-based violence.

​BWSS Commemorates the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

March 21, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, marks the anniversary of the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa when police opened fire on hundreds of South Africans protesting Apartheid’s passbook laws, killing 67 and wounding 186.

Though largely unknown, it is important to remember that the apartheid laws introduced by South African governments were adapted from Canadian colonial polices, including the reserve system, pass system, and Indian Act.

Canada’s very inception and living history is one marked by settler-colonial genocide targeting Indigenous women and two spirit people, enslavement of Black people, and mass migrant exclusion since the Chinese Exclusion Act and Komagata Maru.

During the pandemic and with the racist and misogynist so-called “Freedom Convoy” in Ottawa, there has been escalating racism against Indigenous, Black, Asian, Muslim, migrant/refugee and other racialized communities, especially racialized women and gender-diverse people. For example, more than two-thirds of recent reported victims of anti-Asian racism are women.

Why We Center Anti-Racist Practice in our Anti-Violence Work

The founding women at BWSS recognized that gender-based violence does not only take place between two individuals in isolation, but, rather, in a social context and a world view that systemically reinforces the power of some people to oppress others, including through race, ability, citizenship, sexuality, and more.

Multiple forms of oppression are simultaneous and cannot be separated from another; ending gender-based violence requires dismantling racism and all structural oppression.

This is why we work from an intersectional, anti-racist, decolonial and feminist perspective to eliminate gender-based violence and promote gender equity.

Responding to gender-based violence through working to end racism is challenging, but necessary.

At BWSS, we are committed to addressing systemic racism that racialized survivors of gender-based violence experience and to increase access and safety for Indigenous, Black, newcomer immigrant/refugee, and racialized survivors of gender-based violence. White supremacy shapes our understanding of gender-based violence, produces the narrative of the perfect victim, and reinforces exclusions in the delivery of anti-violence programs and services.

The Native Women’s Association of Canada points out how “mainstream gender-based analysis fails to meaningfully address the social, political, and cultural realities of Indigenous women.”

This means that survivors of gender-based violence who are also racialized are often shut out of the institutional supports and services that are necessary for them to attain justice and healing.

According to our recent “Colour of Violence: Race, Gender & Anti-Violence Services” report, an alarming 78 percent of racialized survivors whom we surveyed said they felt never comfortable, almost never comfortable, or only sometimes comfortable contacting anti-violence services after experiencing gender-based violence. Racialized survivors reported that the police were the least helpful anti-violence response system, while most survey respondents said they relied on and found their informal network of friends and family to be the most helpful.

Indigenous, Black, newcomer immigrant/refugee, and racialized survivors face numerous barriers to accessing justice when they experience gender-based violence, such as lack of access to culturally safe services; mistrust of the legal system and other state systems; and being minimized or disbelieved. Indigenous, Black, and newcomer immigrant/refugee survivors face heightened barriers to justice as survivors of gender-based violence, including often being criminalized for reporting violence, having their children apprehended, or facing deportation.

We, at BWSS, have consistently noted “[O]veremphasizing a criminal justice response and largely ignoring social structures that contribute to violence against women in relationships can strengthen the social/structural underpinnings of oppression.

The model of intimate partner violence service provision, which has largely been developed from a white, able-bodied, heterosexual, middle-class woman’s perspective, is encouraged to become more inclusive by adding multicultural components. But simply adding inclusive components does not necessarily shift the perspective that anti-violence service provision was developed from.”

In our work at BWSS, we know that safety changes everything. We are motivated by the urgency of dismantling racism and the absolute necessity of placing Indigenous, Black, newcomer immigrant/refugee, and racialized survivors at the center of our anti-violence work.

Resource Spotlight for the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Earlier this month, BWSS launched our Gender Equity Learning and Knowledge Exchange providing a centralized hub for over 300 resources related to Gender-Based Violence from organizations across British Columbia, as well as key national and international resources.

Today, to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, we are spotlighting twelve resources from our Gender Equity Learning and Knowledge Exchange.

