A Moment of Progress and a Reminder of What Survivors Have Been Saying for Years

This week, Bill C-223, the Keeping Children Safe Act, passed second reading in the House of Commons and will now move to committee for detailed study. For many Canadians, this may sound like another procedural step in Parliament. For survivors of gender-based violence and the organizations that support them, it represents something much deeper: recognition that family courts must better respond to violence, coercive control, and post-separation abuse.

At Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS), we have long heard from survivors who describe how raising concerns about violence can be met with accusations of “parental alienation.” These narratives often shift the focus away from harm and onto the survivor’s credibility, creating conditions where safety becomes harder to achieve.

Bill C-223 reflects growing awareness that these dynamics are not isolated stories. They are systemic patterns that require structural change.

What This Legislation Seeks to Address

The proposed reforms aim to strengthen protections for women and children navigating family law processes by:

• ensuring children’s voices and safety are taken seriously
• challenging harmful myths and stereotypes about survivors
• clarifying that decisions must prioritize the best interests of the child rather than assumptions about shared parenting
• preventing practices that punish survivors for naming violence
• requiring greater attention to family violence within legal proceedings

These changes matter because family courts are often where post-separation abuse continues. Legal processes that overlook coercive control can unintentionally reinforce power imbalances long after a relationship ends.

What Survivors Experience, Beyond the Legislation

While legal reform is important, survivors consistently remind us that changing the wording of the law is only one part of the work.

Many women navigating family court describe:

• being advised not to raise violence for fear of backlash
• facing skepticism about their credibility
• feeling pressure to prioritize contact over safety
• navigating processes that do not fully account for coercive control

These realities are why BWSS approaches family law as part of a broader public safety framework. Violence does not end at separation. The systems survivors encounter afterward must recognize that risk can continue and sometimes escalate.

The Political Landscape and Why Advocacy Still Matters

Although Bill C-223 has passed second reading, its future is not guaranteed. The committee stage will involve detailed review and potential amendments. Some political parties have expressed support with conditions, while others may seek to weaken key provisions, particularly those addressing parental alienation accusations.

Frontline organizations and survivor advocates have played a significant role in bringing these issues to Parliament, and continued engagement will be essential as the bill moves forward.

At BWSS, we view this moment not as a conclusion, but as part of an ongoing conversation about how family law intersects with gender-based violence, child safety, and public accountability.

BWSS’s Role, Where Law Meets Lived Experience

For decades, BWSS has worked alongside survivors navigating complex legal systems. Our legal advocacy, safety planning, and training initiatives are grounded in what women and children actually experience, beyond only in crisis, but throughout the long process of rebuilding safety.

We are currently preparing a provincial submission addressing post-separation abuse and systemic responses within British Columbia. While federal legislation like Bill C-223 focuses on the Divorce Act, meaningful change requires alignment across jurisdictions. Federal reform can set important standards, but implementation and practice at the provincial level will ultimately shape outcomes for survivors.

Family Court Is Public Safety Infrastructure

Too often, conversations about family law are framed as private disputes. Survivors know that these decisions shape housing stability, economic security, child safety, and long-term wellbeing.

Recognizing family court as part of public safety shifts the focus away from blame and toward accountability. It invites systems to consider not only individual cases, but the broader patterns of coercive control that survivors describe.

#DesignedWithSurvivors means listening to lived experience early, before harm escalates, and building responses that prioritize safety over stereotypes.

Progress, But Not the Finish Line

Bill C-223 represents progress, and progress deserves recognition. But real change requires more than legislation. It requires cultural shifts within institutions, consistent application of trauma- and violence-informed practices, and ongoing advocacy from survivors and communities.

At BWSS, we remain committed to advancing survivor-centred reform , federally and provincially, and to ensuring that conversations about family law continue to centre safety, dignity, and accountability.

Safety changes everything.

BWSS Crisis Line: 604-687-1867
www.bwss.org

When the person causing harm carries institutional power, safety can look very different.

Recent investigative reporting by CBC News, led by journalist Julie Ireton, has helped bring renewed public attention to what many survivors have been telling us for decades: violence involving police officers creates barriers to reporting, accountability, and justice that most systems are not designed to address. We want to acknowledge and thank Julie Ireton for her careful investigative work and for shedding light on the statistics and systemic gaps survivors face.

The data highlighted in this investigation — including hundreds of RCMP members facing gender-based violence disciplinary charges and the high number of domestic violence cases — reflects patterns we see in our frontline work. When an abusive partner is a police officer, institutional authority can become part of the abuse itself.

