FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 30, 2025
“How Could This Happen…again?” BWSS Responds to Brutal Assault of Teen Girl in Vancouver and Calls for Urgent Action
Vancouver, BC – A 14-year-old girl was brutally assaulted in a public bathroom in the middle of the day. She was attacked by a man with a history of violence—known to police, armed, and moving through the city with no apparent oversight. This after several high profile assaults on women in Vancouver, BC.
This is not just a tragedy. It is a failure.
Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) is grieving with the survivor and her family, and demanding urgent action from every level of government. The organization says this case reflects what happens when we treat gender-based violence as an afterthought instead of a public safety emergency.
“We ask ourselves, ‘How could this happen?’ But the truth is, it keeps happening—because we refuse to take gender-based violence seriously,” said Angela Marie MacDougall, Executive Director of BWSS. “This wasn’t random. It was predictable. And it was preventable.”
A System That Lets Survivors Down—Over and Over Again
The suspect, 62-year-old John Frederick Field of Surrey, now faces multiple charges including sexual assault with a weapon against a minor, forcible confinement, robbery, and assault. This follows what police have described as a violent spree across Vancouver on May 29.
Rejecting “Catch and Release” Myths, Demanding Real Reform
While political rhetoric often blames “catch and release” policies for public safety failures, BWSS urges the public to look deeper.
“This isn’t only about bail reform—it’s about the failure to treat male violence against women and girls as high-risk behaviour,” said MacDougall. “When gender is left out of risk management, survivors are left out of safety planning.”
This case is emblematic of how public safety systems fail survivors, not because offenders are “caught and released,” but because known violent actors are not managed through a gender-based violence lens.
Systemic Gaps Include:
- Lack of mandated, evidence-based risk assessment tools especially for repeat or sexualized violence and lack of applying tool in decisions about releasing men back into the public.
- Failure to track coercive control, violence against women, or escalating threats as high-risk indicators.
- No consistent integration of GBV prevention in public safety or justice strategies at municipal, provincial, or federal levels.
While media headlines focus on the arrest, BWSS urges the public to focus on what led up to it:
- Why was a known violent offender free and unsupervised?
- Why are evidence-based risk assessment tools not mandated in cases involving sexual or gender-based violence?
- Why, after years of reports, plans, and promises, are women and girls still left unprotected?
Statistics Canada reports that 57% of sexual assaults are never reported, and 43% of victims believe nothing will change if they come forward. “For most survivors, the system isn’t just broken—it never worked to begin with,” said MacDougall.
The Plans Exist. The Action Does Not.
Both the federal National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence and BC’s Safe and Supported Action Plan were meant to change this. But today, those plans remain largely unfunded, piecemeal, and detached from real-time public safety planning.
“A 14-year-old was assaulted in a city bathroom. If our national and provincial plans don’t prevent that, they’re not working. They need to be more than documents—they need to be lifelines,” MacDougall said.
What Needs to Happen Now
BWSS is calling for bold and immediate steps, including:
- Declare gender-based violence a public safety emergency at all levels of government.
- Fully implement and expanding funding both the National and BC Action Plans with clear timelines, targets, and accountability.
- Mandate gender-based violence and violence against women risk assessments for all violent and sexual offenders.
- Invest in trauma and violence-informed housing, mental health, and violence prevention programs that actually reach survivors and communities.
- Convene a public safety roundtable on gender-based violence, including survivors, Indigenous leadership, and frontline organizations.
A Message for Elected Officials
“If this story makes you angry, good. It should. But don’t let it end there. Do something. Fund the work. Listen to survivors. Fix the systems that failed this girl—and that fail so many others every day.”
BWSS will meet with Mayor Ken Sim on Monday to press for urgent policy and funding action. The organization is calling on all levels of government to act—not with more statements, but with real investment, real oversight, and real prevention.