Rooted in Community. Contributing Nationally.

Jun 16, 2026 | Battered Women's Support Services

Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) is proud to be among 34 organizations selected to receive a National Capacity Building Grant administered by the Canadian Women’s Foundation and funded by Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) through a process informed by national women’s rights organizations.

This investment comes at a critical time for organizations working to advance gender equality. Across Canada, women’s rights and gender justice organizations are responding to increasing demand, evolving public policy landscapes, and growing expectations for collaboration and systems leadership, often within funding environments that remain project-based and unpredictable.

For nearly 50 years, BWSS has worked alongside survivors in Vancouver and across British Columbia. Through crisis support, legal advocacy, prevention education, and systems advocacy, we have witnessed firsthand how gender-based violence is shaped by broader social, legal, and economic conditions. The expertise developed through this community-based feminist anti-violence work increasingly informs efforts to advance justice reform, public safety, and gender equality across Canada.

While BWSS remains deeply rooted in community-based anti-violence work in Vancouver and British Columbia, this investment recognizes and strengthens our growing role in national collaboration. Over the coming year, BWSS will enhance the governance, evaluation, strategic planning, and organizational systems that support cross-country partnerships, knowledge exchange, and survivor-informed contributions to efforts advancing justice, public safety, and gender equality across Canada. By strengthening the infrastructure that supports this work, BWSS will be better positioned to contribute to collective learning, foster collaboration across regions, and ensure that insights developed alongside survivors continue to inform systems change at local, provincial, and national levels.

At its heart, this investment is about strengthening feminist infrastructure. Strong movements require strong organizations. Community-based organizations working alongside survivors bring essential expertise to conversations about safety, justice, and equality. Sustaining that expertise requires investment not only in programs and services, but also in the organizational capacity that enables long-term leadership, partnership, and impact.

We are grateful to the Canadian Women’s Foundation for stewarding this process and acknowledge the investment of Women and Gender Equality Canada in strengthening organizations advancing gender equality. We also recognize the organizations that helped shape these investments through the Reference Group, reflecting the importance of collective leadership in building strong feminist movements across Canada.

BWSS is proud to stand alongside communities and organizations across the country working to advance justice, safety, and gender equality. Rooted in community and informed by the experiences of survivors, we remain committed to contributing to the collective work of creating a future where safety, dignity, and equality are realities for everyone.

Safety changes everything.

For more information on the Canadian Women’s Foundation website:

BWSS Appearing Before Senate Committee on Bill C-16

Jun 12, 2026 | Battered Women's Support Services

Today, Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) is appearing before the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs as part of its study of Bill C-16, An Act to amend certain Acts in relation to criminal and correctional matters (child protection, gender-based violence, delays and other measures).

For more than 45 years, BWSS has worked alongside women and gender-diverse people experiencing intimate partner violence. Through crisis support, legal advocacy, counselling, prevention education, and systems advocacy, we have seen both the strengths and limitations of Canada’s responses to violence.

This frontline experience informs our participation in the Senate’s review of Bill C-16.

What is Bill C-16?

Bill C-16 proposes significant reforms intended to strengthen Canada’s response to violence, particularly intimate partner violence. The legislation includes measures related to:

Coercive control: Recognizing patterns of behaviour that dominate, isolate, intimidate, and entrap an intimate partner, even where physical violence may not be present.

Femicide: Acknowledging the gendered nature of lethal violence against women and girls.

Criminal harassment: Amending legal responses to stalking and harassment.

Mandatory minimum sentencing: Introducing or expanding certain sentencing provisions.

Child protection and related criminal justice measures: Addressing the impacts of violence on children and families.

BWSS supports the intent of Bill C-16 and welcomes efforts to improve legal recognition of coercive control and femicide. Survivors have long told us that the non-physical forms of abuse that shape their daily lives, including intimidation, isolation, surveillance, and economic control, are often misunderstood or minimized.

Why is BWSS speaking to Bill C-16?

While legal reform is important, our frontline experience demonstrates that legislation alone cannot improve safety.

