With the announcement of the killing of Ma Cecilia Loreto, who was found burned in Burnaby, so far in 2021, British Columbia has registered seven women and girls killed due to violence and according to media reports the majority involved a male accused. BC tied Quebec making beginning of 2021 the most deadly for women and girls than the same period in previous three years.
At the end of 2020, the United Nations called on all nation states and stakeholders worldwide to take urgent steps to prevent the pandemic of femicide or gender related killings of women and gender-based violence against women.
For the last decade, Battered Women’s Support Services has conducted an informal “femicide watch” assessing the trends and conditions for killings of women in British Columbia and other regions in Canada.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we scaled up our informal ‘femicide watch’ to analyze systemic shortcomings and to recommend measures for prevention and intervention.
There has been a statistical spike in femicide in 2021 in British Columbia and across Canada.
This should be awake up call for everyone.
According to a tweet by the Canadian Femicide Observatory so far in 2021, 47 women and girls killed by violence, 32 of which involve male accused, 13 in which no accused yet to be documented, but majority likely male. This is higher than same period in previous three years.
Society needs to do better for women, girls and people who are marginalized by their gender.
Image via CTV.
This year (2021) so far:
— Canadian Femicide Observatory (@CAN_Femicide) March 25, 2021
- 47 women & girls killed by violence.
- 32 of which involve male accused.
- 13 in which no accused yet to be documented, but majority will be male.
This is higher than same period in previous 3 years.
Society needs to do better for women and girls. pic.twitter.com/WdYncurgos
