Advocates say gender-based violence is on the rise across B.C. as a murder in Richmond Friday marked the fifth woman killed in nearly two weeks.
A 33-year-old man was charged after a 51-year-old woman was found with serious injuries at a home in Richmond. The woman was transported to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Her killing was one of five in as few as 17 days across the province, including a Kelowna woman who was beaten to death in a public attack on July 4.
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Angela Marie MacDougall stresses that it is part of a disturbing trend of gender-based violence in the province.
She is the Executive Director of the Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) and says that the violence continues to be mischaracterized.
She warns that when officials say there is no risk to the public, they are excluding the very people most at risk from their definition of ‘public.’
“The truth is that another woman is dead. Using that kind of language excludes the very people that are at risk, which is all of those other women that are living at home right now, living in fear,”
She criticizes how authorities have been handling gender-based violence cases.
“That language signals to the public that the situation has been addressed. That it’s over, and that there’s nothing more to fear, and that the police have now gained control,” MacDougall said.
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According to BWSS, 48 per cent of girls and women in B.C., age 15 and above, have experienced intimate partner violence.
“That is why highlighting this mischaracterization to the rest of the public is so important right now. Because we have this spike in femicides and killings of women,” MacDougall explained.
MacDougall says municipal governments need to stop waiting for provincial direction and begin treating gender-based violence as the public safety emergency it is.
She recommends that the different levels of government need to coordinate across housing, health, justice, and education systems to disrupt the patterns that allow women to be killed despite repeated calls for help.