Survivors describe:

• fear that colleagues will respond when they call for help
• investigations that minimize or reframe harm
• professional credibility being used as coercive control
• deep concern about retaliation or not being believed

Underreporting in these cases is not silence — it is often survival.

At BWSS, we work directly with victims/survivors of police-officer-involved domestic violence . What survivors consistently tell us is that safety improves when support is independent, confidential, and grounded in trauma- and violence-informed practice. Independent advocacy, survivor-led safety planning, and legal support outside policing structures can make a critical difference.

Public safety must be designed with survivors in mind — even when harm happens inside powerful institutions.

If you or someone you know needs support, you are not alone.

📞 BWSS Crisis Line: 1-855-687-1868
🌐 www.bwss.org

Today we are holding the Tumbler Ridge community, and the wider South Peace region, in our hearts. We are thinking of the lives lost, those who are injured and receiving care in hospital, and all who are carrying shock and grief in the wake of this violence.

What has unfolded is being felt across British Columbia as a profound loss. In a majestic, small northern community, a mass casualty event reaches far beyond the immediate moment. It touches classrooms, homes, workplaces, families, and the quiet spaces where people, adults, youth, and children, are no doubt trying to make sense of what has happened and what comes next.

On behalf of our team at Battered Women’s Support Services, this is to express deep respect for the leadership being shown locally. Earlier today, I reached out privately to Mayor Darryl Krakow and Tumbler Ridge City Council, whom we had the opportunity to meet with last summer, to offer care and solidarity as they support their community through an unimaginably difficult time. Municipal leaders carry both the human weight of grief and the responsibility to guide communities forward, and that work deserves recognition.

We also send love and gratitude to our anti-violence colleagues on the ground across the South Peace, including the teams at South Peace Community Resources Society, Mizpah Transition House, and regional Victim Services, along with educators, advocates, and community organizations who are already holding people with care. In northern communities especially, support networks are deeply interconnected, and the work of frontline staff often happens quietly, with immense compassion and strength.

Mass casualty events can change how safety is felt in everyday places, neighbourhoods, schools, homes, workplaces, and public spaces. As organizations committed to survivor-centred public safety and trauma-informed and violence-informed practice, we know that communities need space for collective grieving as much as they need coordinated response. Healing is relational and we join you as part of the human family in grief and resolve.

For now, we stand alongside the children, youth, families, the students, the workers, and everyone affected. May we move gently with one another, hold space for grief, and remember that care and community connection are part of how safety is rebuilt.

Angela Marie MacDougall
Executive Director, on behalf of the BWSS Team

Ways to Offer Support

For those who are looking for ways to offer support, the following community and family fundraisers have been established to assist those impacted:

Tumbler Ridge PAC – Supporting Families Affected
https://www.gofundme.com/f/tumbler-ridge-strong

Support for Maya’s Recovery
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-mayas-recovery

Support for Kylie’s Mom and Family
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-kylies-mom-family

Dec 2025, | Synchronicity Second Stage Transition House Program

By: Zahra Hashemi

At Synchronicity Second Stage Transition House Program, we see every day how tailored support, safe housing, and a caring community can transform the lives of survivors of gender-based violence (GBV). One participant’s story reminds us that safety and support are more than just services, they are lifelines.

When she first arrived, she carried heavy burdens: navigating the complexities of newcomer life, securing stable housing, helping her child adjust to school, attending English classes, and managing forms and appointments, all while processing her experience of violence. Health concerns had gone unnoticed for months, overshadowed by the many demands on her time and energy.

Through the program, she found a safe space to focus on herself and her family. Staff helped identify and address health issues she hadn’t realized were impacting on her child’s well-being. They provided guidance on housing, supported her children’s schooling, helped her enroll in English classes, and connected her to community resources, all while ensuring her safety.

“This program was like a wheelchair for me,” she reflected. “Having that support just changed my life, and I was able to walk again.”

Our team’s consistent follow-up, personalized support, and community connections gave her the tools to rebuild self-confidence and self-worth. By removing barriers, providing guidance, and listening without judgment, Synchronicity created an environment where she could thrive.

Her journey shows the power of a comprehensive approach to supporting survivors:

• Safe and stable housing
• Connection to community resources
• Guidance on newcomer-specific needs
• Access to health services
• Support for children’s education
• Opportunities to rebuild confidence and self-worth

At Synchronicity, we believe that every survivor deserves a chance at safety, stability, and empowerment. With the right support in place, lives can be transformed, and hope can be restored.

