Monday May 2, 2022 – (Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C.)
Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) applauds the introduction of B.C.’s Anti-Racism Data Act, which will use demographic race-based data to address systemic racism.
Battered Women’s Support Services was one of the community organizations who led engagement sessions on B.C.’s anti-racism data legislation.
Unlike aggregated data, which groups all information together, disaggregated data provides sub-categories of data – for example by race – to research and reveal inequalities between categories. Ideally, disaggregated race-based data sheds light on the experience of Indigenous, Black, and racialized communities, and is then used and shared in ways that ensures that government policies redress systemic inequities.
Dr. June Francis, co-director, The Co-Laboratorio Project; director, Institute for Diaspora Research and Engagement; associate professor, Beedie School of Business SFU; chair, Hogan’s Alley Society, speaking at a podium during a press conference at the introduction of BC’s Anti Racism Data Act.
According to Angela Marie Macdougall, Executive Director of Battered Women’s Support Services, “We are pleased that the provincial government is taking this issue seriously and has engaged with over 13,000 residents and Indigenous, Black, and racialized community groups. While race is a social construct, the pervasive reality of racism throughout our institutions and services means that racialized communities bear the brunt of negative outcomes and discriminatory experiences in education, employment, healthcare, child welfare, housing, policing, and legal systems. Canada is a country that has extreme difficulty recognizing how deep and profound systemic racism is, and how it is compounding the impact of gender-based violence for women and gender-diverse survivors who are further oppressed by racism.”
For over forty years, Battered Women’s Support Services has provided education, advocacy, and support services to assist survivors of violence. We work from a feminist perspective to eliminate gender-based violence and promote gender equity grounded in intersectional, anti-racist, and decolonial feminism.
BWSS responds to over 31,959 requests for service, with 75 percent of calls from all over B.C. Many of the survivors are racialized women, Indigenous women, newcomer immigrant and refugee women, young girls who have experienced sexualized violence, LGBTQ2S survivors of violence, vulnerable seniors and elders, and survivors in the interior and northern regions of the province. Our specialized team of leadership, staff, and volunteers are fully trained to provide crisis intervention, legal advocacy, and Stopping the Violence counselling and support. We also provide prevention and intervention services, as well as community education and training programs to end gender-based violence.
Rosa Alena Arteaga, Director of Clinical Practice and Direct Services states, “In our frontline work on gender-based violence experienced by Indigenous, Black, immigrant/refugee women, and racialized women and gender-diverse survivors, we see how institutional and systemic racism shapes the development and delivery of government programs and services. This means that survivors of gender-based violence who are also racialized are shut out of the supports and services that are necessary for them to attain justice and healing. While we applaud the provincial government for taking this important step, we know that this legislation alone will not end systemic racism. Ending systemic racism requires sustained commitment and action from all levels of government and across society.”