Ending Violence Blog
Via our award winning blog Battered Women’s Support Services provides education and advocacy as we work towards the elimination of violence.
Abuse Almost Always Escalates
Escalation is not accidental. It is often a pattern rooted in control. Many survivors describe how abuse changes over time, increased monitoring, stricter rules, threats that grow more explicit, or the first acts of physical violence. These shifts are not isolated...
Toughening Up Sons
Not all “toughening up” is about helping boys grow. Sometimes it is about control. In families where abuse is present, some fathers push boys toward rigid, aggressive ideas of masculinity, shaming vulnerability, discouraging emotional expression, or using fear to...
The Big Deal about Belittling
“Belittling isn’t conflict. It’s a strategy.” Belittling is often minimized as teasing, sarcasm, or “just a joke.” But survivors tell us that repeated insults, humiliation, and dismissive comments are rarely accidental, they are patterns used by an abusive partner to...
10 Early Warning Signs Public Safety Systems Often Ignore
“Public safety systems often wait for bruises. Survivors recognize the warning signs much earlier.” Many survivors describe verbal abuse and psychological harm long before violence becomes visible. Insults behind closed doors, unpredictable outbursts, belittling when...
Budgets Do Not Simply Allocate Dollars. They Design Risk Environments.
For International Women’s Day, Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) as released new analysis examining how fiscal decisions shape the conditions under which survivors attempt to leave violence. Gender-based violence most often occurs in the home, yet social and...
Afghanistan’s New Taliban Penal Code and Gender Apartheid, What It Reveals About Public Safety in Canada
Image by Marius ArnesenOver the past week, a stark message has moved across feminist networks: “The Taliban has legalized domestic violence as long as bones are not broken.” Under Afghanistan’s new penal code, a husband can physically abuse his wife or children as...
Latin American Women’s Counsellor
Latin American Women’s Counsellor Full-Time Permanent | 40 hours/week Start Date: March 9th,2026Schedule: Monday–Friday, 9:00 am–5:00 pm (some evenings required)Classification: Grid 14P | Union position | Hourly Rate: $40.03Location: Vancouver, BC (in-person position)...
Family Court Reform Is Public Safety Work: What Bill C-223 Means for Survivors
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...
Police-Officer-Involved Domestic Violence
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:...
Holding the Tumbler Ridge Community in Care
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...
A Journey to Stability: How Support Can Transform Lives
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...
Women are dying while risk is known anti-violence organizations call for public safety action on intimate partner violence – Remarks by Angela Marie MacDougall
Remarks by Angela Marie MacDougall Executive Director, Battered Women’s Support ServicesVictoria 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...