Survivors have taught us two things simultaneously: they want violence to stop, and they want police and legal systems that help rather than harm.

BWSS is appearing before the Senate to ensure that survivors’ experiences inform the laws intended to protect them. Our submission emphasizes that intimate partner violence is often misunderstood as a series of isolated incidents when, in reality, coercive control operates as a pattern of domination and entrapment that escalates over time.

As we have stated in our submission:

The question is not simply, “What happened?” The question is, “What has been happening over time?”

This distinction is critical to ensuring that systems identify escalating risk and respond appropriately.

Key Issues Raised by BWSS

Protection Must Never Become Punishment

One of BWSS’s primary concerns is that laws intended to protect survivors may inadvertently criminalize them.

Frontline evidence demonstrates that survivors are sometimes misidentified as primary aggressors, particularly when systems rely on incident-based approaches that fail to recognize coercive control. Survivors acting in self-defence, protecting their children, or responding to trauma may themselves become entangled in the criminal legal system.

BWSS is calling for clear safeguards to ensure that survivors are not criminalized for actions taken to preserve their safety and wellbeing.

Femicide Is Preventable

Femicide rarely occurs without warning signs.

Escalating coercive control, separation, stalking, prior threats, and previous system contact often precede lethal violence. BWSS believes that Bill C-16 presents an opportunity to move Canada from reacting to violence after it occurs toward preventing it before it becomes lethal.

As our submission notes:

The tragedy is that too often, it was known then ignored, dismissed or downplayed.

Our intention is to continue advancing effective prevention that are grounded in coordinated responses, risk assessment, and police and legaly systems that act on known lethality risk factors before violence escalates.

Implementation Matters

Experience from other jurisdictions demonstrates that legal recognition alone does not improve safety.

Without appropriate safeguards, training, public education, and investment in community-based supports, reforms risk reinforcing existing gaps and harms. BWSS is calling for mandatory training, standardized approaches to risk assessment, public legal education, and sustained funding for community-based anti-violence services.

Community-based organizations are not ancillary to public safety, they are part of public safety infrastructure.

Survivors’ Experiences Must Inform Law Reform

Bill C-16 represents an important opportunity to strengthen Canada’s response to intimate partner violence. However, the effectiveness of these reforms will ultimately depend on whether they improve safety for survivors and their children.

BWSS is urging Parliament to ensure that legal reforms are accompanied by the safeguards, investments, and coordinated implementation necessary to prevent unintended harm and enhance survivor safety.

Ultimately, we will measure Bill C-16 not by what it recognizes, but by whether survivors and their children are safer because of it.

Read BWSS’s full submission on Bill C-16 and learn more about today’s Senate proceedings below.

https://sencanada.ca/en/committees/LCJC/meetingschedule/45-1

Safety changes everything.

 

Community Organizations Launch Coordinated Gender Safety Response for FIFA World Cup 2026

Jun 8, 2026 | Battered Women's Support Services

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Community Organizations Launch Coordinated Gender Safety Response for FIFA World Cup 2026

BWSS Expands Crisis-Line Services, Launches FIFA Safety Card Initiative, and Premieres New Public Service Announcement as Good Night Out Vancouver Expands Community Safety Outreach

VANCOUVER, BC, June 8, 2026 – As Vancouver prepares to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitorsduring FIFA World Cup 2026, community organizations are coming together to ensure gender safety is part of thepublic safety conversation.

Today, BWSS and Good Night Out Vancouver announced a coordinated, community-based response to gender-based violence during the six-week tournament period, highlighting the need to consider safety not only in stadiums and public gathering spaces, but also in homes, workplaces, nightlife venues, andcommunities.

While much of the planning surrounding FIFA World Cup 2026 has focused on transportation, tourism, crowds, hospitality, and public celebrations, today’s announcement focused on a different question:

What would it look like if safer streets, safer nightlife, and safer homes were all part of the same public safety conversation?

