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.
When a man’s reputation is used to blame women
Russell Brand’s conviction raises questions about how celebrity protects a public persona, whose conduct gets scrutinized, and what survivors can expect from a sexual assault investigation. On November 9, Russell Brand was sentenced to ten years and six months in...
Another woman killed in Chilliwack. BWSS demands answers about prevention and public accountability
November 12 update Global News has identified the woman killed in Chilliwack on November 6 as Kitty Hayward and reported that the man charged in her death is her husband. Kitty’s daughter, Crystal Burton, spoke about her mother and described earlier violence she says...
An Economy Can Grow while Women’s Options for Escaping Violence Shrink
Federal Budget 2026 and the economics of getting safe For two years, Battered Women’s Support Services has spoken with women and frontline workers across B.C. about what it takes to get safe and stay safe when a partner is abusive. More than 50 organizations helped...
What Stayed Sexual Assault Charges Do – and Do Not – Establish
A stayed prosecution does not, by itself, establish that a sexual assault allegation was false. A person whose charges were stayed has not been convicted of those charges and is entitled to the presumption of innocence. Both principles matter. Public discussion must...
Leaving Without Dying: Why Safety Must Continue After Separation
Leaving an abusive partner can interrupt one form of control and provoke another. Survivors need more than advice to leave. They need safety planning, legal support, housing, income and people who will stay with them through what comes next. The question is often put...
BWSS statement on the white nationalist gathering on Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc land
September 27, 2026 Children were taken from their families and sent to the Kamloops Indian Residential School. Some never came home and for the families who still seek answers, this is not a slogan or a political argument, it is the life of a child they loved. Today,...
Frontline organizations bring intimate partner violence directly to municipal leaders at UBCM
VANCOUVER, B.C. Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) is bringing together approximately 50 frontline and community organizations from every region of British Columbia at the Union of BC Municipalities Convention today for a roundtable focused on what meaningful...
Canada Is Building Resilience. Who Will Absorb the Shock?
Canada is in a different economic and political moment, and I have been thinking a lot about what it means for women. In his recent address to Canadians, Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke about the breakdown of trade negotiations with the United States and the need for...
The Downplay Effect: What B.C.’s Budget 2027 Consultation Tells Us About Intimate Partner Violence
Intimate partner violence doesn’t just escalate. It is downplayed first. At Battered Women’s Support Services, the Downplay Effect describes what happens when coercive control, patterns of abuse and escalating danger are minimized before they are...
Ontario woman awarded $400,000 over husband’s 54 year abuse in Tort of Intimate Partner Violence
The legal community is already debating whether the new tort of intimate partner violence will make family law proceedings longer, more complex and more contentious. From where we stand, that debate begins in the wrong place. For more than 30 years, BWSS has provided...
What Women Taught Us During the FIFA World Cup 2026
What Women Taught Us During the FIFA World Cup 2026 Specialized intimate partner violence response is public safety. While millions celebrated the FIFA World Cup in Canada, here in Vancouver hundreds of women reached out to Battered Women's Support Services seeking...
Canada’s National Action Plan on Gender-based Violence
Canada's National Action Plan on Gender-based Violence The Next Phase Must Reach the Frontline $607.4M committed by the Government of Canada over four years to continue implementation of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence There is much to welcome in...