1. Colour of Violence: Race, Gender & Anti-Violence Services

A community-based research project by BWSS to better understand and raise awareness on the experiences of Indigenous, Black, newcomer immigrant/refugee, and racialized survivors accessing gender-based violence services in B.C.

https://genderequitylke.org/resource/colour-of-violence-race-gender-anti-violence-services/

2. The Road to Safety: Indigenous Survivors in BC Speak Out against Intimate Partner Violence during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This report by BWSS and BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centers highlights the experiences of Indigenous survivors in B.C experiencing intimate partner violence during the pandemic. For Indigenous women and gender diverse people, the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating the pre-existing reality of gendered colonial violence, and survey findings show that Indigenous women and gender diverse people are experiencing an increase in the frequency and severity of intimate partner violence (IPV).

https://genderequitylke.org/resource/the-road-to-safety-indigenous-survivors-in-bc-speak-out-against-intimate-partner-violence-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/

3. Canada: Equality and Non-Discrimination with a Focus on Indigenous Women and Girls and Intersecting Forms of Discrimination

This report details the Union of BC Indian Chiefs submission to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women with an emphasis on how Indigenous women and girls living on Turtle Island experience destructive and intersecting forms of gender and racial discrimination that have been fostered, strengthened, and protected by colonial structures, institutions, and legal orders.

https://genderequitylke.org/resource/canada-equality-and-non-discrimination-with-a-focus-on-indigenous-women-and-girls-and-intersecting-forms-of-discrimination/

4. Telling Our Stories: Immigrant Women’s Resilience

Telling Our Stories: Immigrant Women’s Resilience is an online graphic novel by OCASI created through a series of creative writing workshops with immigrant and refugee women who came together to learn, share, and compile their stories on sexual violence and harassment.

https://genderequitylke.org/resource/telling-our-stories-immigrant-womens-resilience/

5. Webinar: Unravelling the Complexities of Domestic Violence and Criminalization in Black Women’s Lives

This webinar with Dr. Patrina Duhaney identifies trauma and violence informed frameworks that are both relevant and responsive to the intersecting realities in Black women’s lives, especially with an increasing number of Black women being charged with perpetrating violence against an intimate partner.

https://genderequitylke.org/resource/unravelling-the-complexities-of-domestic-violence-and-criminalization-in-black-womens-lives/

6. Health and Well-being Among Racialized Trans and Non-binary People in Canada

For the first time, researchers have survey results about the health and wellbeing of trans and non-binary Canadians who also identify as people of colour. The report by Trans PULSE Canada shows increased levels of physical violence, harassment and sexual assault experienced by racialized trans and non-binary people in Canada.

https://genderequitylke.org/resource/health-and-well-being-among-racialized-trans-and-non-binary-people-in-canada

7. Hear My Cry: Breaking the Code of Silence around Intimate Partner Violence among Black Women in and Beyond Midlife

In this qualitative study, researchers utilized an intersectional approach to examine how IPV is experienced and managed by Black Nova Scotian women in and beyond midlife and their experiences of seeking support.

https://genderequitylke.org/resource/hear-my-cry-breaking-the-code-of-silence-around-intimate-partner-violence-among-black-women-in-and-beyond-midlife/

8. Caught in the Carceral Web: Anti-Trafficking Laws and Policies and Their Impact on Migrant Sex Workers

This report by Butterfly Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network and the HIV Legal Network evaluates the combined impact of four areas of law on migrant sex workers and places the regulation of migrant sex workers in a broader historical context; maps the specific laws that create this carceral web; reviews the literature on the impact of these laws on migrant sex workers; and provides a qualitative study of migrant sex workers and their advocates regarding the impact of these laws.

https://genderequitylke.org/resource/caught-in-the-carceral-web-anti-trafficking-laws-and-policies-and-their-impact-on-migrant-sex-workers/

9. Policy, Program, and Practices Review Guide: Strengthening Supports and Services for Muslim Women and Girls Facing Gender-based Violence

This guide has been developed as part of Canadian Council of Muslim Women’s Gender-Based Violence (GBV) project, which focuses on identifying and addressing the barriers to supports and services for Muslim women and girls facing GBV.

