Gender-based violence is deadly. Prevention and intervention are crucial.

31 Actions for Gender Justice: Day 18

The Canadian Femicide Observatory of Justice and Accountability (CFOJA) released its latest report #CallItFemicide 2020, which focuses on women and girls killed by violence in Canada in 2020 and which aims to increase education and awareness about femicide in Canada.

According the report, a total of 160 women and girls were killed, 128 of them by men in Canada from January 1 to December 31, 2020.

20 women and girls were killed in BC in 2020, up from 2019. 

• The highest rates of women and girls killed by men were in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Nova Scotia.
• A greater proportion (54%) of women and girls was killed in rural regions of Canada.
• While information on race/ethnicity was not available in many cases, 30 of the 128 women and girls killed by men were indigenous.

When information about the relationship between the women and girls killed and their killer was available, 75% were killed by an intimate partner or family member.

The report discusses the importance of naming, recognizing and documenting femicide and draws attention to data gaps that need to be addressed to prevent the killing of women and girls and any form of gender-based violence.

One of these data gaps is the lack of publicly available data that captures information like sex, gender, age, cause of death, methods of killing, race, relationship and other identity characteristics that can help understand the multiple layers of oppression faced by the women and girls killed. Without this information consistently available to researchers, advocates, service providers and violence prevention organizations, it’s challenging to understand and prevent violence and homicides, particularly in marginalized gender groups.

These are some of the current and emerging research priorities CFOJA describes to prevent gender-based violence and make visible the invisible survivors and victims of violence:

• Intimacy, including coercive-controlling behaviours
• Older women
• Collateral victims
• Urban and non-urban femicide
• Suicide and mental health
• Police use of deadly force
• Missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls

The report emphasizes the importance of information on gender and non-binary identities to better understand crimes against people in the LGBTQ2S community and non-binary folks.

This is why BWSS exists to provide services and education and to work for cultural and systemic change. 

Read the full report here: #CallItFemicide 2020

Stop Violence against Asian Women 

31 Actions for Gender Justice: Day 17

We grieve and rage with families of the victims, we strongly condemn the cowardly violent attack committed yesterday at three Atlanta-area massage parlours where a man shot and killed 8 people – 7 of them women of Asian descent.

The killing of 7 women yesterday in Atlanta by a man is about multiple layers of complexity and vulnerability where gender-based violence intersects: misogyny, racism, xenophobia, violence against migrant workers in sex economies.

It would be a mistake to believe that this wouldn’t happen in Canada where systemic racism and discrimination against racialized women, sexualized violence and violence against sex migrant workers intersects with misogyny.

Just today the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability released its report #CallItFemicide which documents 160 women and girls killed by men in 2020.

People often dismiss misogyny as a motivation for killing sprees because the devaluation of women has been so normalized historically that misogyny isn’t even considered as a factor for hate crimes, which is to say it doesn’t exist. Three of the worst mass killings in Canadian history sprang out of misogyny.

Immigrant and racialized women and people of marginalized genders face particular challenges because of racial prejudices. Particularly, Indigenous women, face higher rates of violence and femicide. Indigenous women in Canada are estimated to experience 2.5 times the violence than other women which Amnesty International called a “human rights crisis”. Indigenous women not only face violence more frequently but the violence against them is also much more severe. There at least 1,200 murdered and missing Indigenous women in Canada.

We can’t stand by and do nothing, while violence against women is on the rise at alarming rates during the pandemic: xenophobia, racism, misogyny, violence and hatred fueled by COVID-19, white supremacy, and all forms harmful attitudes and behaviours that stand in the way of equity and justice.

Stand up and condemn violence against Asian women.

Support grassroots organizations dedicated to support Asian and migrant sex workers and massage parlour workers:

Butterfly Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Network in Toronto 

https://www.butterflysw.org/

Red Canary Song in the US 

https://www.redcanarysong.net/

#CallItFemicide. Understanding sex/gender-related killings of women and girls in Canada 2020

https://femicideincanada.ca/callitfemicide2020.pdf

Address sensitive topics

31 Actions for Gender Justice: Day 16

In average, every 2.6 days a woman is killed in Canada by a man, often by her current or former intimate partner. We don’t need to wait for studies to confirm these numbers. It takes only a few seconds to search the news online to find this information.

These deaths can be prevented by identifying harmful behaviours that increase the risk of intimate partner homicide.

Non-fatal, non-consensual strangulation is one of these harmful behaviours that increases the risk of homicide by 700%1. It’s a sensitive topic, but it needs to be talked about.

Strangulation is defined as “the obstruction of blood vessels and/or airflow in the neck resulting in asphyxia. “And just like you can’t be ‘a little bit pregnant’, victims can’t be ‘choked just a little bit’ by their attackers and not have serious, significant, permanent, or even fatal damage to their throats or brains.”[1]

According to the Training Institute for Strangulation Prevention in San Diego, California, 30% to almost 70% of women who experience domestic violence have been strangled.[2]

Often, this form of violence may not leave physical signs of injury, which makes it difficult for service providers to identify and for victims themselves to report and fathom that it could be fatal or a prelude to homicide. For this reason, it’s important for first responders to ask women in abusive environments if anyone has put pressure on their throat. Non-fatal strangulation may be silent but deadly.

• 7 to 10 seconds = is the average time to unconsciousness
• 15 seconds of strangulation can lead to brain infarct (stroke)
• 1-30 seconds of strangulation can lead to cardiac arrest
• 4 to 5 minutes of strangulation can lead to brain death

Sensitive topics are difficult to discuss for many people, but avoiding talking about it doesn’t make the issues go away. While community-based organizations like BWSS help survivors with risk assessment and safety planning, it is also key to include information about strangulation in prevention programs and public awareness campaigns. Prevention education saves lives.

[1] Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Woman. Retrieved from https://www.csvanw.org/strangulation

2 ibid

3 Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.strangulationtraininginstitute.com/impact-of-strangulation-crimes/

[1] ibid

[2] Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.strangulationtraininginstitute.com/impact-of-strangulation-crimes/

Make prevention and intervention of end gender-based violence essential services

31 Actions for Gender Justice: Day 15

Reports have shown that gender-based violence is increasing at an alarming rate during COVID-19. BWSS has experienced this trend first-hand.

This is consistent with evidence from previous pandemics that reveals increased violence against female health workers, online violence, femicide, harmful practices, and racial and ethnic discrimination and violence.[1] By September 2020, the UN reported that 48 countries had integrated prevention and response to violence against women and girls into COVID-19 response plans. Canada has yet to launch a national plan to address violence against women as part of the COVID-19 response.

Prevention and intervention to end gender-based violence should be considered essential services. Support for community-based organizations in need of long-term sustainable funding to support victims and survivors is crucial and must be included in provincial and federal recovery plans.

At BWSS, we can’t afford to be short of funds, staff, volunteers and other resources. Many women who call our crisis line are in immediate danger and in need of immediate services like emergency shelter. Our efficient and quick response save lives and bring women and their children to safety. Our services are essential.

Our intersectional approach helps us understand the needs of women from all walks of life. A recovery plan must be developed with the needs of women and girls in mind and with emphasis on the importance of understanding the issues of the most vulnerable groups of women that have been left out of the picture in the COVID-19 response plan – non-binary, gender diverse folks, Indigenous, Immigrants, women with different abilities.

[1] https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2020/gender-equality-in-the-wake-of-covid-19-en.pdf?la=en&vs=5142