Together, BWSS and Good Night Out Vancouver represent two critical components of a comprehensive safety response during FIFA World Cup 2026: prevention in public spaces and support behind closed doors.

As part of today’s announcement, BWSS confirmed it will temporarily expand its specialized crisis-line services to 24hours a day, seven days a week throughout the six-week tournament period. The enhanced service will ensure survivors have access to information, emotional support, safety planning, risk assessment, crisis intervention, and referrals whenever they need support.

BWSS also launched its FIFA Safety Card Initiative, a practical resource designed to increase awareness of available supports and provide accessible safety information to individuals who may be experiencing violence, coercive control, stalking, harassment, or other forms of abuse.

The event also marked the premiere of The Space Between, a new public service announcement developed by BWSS to raise awareness about coercive control and the realities manysurvivors experience behind closed doors.

Set during a World Cup match, the film explores coercive control through the eyes of a survivor. Rather than depicting physical violence, The Space Between focuses on fear, monitoring, isolation, tension, and survival behaviours that often precede escalation. The film asks viewers to recognize abuse before violence escalates and challenges the tendency to dismiss warning signs that are often hidden in plain sight.

Good Night Out Vancouver announced a series of FIFA-related outreach initiatives designed to support safer nightlife and public environments throughout the tournament period. The organization will work directly within nightlife and hospitality settings to support safer venues, strengthen bystander awareness, provide community outreach, and help create safer experiences for residents, workers, and visitors.

“Everyone deserves to enjoy summer events in Vancouver safely, and creating safer environments is a shared responsibility. We appreciate that the City of Vancouver recognises this and the role Good Night Out’s outreach team plays in supporting the safety of women and other marginalized genders in our city,” said Stacey Forrester, Education Director, Good Night Out Vancouver.

“During FIFA World Cup 2026, the Good Night Out Street Team will be offering support, care, and a friendly,visible presence to anyone in the public realm, including patrons, workers and people sheltering in the street. We know that large events bring increased crowds, alcohol consumption, and social activity. We also know that while most people will have a positive experience, having additional support available helps people accessassistance if needed, which contributes to a safer and more enjoyable experience for everyone. Look for our friendly team in pink.”

International research has identified increases in reports of intimate partner violence during some major football tournaments. Sport does not cause violence against women. However, periods associated with heightened emotional intensity, alcohol consumption, gambling stress, nightlife activity, and social gatherings can intensify existing patterns of coercive control and abuse.

For many survivors, the risks associated with major sporting events are not experienced in stadiums. They are experienced at home.

Today’s announcement included a joint call for gender safety and violence prevention to be recognized as essential components of public safety planning during major international events.

Both organizations emphasized that meaningful public safety requires prevention, early intervention, survivor support, and community awareness working together.

As Vancouver prepares to welcome the world, we have a responsibility to ensure that gender safety is part ofour public safety response. Through our collaboration with Good Night Out Vancouver, we are strengthening both prevention and intervention efforts related to gender-based violence and intimate partner violence. Good Night Out is helping to create safer community and nightlife spaces, while BWSS is expanding crisis response and support for survivors. Through The Space Between and our temporary expansion to 24/7 crisis-line services, we are reminding our community that not all abuse is visible, coercive control is abuse, and survivors deserve safety. Safety changes everything.” said Angela Marie MacDougall, Executive Director, Battered Women’s Support Services.

Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) A feminist voice against violence and oppression, BWSS is a strong, dynamic organization that provides support and advocacy for women who have experienced abuse, as well as community education and training about violence against women. Part of a global feminist anti-violence movement, ourlong-term goal is the elimination of all violence against women and girls. www.bwss.org

Good Night Out Vancouver

Good Night Out Vancouver works to prevent sexual harassment and sexual violence in nightlife, hospitality, festival, and community spaces through education, outreach, bystander intervention, safer-space programming, and community engagement. https://www.goodnightoutvancouver.com/ 

Before Someone Becomes a Lawmaker: Public Office Requires Public Trust

Jun 4, 2026 | Battered Women's Support Services

The BC Prosecution Service has announced that Jordan Kealy, MLA for Peace River North, has been charged with one count of sexual assault. The BC Prosecution Service has also confirmed that a Special Prosecutor was appointed because the accused is an elected public official.

