She Reported. Crown Said No. Why Prosecutorial Gatekeeping is Putting Survivors at Greater Risk Than Ever

A red moon rises over the sea.

She Reported. Crown Said No.
Why Prosecutorial Gatekeeping is Putting Survivors at Greater Risk Than Ever

In British Columbia, a quiet shift is happening—one that survivors of intimate partner and sexual violence feel viscerally, even as most of the public remains unaware. According to data cited in Dr. Kim Stanton’s 2024 systemic review of legal responses to gender-based violence, the proportion of intimate partner violence (IPV) cases that Crown Counsel approved for prosecution has declined sharply over the past six years—from 85% in 2017/18 to just 76% in 2023/24.

This decline is not contextualized or explained by the BC Prosecution Service. There is no public report, no inquiry, no internal review that asks why fewer survivors are having their cases brought forward. There is only silence—and a growing number of women who report, only to be told their case won’t proceed.

As one survivor told us:

“The officer said he believed me. The detective said the file was strong. But Crown said no. They didn’t even meet me. They just read the report and decided it wasn’t worth it.”

This pattern is not an anomaly. It’s a form of institutional betrayal. And it is not confined to individual prosecutors. It is embedded in the structures of our legal system—and intensified by court-imposed efficiency measures like the R v. Jordan decision, which have made complex, trauma-affected cases harder to bring forward.

When Survivors Report—and Are Denied

In a province where 48% of women and girls have experienced IPV, only about 20% of those incidents are ever reported to police. Of those, only 76% are approved by Crown Counsel to go to court. That means for every 100 survivors, only 15 may ever have their day in court.

And yet, survivors are still told to come forward. Government campaigns urge them to report. Media headlines demand accountability. But behind the scenes, the gate quietly closes.

As one survivor explained:

I was strong enough to testify. But the Crown didn’t think I could handle cross-examination. They said I wasn’t ‘reliable.’ How can trauma make you unreliable when the trauma is the whole point?”

If only 15 out of 100 survivors see their case go to court—what happens to the other 85?

The refusal to approve charges is often based on two criteria: whether there is a “substantial likelihood of conviction” and whether prosecution is “in the public interest.” Both are legally subjective, and neither require Crown Counsel to consult survivors. In many cases, the decision not to proceed is made without ever hearing from the person most impacted by the violence.

The Shadow of Jordan

In 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in R v. Jordan that criminal trials must occur within strict time limits—18 months in provincial court, and 30 months in superior court. While designed to prevent delay and protect the rights of the accused, Jordan has had a chilling effect on gender-based violence prosecutions.

Prosecutors are now more likely to triage out “difficult” cases: those with delays in police investigation, with survivors who need support to testify, or where trauma affects how survivors present. As one woman described:

“I waited over a year. Then they told me the trial would take too long and that it might not be fair to him. Fair to him? What about me?”

Jordan has become another way that survivors are punished for complexity. Their trauma responses, delayed disclosures, and need for support become liabilities, not factors that the system accommodates.

Designed Without Survivors in Mind

This is why “She Reported. Crown Said No.” is a critical dimension of our broader #DesignedWithSurvivors initiative. It sharpens the focus on how prosecutorial discretion—unaccountable, opaque, and often inaccessible—undermines public safety at the very point where survivors should be protected. A legal system that discredits survivors before trial cannot be called just. And decisions made without transparency or recourse only reinforce institutional betrayal.

Public safety, if it is to mean anything at all, must be designed with survivors in mind—and that includes what happens when they turn to the courts.

Dr. Stanton’s report calls this out clearly:

“There is no formal complaint process available to survivors regarding Crown Counsel’s charge approval decisions… Crown Counsel owe no duty to victims of crime in their prosecutorial discretion.”

This leaves survivors with no path forward—not through the courts, not through oversight bodies, and often not through services either, as underfunded community-based supports struggle to meet overwhelming need.

When Crown declines to proceed, when police fail to act, and when courts delay justice—it is community-based victim service workers who are left holding the weight of those failures. They are among the least resourced, least respected, and yet most relied upon actors in the entire justice ecosystem.

What Needs to Change

We are calling for a new public safety framework—one designed with survivors, not institutional thresholds, in mind. This includes:

Because survivors don’t call police first. They call crisis lines. They turn to shelters. They reach out to community-based support workers. Those services must be where our investments go—especially when the courtroom is increasingly a closed door.

As one survivor put it:

“I didn’t report expecting a miracle. I just wanted to be safe. I wanted to know that if I died, someone would say it wasn’t okay. But the system didn’t even try.”

The system tells her to report. She reported.
Crown said no.

We are demanding better—because survivors deserve more than silence, dismissal, or delay.

#DesignedWithSurvivors

 

BWSS Responds to Independent Legal System Review: Violence Against Women Is Both Endemic and Epidemic

A red moon rises over the sea.