https://genderequitylke.org/resource/policy-program-and-practices-review-guide-strengthening-supports-and-services-for-muslim-women-and-girls-facing-gender-based-violence/

10. Webinar: Supporting Women with Precarious Immigration Status

In this webinar, the BC Refugee Hub and Battered Women’s Support Services launch a safety assessment and safety planning tool for supporting women with precarious immigration status and refugees facing domestic violence.

https://genderequitylke.org/resource/webinar-supporting-women-with-precarious-immigration-status/

11. Video: Indigenous Women Land Defenders: Canadian State Violence and Forced Removals

This is the video of a panel discussion on Indigenous women land defenders in Canada and the efforts of these Indigenous women to protect Indigenous rights and Indigenous territories from state violence, dispossession, and environmental degradation.

https://genderequitylke.org/resource/indigenous-women-land-defenders-canadian-state-violence-and-forced-removals-csw66-parallel-event/

12. The Decolonial Toolbox: An Educational Pathway

This toolkit by Mikana, Montreal Indigenous Community Network, and Concordia University de-centers and unlearns the colonial narratives that non-Indigenous people have learnt and encourages reflection on the role of settlers.

https://genderequitylke.org/resource/the-decolonial-toolbox-an-educational-pathway/

As part of a coalition of organizations, including our friends West Coast LEAF, Rise Women’s Legal Center, and Feminists Deliver, Battered Women’s Support Services has written to the Ministry of Child and Family Development (MCFD) on necessary reforms to social work practice within MCFD.

You can read our joint submission here

Any meaningful reform of social work oversight must first acknowledge and address the role of social workers in the historic and ongoing colonization of Indigenous children, youth, families, communities, and Nations.

Cindy Blackstock’s research reveals that as early as 1946, the Canadian Association of Social Workers and Canadian Welfare Council were not only aware of residential schools but were active participants in the placement of Indigenous children in residential schools until as late as the 1960s. Social workers’ ignorance of, or willful blindness to, the systemic impacts of colonization and their support for assimilationist and racist colonial policies contributed to the removal and displacement of thousands of Indigenous children over many decades, including the Sixties Scoop.

The removal of children from their families, communities and lands is not an act of history; today’s Millennium Scoop is an ongoing, colonial act of dispossession, displacement and alienation from community, kin and homelands. The failure to support and empower parents, families, communities and Nations throughout their engagement with MCFD has specific acute impacts which ripple out from the child, their parents, and kin to the broader community, and which persist for generations. Apart from the impact on children being taken from their parents, families and communities, there are negative health outcomes for parents as well. This includes but is not limited to: a significantly increased risk of overdose in the period following the child’s apprehension; increased risk of homelessness for families following the removal of children; and an intergenerational cycle where children who are removed from their families are more likely to experience their own children being removed through the family policing system.

Therefore, it is necessary to align MCFD social work practice with the province’s commitments to advance reconciliation and implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) in accordance with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which recognizes that Indigenous families and communities “share responsibility for the upbringing, training, education, and well-being of children.”

As we explain in our letter, we call on MCFD to prioritize the following in addressing social work oversight:

1. Acknowledging and addressing the longstanding and ongoing colonial harms of social work on Indigenous parents, families, and children;
2. Upholding family and parental rights and recognizing that the maintenance of family and cultural ties is essential to the well-being of children;
3. Accountability and transparency to families, Indigenous Nations and communities; and
4. Establishing a timely and responsive complaints process in the Child, Family and Community Service Act (CFCSA.)

Overall, the current state of a lack of accountability has resulted in an unhealthy and unjust power dynamic between MCFD staff and the families that come within the Ministry’s purview. This dynamic makes parents’ interactions with social workers traumatizing and adversarial. It also perpetuates distrust that vastly undermines prevention efforts. Parents must not be made to feel they are at the whim of social workers or be required to abandon all rights to their dignity and autonomy in order to meet shifting requirements from those who hold such incredible power over them. Parents and families cannot continue to be subjected to suspicion, surveillance, regulation, and punishment.