The criminal court process must now proceed independently and fairly. Every person charged with a criminal offence is entitled to due process and the presumption of innocence.

At the same time, accountability is not limited to the courtroom.

Criminal courts determine whether an offence has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Public institutions have a separate responsibility to maintain public confidence, uphold accountability, and demonstrate leadership while legal proceedings are underway.

But this moment also raises a broader question.

Political parties are gatekeepers to public office.

They recruit candidates, vet candidates, nominate candidates, support candidates, and ultimately ask the public to place trust in those individuals as lawmakers and decision-makers. Communities therefore have a legitimate interest in understanding what standards exist to identify and respond to concerns involving sexual violence, violence against women, harassment, coercive control, and abuse before individuals become elected officials.

Public confidence is shaped not only by what happens after charges are approved. It is also shaped by how concerns are received, assessed, and addressed before a situation reaches that point.

Increasingly, communities want to know not only whether an individual will be held accountable, but whether institutions acted responsibly when concerns first emerged. They want to know what was known, when it was known, who was responsible for acting, and what actions were taken in response.

For decades, Battered Women’s Support Services has worked with survivors navigating systems where warning signs were minimized, concerns were dismissed, reports were fragmented across institutions, or responsibility was deferred until harm became impossible to ignore.

Violence against women is rarely sustained because no one knows.

More often, warning signs are downplayed, normalized, explained away, treated as private matters, or regarded as someone else’s responsibility. Action is delayed until public exposure, legal intervention, or tragedy forces a response.

This reality is familiar to many survivors. The harm they describe is often not limited to a single act of violence. Many speak about raising concerns, seeking help, attempting to be believed, or watching warning signs go unaddressed. Similar questions have emerged repeatedly in public cases involving individuals in positions of authority and trust.

The issue is not whether someone is entitled to due process. They are.

The issue is whether public institutions recognize that due process and public accountability are not competing principles. Both are necessary. Both are essential to maintaining confidence in democratic institutions.

When serious criminal charges involving sexual violence are approved against an elected official, communities are entitled to ask what accountability looks like while the legal process unfolds. They are also entitled to ask how someone came to occupy a position of public trust, what safeguards existed, and how concerns were addressed along the way.

Survivors and communities are watching how institutions respond.

They are watching whether accountability is treated as a public responsibility or postponed until after a legal outcome is reached. They are watching whether warning signs are taken seriously or minimized. They are watching whether leadership carries responsibilities beyond avoiding conviction.

Court proceedings will determine the outcome of the criminal case. Public confidence will also be shaped by how institutions account for the decisions, standards, and actions that brought us to this point.

Public office is not simply a position. It is a responsibility that depends on public trust. The questions that matter most are not only about what happens now, but what happened before someone was entrusted with the authority to represent the public.

 

Hon Chan — Media Coverage

Date	Source	Article Title	Link
March 26, 2026	BC Prosecution Service	Charge Assessment: Hon Chan	Read article
March 26, 2026	National Observer	BC Conservative MLA Hon Chan charged with choking, assault and uttering threats	Read article
March 26, 2026	CityNews Vancouver	B.C. Conservatives drop Richmond MLA Chan over domestic violence charges	Read article
March 26, 2026	CBC News	B.C. Conservative MLA Hon Chan charged with assault, choking and uttering threats	Read article
March 26, 2026	Vancouver Sun	Richmond MLA Hon Chan charged with assault, assault by choking and uttering threats	Read article
March 26, 2026	Global News BC	B.C. Conservative MLA charged with assault and choking offences	Read article
March 27, 2026	CTV News Vancouver	B.C. MLA removed from caucus after assault-related charges approved	Read article
March 31, 2026	AM1150	MLA Hon Chan says he doesn’t plan to resign as he faces assault charges	Read article
April 2026	Richmond News	Richmond MLA Hon Chan remains independent after assault charges	Read article

