Canada is among the most liberal countries in the world and it’s often hailed as an example of a country that takes gender equality seriously. How true is that though? In today’s article, we are going to explore the issue of gender violence in Canada and how the government responds to it.
Prevalence of Gender Violence in Canada
Before we start discussing specific cases of gender violence and what can be done to prevent them, it’s important to look at official statistics on gender violence provided by government institutions.
The department of Women and Gender Equality in Canada, has published a helpful guide which explains the meaning gender violence and who are most affected by it. Women, and especially women from vulnerable communities (women from racial and ethnic minorities, women from rural communities, women living with disabilities, or LGBTQ+ people), experience more gender violence than their male counterparts.
The guide features stats to prove this argument; self-reported data from 2018 shows that 44% of all surveyed women have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lives; out of them, 61% of Indigenous women, 55% of women with disabilities and 67% of LGB women have experienced IPV, while 59% of transgender or gender diverse people have been physically or sexually assaulted.
Femicide and Intimate Partner Violence
The Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability notes, based on statistics, that one woman or girl was murdered by a man every 48 hours in 2022.
Men make up the larger portion of murder victims in Canada, but the perpetrator is usually not in close proximity to the victim (e.g., a stranger or an acquittance), while women and girls are mostly murdered by men in their lives, usually a romantic or sexual partner, which is why the issue of gender violence is brought up when the murder victim is female.
In a particularly tragic case, Basil Borutski murdered three of his former partners, Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam, in a single morning in 2015. This is sadly not an isolated case and many Canadian women are currently at risk of being killed by their intimate partners.
This is why the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability has been petitioning the Canadian government to make femicide a distinct crime since 2018.
There have been many researches undertaken by various non-profit organisations and government agencies that prove femicide is indeed a particular crime based on gender violence and if one wants to put an end to it, one must first recognise it as such by naming it.
Other countries have already put femicide (or feminicide) in their legislations, including Guatemala in 2008, El Salvador in 2010, Mexico in 2012, Nicaragua in 2012, Bolivia in 2013, Panama in 2013, Peru in 2013, Venezuela in 2014, Paraguay in 2016 and Malta in 2022.
Underreporting of Gender Violence
Gender violence comes in many forms and while the Canadian public is aware of its existence, underreporting is still a big problem that should be resolved. Underreporting of gender violence is not a unique Canadian problem as it affects countries all around the world.
Victims tend not to report out of fear of repercussions, whether that be fear of physical and sexual violence or death, potential homelessness if the victim lives with the perpetrator, loss of employment in the case of world-place gender violence and general distrust in the legal system.
Many victims also experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which is why they might choose not to recount their painful experience in court.
Sexual assault, for example, is the crime in Canada least likely to be reported to the police. ‘The 1999 General Social Survey (GSS) on Victimization found 78% of sexual assaults were not reported to the police’, which is quite a worrying stat and while this survey is from the late 90’s, it appears that things have not changed significantly.
Efforts by the Canadian Government
The Canadian government continues to survey its citizens to find out about the state of gender violence in the country, which is the first step in the fight against it.
In 2023, the Canadian government declared gender violence an epidemic. In 2017, Canada announced its policy called It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence (the federal GBV Strategy) which is based on three pillars: preventing gender-based violence, supporting victims, survivors and their families, and promoting a responsive justice system.
Canada thus continues to provide support in the hopes to prevent gender violence through new legislation or by funding various programs. ‘The Government of Canada has invested over $800 million and $44 million per year ongoing in the federal GBV Strategy since 2017–18’, as per their dedicated page.
Here’s a specific example: the federal government and the government of Nova Scotia signed the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence in Nova Scotia and allocated 18.3 million CAD, to be paid over four years, for local programs meaning to end gender violence. These programs include educational seminars about gender violence, support groups, and the training of new counsellors.
Thoughts
While there is still a long way to go, Canada appears to listen to survivors of gender violence and their advocates by implementing specific strategies meant to address the issue upfront. The Nova Scotia plan, for instance, exemplifies this as it directly funds local organisations that help victims and those that mean to prevent gender violence.