In our letter, we offer a number of recommendations towards decolonizing change by upholding family and parental rights, shifting from apprehension to prevention, prioritizing family and cultural ties, and ensuring accountability and transparency for parents, families, Indigenous Nations, and communities.

Announcing BWSS’s Gender Equity Learning and Knowledge Exchange

To mark the occasion of International Women’s Day, Battered Women’s Support Services is thrilled to announce the launch of our Gender Equity Learning and Knowledge Exchange (GELKE)!

About International Women’s Day

We are thrilled to launch the Gender Equity Learning and Knowledge Exchange on International Woman’s Day, a day that we have celebrated every year since our founding over four decades ago.

International Women’s Day (IWD) began over 112 years ago as a movement against women’s oppression and inequality.

The roots of IWD are in immigrant women’s working-class movements demanding shorter working hours and better working conditions and pay. IWD was finally adopted as a global day by the United Nations in 1977.

The international theme for IWD 2023 is #EmbraceEquity, a reminder to us all that equity is still a rallying demand for millions of women and gender diverse people.

We invite you to join us in supporting our Gender Equity Learning and Knowledge Exchange as one of many ways that we can advance learning and mobilization for intersectional, feminist equity.

The Gender Equity Learning and Knowledge Exchange provides a centralized hub for over 300 resources related to Gender-Based Violence from organizations across British Columbia, as well as key national and international resources.

Our goal in launching this feminist learning and knowledge exchange is to mobilize community-based experiences and evidence-informed resources from an intersectional, anti-oppressive, feminist, and anti-racist practice.

At Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS), we work from a feminist, intersectional, and decolonial perspective to eliminate gender-based violence and to promote gender equity in all individual, relational, community and societal conditions.

We understand that women and people of marginalized genders in Canada have intersecting social, cultural, and political identities that inform unique experiences of violence, discrimination, and abuse.

As such, our resource hub compiles hundreds of educational materials, webinars, toolkits, podcasts, legal resources, and anthologies on intersectional feminism, including:

• Anti-Black Gendered Racism
• Anti-Indigenous Gendered Racism
• Criminalization
• Disability
• Healthcare
• Housing
• Workplace
• LGBTQ2s+
• Youth and Students
• Nonstatus, Immigrant, and Refugee survivors
• Structural Violence

The Gender Equity Learning and Knowledge Exchange is multilingual, with resources available in over a dozen languages, and various accessibility formats, including captioned videos, transcribed audio, and machine-readable text.

Support the Gender Equity Learning and Knowledge Exchange and help us advance gender equity in BC: https://genderequitylke.org/donate/

Have you heard about KNOW MORE week?

JOIN US March 5-12, 2023 as we at BWSS along with allies and activists from around the world who are saying No More and let’s KNOW More to take action intimate partner, domestic, and sexualized violence.

As a global grassroots activation aimed at making intimate partner, domestic violence and sexual assault awareness and prevention a priority year-round please email us at endingviolence@bwss.org for information and follow us on Instagram.

More events to commemorate International Women’s Month

BWSS Volunteer Recognition

Each year BWSS celebrates our committed, compassionate and wonderful volunteers during the week of International Women’s Day through our volunteer recognition dinner. 

Battered Women’s Support Services would like to say a big THANK YOU to all the volunteers who are essential in the work to end gender-based violence through supporting survivors and working for systemic change.

We will be in attendance at the Equality Breakfast

BWSS is thrilled to be in attendance with our friends at Central City Foundation in support of our friends at West Coast LEAF at their Equality Breakfast.

Dorothy Roberts is the George A. Weiss University Professor of Law & Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is author of Killing the Black Body; Shattered Bonds: and The Color of Child Welfare etc.

Date: Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Time: 7 am to 9:30 am PT (doors open at 6:30 am)
Location: Fairmont Hotel Vancouver

Annual Gala – DEWC Vancouver

We love the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre and will be in attendance at Herstory — Wildflower Women of Turtle Island drum group will perform again.

Date: Wed, March 8
Time: 7:00pm PST
Location: Vancouver Art Gallery 750 Hornby St Vancouver