#DesignedWithSurvivors Campaign Calls for Urgent Implementation of Core Recommendations

VANCOUVER, BC — Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) responds today to the release of The Independent Systemic Review of the Legal System’s Treatment of Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence by Dr. Kim Stanton. The report, commissioned by Attorney General Niki Sharma, is a significant contribution to exposing the systemic failures survivors have long faced when seeking justice and safety in British Columbia.

BWSS welcomes Dr. Stanton’s systemic review and the clarity it brings to long-standing failures in BC’s response to gender-based violence. The report confirms what survivors, frontline workers, and feminist organizations have known for decades: the legal system continues to fail those experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual violence—not because of a lack of law or policy, but because of inconsistent implementation, lack of accountability, and systems not designed with survivors at the centre.

“The system isn’t broken—it was never designed with survivors in mind,” said Angela Marie MacDougall, Executive Director of BWSS. “This report affirms what we see every day: gender-based violence and violence against women are both endemic and epidemic. We cannot prosecute our way out of this crisis. We must redesign safety and justice systems from the ground up—with survivors leading the way.”

Four Core Systemic Failures Identified

Dr. Stanton’s report identifies four central system-wide issues:

  1. Inconsistent application of laws and policies across B
  2. Institutional failure to follow through on legal obligations
  3. Lack of accountability to ensure competent, survivor-focused responses
  4. Absence of provincial standards to ensure a higher, more equitable level of conduct

BWSS strongly supports the direction and many of the recommendations, particularly those focused on prevention, survivor-centred support, accountability, and structural redesign. BWSS’s #DesignedWithSurvivors campaign is rooted in five interconnected prevention priorities that reflect our longstanding advocacy and policy work: housing, community-led supports, early intervention, trauma-informed risk assessment, and survivor-centred justice. These priorities are essential to a public safety system that protects before harm occurs:

  • Safe and stable housing
  • Community-led supports
  • Early intervention
  • Trauma- and violence-informed risk assessment
  • Survivor-centred justice

At the same time, as with any broad report, there are areas where our perspectives differ. BWSS continues to hold critical concerns about restorative justice approaches to IPV and sexual violence, particularly where survivor safety, coercion, and systemic power imbalances are not adequately addressed.
“Our focus remains on creating transformative, survivor-defined safety through prevention, community-led support, and structural change—not reconciliation without accountability,” said MacDougall.

Endemic. Epidemic. Preventable.

In response to this report, BWSS is also advancing a powerful shift in public safety language:

Gender-based violence is not just widespread. It is endemic—embedded in our institutions—and epidemic—escalating across our communities.

And it is preventable.

BWSS urges the Province of British Columbia to act on this moment and take immediate steps to implement the core recommendations of the report, including:

  • Declaring gender-based violence a provincial emergency
  • Establishing an independent Gender-Based Violence Commissioner
  • Funding long-term, community-based prevention and support services

“Survivors and their communities have been leading the way for decades. This report offers the government a chance to follow their lead,” said MacDougall.

Download a PDF of the report now.

The Justice Centre Impact Report 2023-2024

In April 2023, we proudly opened the Justice Centre at BWSS, an expansion of our former Legal Services and Advocacy Program. This community-based legal advocacy clinic is dedicated to providing trauma-informed, multilingual, and culturally responsive legal services to diverse women who have experienced gender-based violence in BC.

The Justice Centre represents a significant evolution in our efforts, and the support of the community has been instrumental in its development. Our funding model is diverse, incorporating contributions from The Law Foundation of BC, the Federal Ministry of Justice, the social enterprise operated by BWSS – My Sister’s Closet, Strategic Interventions, and the generosity of individual donors.

From 2023 to 2024, BWSS has supported 2,159 victims and survivors. As we release our 2023-2024 Justice Centre Impact Report, we are excited to highlight the new services introduced and the profound impact our supportive community had in the work. The donations of our supporters have enabled us to support survivors, foster a safer and more just community, and provide critical legal support and education. This report underscores the enhanced services, training programs, and our focus on racial justice and current issues that the Justice Centre has championed.

Together, we are striving for justice, support, and empowerment for all women affected by gender-based violence. We invite you to learn more about your impact through the Justice Centre and continue this journey with us.

Battered Women Who Have Been Arrested

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Back in 2008, Battered Women’s Support Services confronted the growing problem of police services misapplying “pro-arrest” policies and criminalizing battered women for self-defending in domestic violence situations. We came to this confrontation authentically when we began supporting a growing number of women who were arrested for allegedly perpetrating domestic violence against their male partner and these arrests occurred despite the fact that in all cases the women were in relationships where their male partners were abusing them. This was evidenced by previous police reports, hospital/doctor visits, child witnesses and neighbour or co-worker accounts.

Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) continues doing this work as one of the only organizations in B.C. supporting women who have been arrested. In 2017, BWSS will provide training to service providers on this issue.

 

To help with planning for the training and future advocacy for battered women who have been arrested. we are asking you to participate in our short survey.

 

By completing the survey you can enter to win a $200 gift certificate to Battered Women’s Support Services social enterprise, My Sister’s Closet! Closing date to enter the draw is January 31, 2017.

