https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1AkWzAU5_Yk
Tuesday night, walking through the streets of the city, were a group of women reclaiming the streets that belong to all of us.
The Take Back the Night event started at the Timmins Women in Crisis Center. Before the walk, Tania Lefebvre talked about her experience in an abusive relationship and her experiences in court after the fact. It was an experience that jelled the women, some as suffers of violence, others as supports of the cause.
On Wednesday, the same walk took place in Iroquois Falls. A group of about 40 women took part in their walk. Thursday, Cochrane will have their turn to stand as a group and tell their message.
Here are some facts from http://www.canadianwomen.org/facts-about-violence
WHO IS MOST AT RISK?
- Violence against women happens in all cultures and religions, in all ethnic and racial communities, at every age, and in every income group.
- However, some women are especially at risk:
- Aboriginal women (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) are more than eight times more likely to be killed by their intimate partner than non-Aboriginal women.38
- Younger women were most at risk of violent victimization, according to both police-reported and self-reported victimization data. The risk generally decreases as women age.39
- The police-reported rate of violent crime against women aged 15 to 24 was 42% higher than the rate for women aged 25 to 34, and nearly double the rate for women aged 35 to 44.50
- 66% of all female victims of sexual assault are under the age of twenty-four, and 11% are under the age of eleven.51 Women aged 15 to 24 are killed at nearly three times the rate for all female victims of domestic homicide.
- 60% of women with a disability experience some form of violence.40
- Immigrant women may be more vulnerable to domestic violence due to economic dependence, language barriers, and a lack of knowledge about community resources.41
BUT ISN’T THERE LESS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE NOW THAN IN THE PAST?
- Like all violent crime in Canada, rates of domestic violence have fallen in recent years.14
- This decline is partly due to increased social equality and financial freedom for women, which makes it easier for them to leave abusive relationships at earlier stages. It is also due to years of effort by groups who are working to end domestic violence. Their achievements include improved public awareness, more treatment programs for violent men, improved training for police officers and Crown attorneys, having the police lay charges rather than the victim, more co-ordination of community services, and the creation of domestic violence legislation in some areas of Canada.15
- Still, despite this good news, some disturbing trends are emerging:
- After falling for a decade, rates of domestic violence have now flat-lined. In 2009, the rate of self-reported spousal violence was the same as in 2004.16
- Victims are now less likely to report an incident to police.17
SINCE CRIME RATES IN CANADA ARE FALLING, IS VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN STILL A SERIOUS PROBLEM?
- On average, every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner. In 2009, 67 women were murdered by a current or former spouse or boyfriend.1
- On any given day in Canada, more than 3,000 women (along with their 2,500 children) are living in an emergency shelter to escape domestic violence.2
- Each year, over 40,000 arrests result from domestic violence—that’s about 12% of all violent crime in Canada.3 Since only 22% of all incidents are reported to the police, the real number is much higher.
- As of 2010, there were 582 known cases of missing or murdered Aboriginal women in Canada.4 Both Amnesty International and the United Nations have called upon the Canadian government to take action on this issue, without success.5,6
- According to police-reported data, just over 173,600 women aged 15 and older were victims of violent crime in 2011, a rate of 1,207 female victims for every 100,000 women in the population.48
- In just one year in Canada, 427,000 women over the age of 15 reported they had been sexually assaulted.7 Since only about 10% of all sexual assaults are reported to the police, the actual number is much higher.8
- Half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16.9
- About 80% of sex trafficking victims in Canada are women and girls.10
- 67% of all Canadians say they personally know at least one woman who has been sexually or physically assaulted.11
- More than one in ten Canadian women say they have been stalked by someone in a way that made them fear for their life.12
- Provincially, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which have consistently recorded the highest provincial rates of police-reported violent crime, had rates of violence against women in 2011 that were about double the national rate. Ontario and Quebec had the lowest rates of violence against women. As is the case with violent crime overall, the territories have consistently recorded the highest rates of police-reported violence against women. The rate of violent crime against women in Nunavut was nearly 13 times higher than the rate for Canada.49
- The cost of violence against women in Canada for health care, criminal justice, social services, and lost wages and productivity has been calculated at $4.2 billion per year.13
- More women are experiencing violence after they leave their abuser.18
