Across British Columbia, women have been killed in Kelowna, Vancouver, Richmond, Surrey, Abbotsford, and Maple Ridge. In Burnaby, a woman was sexually assaulted in Central Park, a reminder that violence in public spaces persists. In Langley, a woman was severely injured when a substance was thrown on her, burning her body. These events show the range of violence women experience, from femicide to sexual assault to brutal attacks, and they reveal how urgently municipalities must act.
At Battered Women’s Support Services, we know local governments are central to ending this violence. Municipalities oversee the systems where safety is either supported or undermined: housing, transit, parks, lighting, policing oversight, and community programs. They are not bystanders; their decisions directly affect whether survivors live safely.
Our initiative, #DesignedWithSurvivors, reframes gender-based violence as a public safety crisis. The guiding question is simple yet transformative: what would public safety look like if it were designed with survivors in mind? Since May, we have contacted every mayor and council in BC, inviting them to meet with us, learn from survivors, and commit to action. To ensure transparency, we launched a public tracker showing which municipalities have stepped forward, which are preparing to do so, and which remain silent.
The response has been encouraging. We have met with leadership in Surrey, Vancouver, Richmond, Abbotsford, Kelowna, Burnaby, and Maple Ridge—municipalities where women have been killed or where serious violence has occurred. These conversations have focused on concrete steps such as establishing gender-based violence task forces, embedding survivor-centred risk assessment into safety planning, and advancing resolutions for the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) convention. Meetings are also scheduled with Langley, Trail, Ucluelet, and Tumbler Ridge. The momentum is growing.
The urgency is undeniable. In Maple Ridge, the disappearance of Jessica Cunningham and the discovery of human remains in her home shocked the community. In Burnaby, the Central Park assault showed that women are still unsafe in public spaces. In Langley, the attack that left a woman with chemical burns highlighted another dimension of this crisis. Residents are not asking for more headlines; they are demanding action.
The lessons from Ontario’s Renfrew County Inquest show what action looks like. In 2015, three women—Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk, and Nathalie Warmerdam—were murdered on the same day by a man with a known history of violence against them. The inquest that followed in 2022 examined the systemic failures that allowed the killings to occur. The jury issued eighty-six recommendations, including a clear directive that municipalities must integrate intimate partner violence into their community safety and well-being plans.
The inquest also stressed the importance of risk assessment. It called for a common framework to identify risk and lethality in intimate partner violence cases, co-training for justice and community personnel, and the consistent use of survivor-informed risk assessments in bail, plea, and sentencing decisions. These are practical reforms designed to prevent women from being killed after their risks are visible but ignored. Without consistent, survivor-centred risk assessment, tragedies will continue.
Here in British Columbia, Dr. Kim Stanton’s 2025 Independent Systemic Review confirmed the same failures. Her report documented how police, Crown counsel, and courts routinely fail to assess risk in cases of intimate partner violence and sexual assault. Women are being left unprotected because warning signs are disregarded. Stanton’s findings echo the Renfrew Inquest: risk assessment is not bureaucratic procedure, it is a matter of life and death.
When BWSS meets with municipal leaders, we bring these lessons forward. Cities can show leadership by embedding survivor-centred risk assessment into their community safety strategies. That means ensuring local policing contracts and safety plans include evidence-based assessments. It also means creating municipal gender-based violence task forces that unite service providers, justice representatives, and survivor advocates to monitor risks and design prevention strategies. These steps are structural, not symbolic, and they can save lives.
UBCM is the next critical moment. Each year, municipalities across the province debate and adopt resolutions that influence provincial policy. This September, municipalities can demonstrate leadership by adopting survivor-centred motions: declaring intimate partner violence and gender-based violence a public safety epidemic, integrating risk assessment into community safety plans, and establishing gender-based violence task forces. Together, they can send a clear message to the provincial government that local governments will not remain passive in the face of femicide and violence against women.
We are already seeing what change looks like. Municipalities are listening, survivors are being heard, and councils are beginning to act. The momentum we have built in only a few months shows that local governments understand their role in creating safer communities. BWSS is committed to supporting them with policy analysis, survivor expertise, and practical recommendations. Our tracker is not only a record of who has responded, it is a tool for accountability and public engagement.
The message to municipalities is straightforward: the time to act is now. Women and gender-diverse people cannot wait for another inquest or another report to confirm what we already know. Public safety designed with survivors in mind is safer for everyone. Cities that prioritize survivor-centred strategies will be stronger, more inclusive, and more resilient.
The killings in Kelowna, Vancouver, Richmond, Surrey, Abbotsford, and Maple Ridge, together with the sexual assault in Burnaby and the brutal attack in Langley, should never have happened. They must serve as catalysts for systemic change. With survivor-centred planning, consistent risk assessment, and municipal leadership, BC can move from words to action and from silence to accountability. BWSS is proud to lead this campaign and remains committed to working with municipalities, provincial leaders, and communities to end intimate partner violence and femicide.