Synchronicity Second Stage Transition House Program | BWSS

Remarks by Angela Marie MacDougall

Executive Director, Battered Women’s Support Services
Victoria Courthouse Press Conference – attended virtually

Thank you.
My name is Angela Marie MacDougall, and I’m the Executive Director of Battered Women’s Support Services in British Columbia.

I’m here today not only because of the killing of Laura Gover, but because what happened here fits a pattern that all levels of government already know, already recognize, and have already said they intend to address.

And yet women keep being killed.

It was in the1990’s that anti-violence organizations began pressing governments and more recently with urgency after nearly forty-five women have been killed since August 2024. These deaths did not happen in ignorance. They happened during a period when all levels of government were acknowledging risk, commissioning reports, and promising reform.

That matters.

Because it tells us this is not about a lack of evidence.
It is not about a lack of tools.
It is about a lack of ownership.

What we are seeing is systemic, and it sits at the intersection of police practice, Crown decision-making, judicial discretion, and a deep structural divide between criminal law and family law.

Many women leave abusive relationships and never involve the criminal legal system at all. If they have children with their abusive partner, they are forced to go to family law. They seek protection orders through the family law system. And they do exactly what they are told to do to keep themselves and their children safe.

And they reasonably believe that once the state is involved, risk will be reduced – they are optimistic.

But risk lives in the space between systems.
And no one owns that space.

Police can say they did not meet a threshold.
Crown counsel can say the file was insufficient.
Judges can say they ruled on what was before them.

The family law system can say it is acting in the best interest of the children

And the woman is left unprotected.

When institutions are organized this way, responsibility is endlessly deferred while danger escalates.

The Attorney General has said that risk assessment is a priority.
The Stanton report laid out the failures clearly.

Articulating an intention to do something but there are no timelines.
No public benchmarks.
No implementation deadlines.

Without timelines, governments can sit on intentions indefinitely.

That is not neutral. That is a choice.

Risk assessment in theory without obligation becomes performative.
Commitments without deadlines become delay.

And women die in that space. Women die in that space. This is the space where women die.

We are not here simply to name failure. We are here to be clear about what prevention actually requires.

Our Five Asks of all levels of government are not radical. They are the minimum conditions for safety.

We are calling for mandatory, standardized risk assessment across police, Crown, courts, child protection, and family law, so danger is identified early and acted on consistently.

We are calling for municipal gender-based violence task forces in every community, because local governments must treat this as a core public safety responsibility, not a social service issue to be downloaded to the victim and uploaded to provincial or federal governments.

We are calling for stabilized core funding for frontline anti-violence services, a minimum 15% bump in emergency funding to meet this current crisis so victims and survivors can access crisis response, legal advocacy, housing support, and counselling without delays, waitlists, or gaps.

We are calling for a long-term prevention campaigns, so the public understands coercive control, strangulation, stalking, digital violence, and other indicators of escalating risk.

And we are calling for a dedicated gender-based violence lead within Public Safety and the Attorney General’s offices, with authority to coordinate system change, ensure oversight, and monitor implementation across ministries.

None of these work in isolation. Together, they create prevention.

Accountability also matters after death.

We are calling for mandatory coroner’s inquests in femicide cases where a protection order or peace bond was sought or granted. Not to assign individual blame, but to expose systemic gaps, missed interventions, and institutional failure so they cannot be ignored or repeated.

Governments often point to bail reform as evidence of action.

But tools only matter if they are used.

In October 2025 in Kelowna three months after the horrific femicide of Bailey McCourt, in a different case, an accused had his bail revoked only after a judge conducted a risk assessment. That tells us something important. The problem is not the absence of tools. The problem is the failure to apply them consistently.

Governments know how to own complex, high-risk infrastructure when they choose to.

Building new Highways come with timelines – Pipelines come with timelines.
They come with oversight.
They come with leadership and consequences for failure.

Women’s safety does not.

Gender-based violence and in particular intimate partner violence continues to be treated as a private issue when it must be governed as social public safety infrastructure.

Femicide is predictable.
Femicide is preventable.

What is missing is political ownership – from all levels of government.

Women are being killed in the space between systems that refuse to own the outcome.

And that is what must change.

Thank you.

VICTORIA, BC — This press conference takes place on the traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples, known today as the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations.

Community and anti-violence organizations from across Vancouver Island gathered today at the Victoria Courthouse to honour the life of Laura Gover and to speak collectively about intimate partner violence as a social and public safety issue that requires action before harm occurs.