Jordan Kealy — Media Coverage

Date	Source	Article Title	Link
June 4, 2026	BC Prosecution Service	Charge Assessment: Jordan Kealy	Read article
June 4, 2026	CTV News Vancouver	B.C. legislator Jordan Kealy charged with sexual assault	Read article
June 4, 2026	CityNews Vancouver	B.C. MLA charged with sexual assault	Read article
June 4, 2026	The Canadian Press (via Castanet)	B.C. legislator Jordan Kealy charged with sexual assault	Read article
June 4, 2026	The Canadian Press (via Castanet)	CP NewsAlert: B.C. legislator Jordan Kealy charged with sexual assault	Read article
June 4, 2026	Energeticcity.ca	Peace River North MLA charged with sexual assault	Read article
June 4, 2026	CKPG Today	Independent B.C. legislator Jordan Kealy charged with sexual assault	Read article

Historical/ Related Background

Date	Source	Article Title	Link
March 7, 2025	CBC News	B.C. Peace River MLA defects from Conservatives after fellow MLA removed from caucus	Read article
March 7, 2025	CJDC-TV	Jordan Kealy denounces B.C. Conservative leader after MLA’s ejection over residential school remarks	Read article
June 13, 2025	CKPG Today / Canadian Press	Independent MLA Kealy doubts prospects of new B.C. party, but won’t rule out joining	Read article
June 19, 2025	Energeticcity.ca	‘Nothing to hide’: MLA denies blackmail allegations, welcomes investigation	Read article

Anti-Violence Organization Responds to SCC Decision as Debate Continues Over Jordan Timelines and Survivor Justice

May 31, 2026 | Battered Women's Support Services

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 31, 2026

Anti-Violence Organization Responds to SCC Decision as Debate Continues Over Jordan Timelines and Survivor Justice

Vancouver, BC: On Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in R. v. Vrbanic, a case examining the Jordan framework and constitutional timelines related to criminal court delay under section 11(b) of the Charter.

Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) intervened in this case to raise concerns about the impact rigid delay timelines can have on victims and survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual violence.

The Jordan framework establishes presumptive timelines for criminal prosecutions. When those timelines are exceeded, charges may be stayed and prosecutions halted. BWSS argued that intimate partner violence and sexual assault cases present unique complexities — including trauma-informed protections, vulnerable complainants, extensive evidentiary processes, publication bans, digital evidence, and coordination across multiple systems and services — which can extend the time required to prepare prosecutions.

BWSS intervened in R. v. Vrbanic after raising concerns since 2018 about the impact the Jordan framework can have on victims and survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual violence, particularly as these cases have become increasingly procedurally complex.

“While the Court did not make major changes to the Jordan framework, the decision provides important clarification regarding the complex case exception,” said Caitlin Ohama-Darcus, counsel for BWSS. “The separate reasons from Justice Rowe are also significant in recognizing concerns about the impact of stays on victims and broader public confidence in the administration of justice. These are issues BWSS and other interveners have been highlighting for years.”

BWSS intervened to ensure that the realities facing victims and survivors of gender-based violence were before the Court and reflected in the national legal conversation around access to justice, procedural fairness, and public safety.

“The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision reflects the growing tension inside the criminal legal system itself,” said Angela Marie MacDougall, Executive Director of BWSS. “Cases involving intimate partner violence and sexual violence are increasingly complex because survivors require protections, accommodations, and trauma-informed processes. When the system is not adequately resourced to support that complexity, victims and survivors can experience delay, retraumatization, and, in some cases, the loss of any opportunity for accountability or legal recognition.”

BWSS will continue advocating for survivor-centred justice system reforms, coordinated risk assessment, trauma- and violence-informed responses, and meaningful access to justice for victims and survivors of gender-based violence.

About BWSS
Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) works to end violence against women and gender-based violence through crisis support, advocacy, counselling, legal advocacy, violence prevention, training, and systemic change initiatives across British Columbia.