Dear Family Law:
• 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence (World Health Organization).
• Women in Canada are more likely than men to experience intimate partner violence. According to 2018 police-reported data, women accounted for almost 8 in 10 victims (79%) of intimate partner violence (https://cfc-swc.gc.ca/violence/knowledge-connaissance/ipv-vpi-en.html).
• Approximately every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner (Canadian Women’s Foundation).
• Men caused more than 90% of violent deaths of women and girls in 2020 (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/femicide-canada-1.5953953).
• Almost 50% of survey participants of women surviving violence were advised by their family law lawyer to not bring up the family violence in court. (Rise Women’s Legal Centre, report – Why Can’t Everyone Just Get Along? See: https://womenslegalcentre.ca/report-why-cant-everyone-just-get-along-how-bcs-family-law-system-puts-survivors-in-danger )
We have to recognize if we do not meaningfully and consistently address violence against women in family law we will continue to leave women at risk.
We have to recognize that gender-based violence is not a rare occurrence but a regular, hourly, daily reality for the majority of women.
If women feel unsafe in raising their experience of family violence or are unsupported in raising their experience of family violence in their family law cases, we have to see this as a failure of our justice system.
We must do more.