Laura Gover was forty-one years old, a mother of two, and a respected educator who taught at Vancouver Island University and Camosun College. She was found dead in her home on January 5, 2026. A man has since been charged with second degree murder, and the courts have identified the case as an alleged incident of intimate partner violence. While legal proceedings are ongoing, organizations emphasized that silence in the face of repeated and predictable patterns of violence is not a neutral response.

Speakers centred the impact of Laura’s death on her children, loved ones, students, and community, and underscored that intimate partner violence is not a private tragedy but a public safety failure when known risk is not acted upon. Organizations spoke with a united voice about the urgency of prevention, accountability, and coordinated intervention when warning signs are present.

Frontline experience and research consistently show that violence in intimate partner relationships often escalates during periods of separation and that risk is frequently visible well before harm becomes lethal. Women’s stated fear, breaches of court orders, stalking, coercive control, and prior system involvement are well established indicators of heightened danger. When these indicators are minimized or fragmented across systems, responsibility is too often shifted onto women to manage their own safety rather than onto perpetrators and the institutions mandated to intervene.

Since August 2024, nearly forty-five women have been killed in British Columbia in contexts of intimate partner or gender-based violence, according to tracking by anti-violence organizations. These deaths reflect a pattern, not isolated incidents. Each loss underscores the cost of delayed action and the consequences of treating prevention as optional rather than essential public safety infrastructure.

Organizations called for immediate and coordinated action to prevent further loss of life. These actions include consistent and mandatory intimate partner violence risk assessment that triggers intervention when high risk is identified, meaningful enforcement and monitoring of protection orders and release conditions, coordinated leadership at the provincial level to align responses across police forces and ministries, sustained investment in frontline anti-violence services as core public safety resources, and prevention efforts that occur before crisis rather than after tragedy.

Throughout the press conference, speakers stressed respect for due process and family privacy. No speculation was made about the facts of this case. The focus remained on honouring victims and survivors, prevention, social and public safety, and systemic responsibility.

Organizations also announced the release of a provincial sign on statement calling for coordinated prevention and accountability measures to address intimate partner violence across British Columbia. Community organizations across the province are invited to endorse the statement and to participate in ongoing advocacy to advance these actions.

Respect for family privacy and due process remains central to this work. Speaking out about prevention and public safety is how lives are honoured and how future harm can be prevented.

Quotes

We gather here today to reaffirm to victims and their families that they deserve better. They deserve safety and systems that believe them and act swiftly to protect them. And we will not stop fighting for that. – Bahar Dehnadi, Executive Director, Victoria Women’s Transition House Society

Women need to be believed when they say they are afraid.  A woman’s fear is a risk factor that needs to be taken seriously. She needs protection that is comprehensive, monitored, and enforced. Our systems need to stop putting all the responsibility for protecting herself on the victim.  That is impossible at best, lethal at worst. – Marlene Goley, Manager, The Cridge Transition House and Outreach Services

Protection on paper is not protection in practice. When women speak fear, systems must listen and act—before violence turns lethal.” – Liza Scott, Executive Director, Cowichan Women Against Violence Society 

Women are being killed while risk is already known and governments are already on notice. This is not a failure of awareness or tools. It is a failure of political ownership across systems that continue to treat intimate partner violence as optional rather than as core public safety infrastructure. – Angela Marie MacDougall, Executive Director
Battered Women’s Support Services

We know through self-disclosed data, in Canada, 44% of women over the age of 15 reported being impacted by intimate partner violence in their lifetime. By this statistic, everyone most likely knows someone who has, or will be, impacted by intimate partner violence. This stat should scare us. As a community, we need to demand systemic change to ensure that we are keeping women and children safe. – Karlee Grant, Director of Housing and Community Supports, SSVP

At Sooke Transition House Society, we see every day that intimate partner violence follows predictable patterns and that risk is often visible long before harm becomes fatal. Prevention requires more than awareness after tragedy – it requires systems that listen to women’s stated fears, intervene when danger is identified, and take responsibility for coordinated action. Honouring lives lost means acting earlier, together. – Tara Wolff, Executive Director, Sooke Transition House Society

Margaret Laurence House and our Board of Directors, the Greater Victoria Women’s Shelter Society, believe in the inherent right of women and children to live free of violence. We believe that systemic change needs to take place in order for this vision to be realized. Such change could prevent tragedies like the death of Laura Gover. Our thoughts are with Laura’s loved ones and community on this sad day. – Melanie Smart, Managing Counsellor – Margaret Laurence House