Thank you!

New Statistics Canada Report on Family Violence

A new report on Family Violence in Canada is released by Statistics Canada this morning. The report highlights that there were just under 88,000 victims of family violence in Canada in 2013, according to police-reported data. This represented more than one-quarter of all violent crimes reported to police.

Police-reported data also reveal that in 2013 almost 7 in 10 family violence victims were female. In comparison, females represented 46% of victims of violent crimes that were not family-related. The over-representation of female victims was most prominent in the spousal violence category, where nearly 8 in 10 victims were female.

The report confirms what we know at Battered Women’s Support Services is that this form of violence is gendered and that the victims are largely women and the perpetrators are largely their male partners, husbands, or boyfriends.  Recognizing the gendered nature of this violence is important in the search for solutions to end or prevent violence against women.  Gender neutral terms, such as family violence or domestic violence render invisible the reality of the gender power imbalances in abusive relationships.

Violence against women has serious implications and women’s access to equality is severely compromised in society when violence against women is allowed to exist.

As in previous years, a majority of police-reported incidents of family violence involved physical assault, which included actions and behaviours such as pushing, slapping, punching and face-to-face threats.

Overall, the rate of police-reported intimate partner victimization was higher for females than for males, regardless of age, with women accounting for nearly 80% of all intimate partner victims reported to police.

Charges were laid or recommended in the majority of intimate partner violence incidents brought to the attention of police.

It is important to note that a conservative estimate has police reports as representing a mere 25% of actual occurances of male violence against women in intimate relationships.  The vast majority of women victims do not report to police and rather to report to friends, family and/or women’s support services organizations.

The importance of women’s organizations was highlighted in our press release responding to the recent release of BC Coroner’s report concerned with homicides resulting from domestic violence.

To read full report, please visit here.

If you and/or you know of any woman experiencing violence in her life, please refer to our Crisis and Intake Line to get support:

BWSS Crisis Line: 604-687-1867

Toll Free Number: 1-855-687-1868

 If you could do something to end violence against girls and women, wouldn’t you?

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BC Coroners Service Report

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release

December 19, 2014

BC Coroners Service Report Confirms

There’s a war on women and the battlefield is in their homes

Vancouver, B.C.– The BC Coroners Service has made public a report examining the number of homicides resulting from intimate partner violence (IPV) over the past decade. The statistics cover the period from January 1, 2004, through December 15, 2014. They show that throughout that time period, the average number of persons who died each year from intimate partner violence is 14. For the current year to date, the number is 14 and about three-quarters of the victims in IPV instances are women.

Terms like IPV, or domestic violence, or family violence are gender neutral and render invisible the grim reality that there is a war on women.  A 77-year-old woman shot dead in her two-storey Saanich home along with the family dog. A 67-year-old woman brutally assaulted in a Surrey home who died later in hospital. An East Vancouver mom killed in the basement with her son in the same house. For every woman who is murdered there are thousands more all across the province that are living in fear.

Violence against women is preventable, predictable and research confirms that the lethality for women in abusive relationships increases when women are leaving or have left abusive male partners.

Since 2009, several of the women murdered in BC have had heavy system involvement including police, court services, and child protection services. Also since 2009, the province of BC has been increasing resources and emphasis on police and court services even though the vast majority of women, as in 75%, do not report to the police and reporting goes down to 10% with instances of sexual violence.

“At BWSS, we have been unable to track a single instance where a woman has been murdered who has been receiving services from a women’s organization, and unfortunately the province of BC has not increased funding or resources for women’s organizations in decades.”, states Angela Marie MacDougall, Executive Director of Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS).

Women’s and women-serving organizations play a critical role in women’s safety:

  1. Provide emotional support to women dealing with the effects of trauma
  2. Provide information about the dynamics of abuse and it’s effects
  3. Provide accompaniment to appointments
  4. Help women make safety plans
  5. Assessment of risk, threat and lethality
  6. Understand women’s process of staying, leaving and returning
  7. Help to co-ordinate systemic response between police, court services, child protection
  8. Advocate with police, court services, child protection when systemic response is substandard
  9. Help women find housing – transitional or permanent
  10. Help women deal with economic challenges
  11. Help women to support their children with the effects of witnessing their mother’s abuse

Women are coming forward more than ever and seeking support. In the past eight years, requests for services at BWSS has more than doubled from 6,000 in 2006 to over 13,000 in 2014. There is a war on women and the battlefield is in their homes where it is supposed to be safe.

BC, Canada, has a responsibility to ensure that there are relevant and enough support services and programs in place for girls and women experiencing violence and a responsibility to ensure the vital support services and programs existing are adequately funded and secure.

Women’s organizations make a real difference in women’s lives and in our larger community. Let’s make sure these organizations have the support they need to continue their vital work.

 

For more information or to schedule an interview:

Angela Marie MacDougall

Executive Director, Battered Women’s Support Services

E-mail: director@bwss.org

 

If you could do something to end violence against girls and women, wouldn’t you?

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