Dear men,
On December 6, 1989, fourteen women engineering students at L’École Polytechnique in Montreal were murdered by a gunman who singled them out simply because they were women. It was a wake up call for the nation then to the reality of systematic misogyny in Canada and the violence against women it inspires.
But it is fearfully easy for us as men to go back to sleep and ignore the violence that scars the lives of women and girls and to ignore the way we are all as men implicated in that violence, the way that the violence enforces and polices the male privilege we enjoy, whether we ever personally throw a punch. It is vital that we remain awake, and that we take steps to stand with women, girls and other victims of gender based violence to demand the war end. It is vital that we recognize the war on women continues every day, as is illustrated by these facts from the Canadian Women’s Foundation.
What is the scope of gender-based violence in Canada?
More than 4 in 10 women have experienced some form of intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetimes. In 2018, 44% of women reported experiencing some form of psychological, physical, or sexual violence by an intimate partner in their lifetimes (Statistics Canada, 2021).
Research shows that “women disproportionately experience the most severe forms of IPV, such as being choked, being assaulted or threatened with a weapon, or being sexually assaulted” (Adam Cotter, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, 2021).
“… intimate partner femicide comprises a broad spectrum of relationships. In 2022, the largest proportion of victims was killed by a current legal spouse (35%; N=18), followed by a current common-law partner (14%; N=7), a current dating partner (12%; N=6), an estranged legal spouse (8%; N=4), and an estranged dating partner (8%; N=4)” (Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability, 2022).
“Although homicide rates are generally higher for males than females, females are at a much higher risk of homicide by their male intimate partners” (Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability).
” … women and girls are disproportionately killed by someone they know, namely an intimate partner or a family member … In comparison, men are most often killed by someone with whom they share a more distant relationship (e.g., an acquaintance, friend, stranger)” (Sutton, Statistics Canada, 2023).
The proportion of women killed by a spouse or intimate partner is over eight times greater than the proportion of men (Statistics Canada, 2020).
In 2020, 160 women and girls were killed by violence. In 2021, 173 women and girls were killed by violence. In 2022, 184 women and girls were killed by violence. This is a concerning increase from 148 women and girls killed by violence in 2019. “The proportion of Indigenous female victims continues to be significantly higher than their representation in the population (5%) with at least one in five victims (or 20%) being an Indigenous woman or girl” (Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability, 2020, 2021, and 2022).
Two thirds (64%) of people in Canada know a woman who has experienced physical, sexual, or emotional abuse (Canadian Women’s Foundation, 2021).
Indigenous women and girls are 12 times more likely to be murdered or missing than any other women in Canada, and 16 times more likely than white women (National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, 2019).
Women are more likely than men (39% vs 35%) to report experiencing violent crime at some point since age 15 (Statistics Canada, 2019).
Women are five times more likely than men to experience sexual assault (Adam Cotter, Statistics Canada, 2021).
Approximately 4.7 million women, 30% of all women 15 years of age and older, report that they have experienced sexual assault at least once since the age of 15. This is compared to 8% men (Statistics Canada, 2019).
Women are more likely to experience elder abuse from a family member and account for 58% of senior survivors of family violence (Statistics Canada, 2019).
On any given night in Canada, 3,491 women and their 2,724 children sleep in shelters because it isn’t safe at home. Out of the 4,476 women and 3,493 children staying in shelters on the snapshot date of April 16, 2014, 78% (or 3,491 women and 2,742 children) were there primarily because of abuse (Sara Beattie and Hope Hutchins, Statistics Canada, 2014).
On any given night, about 300 women and children are turned away because shelters are already full (Sara Beattie and Hope Hutchins, Statistics Canada, 2014).
Rates of intimate partner violence experienced by rural women are five times higher than for rural men and 75% higher than urban women (Shana Conroy, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, 2021; Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children, 2021).
For girls and young women in the north, the rate of experiencing violent crime is four times higher than Canada’s overall population. The violence is more likely to be severe and result in physical injury (Shana Conroy, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, 2021; Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children, 2021).
Cyber violence, which includes online threats, harassment, and stalking, has emerged as an extension of violence against women and is sometimes referred to as technology-facilitated gender-based violence, abuse, and harassment (UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development, 2015; Cynthia Khoo, Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, 2021).
Over two-thirds (69%) of those experience incidents of cybercrime are women. They account for 84% of those who experience sexual violations associated with a cybercrime and 65% of those involving non-sexual violent violations (Benjamin Mazowita and Mireille Vézina, Statistics Canada, 2014).
“Studies and coroner inquests have shown that rates of homicide in domestic violence situations increase significantly when there is a firearm in the home. Long guns are the guns most likely to be used in domestic violence situations” (Coalition for Gun Control).
“There were over 107,000 victims of police-reported intimate partner violence (IPV) in Canada in 2019. For 660 victims of IPV, a firearm was present. Women accounted for almost 8 in 10 victims of all IPV incidents and they were even more likely to be the victim in the 660 IPV incidents where a firearm was present” (Public Safety Canada, 2021).
“Overall, among the total number of homicide victims in 2016 and 2017, shooting was the most common cause of death (40%), followed by stabbing (24%), where information was known (for 82% of the victims). Males were more likely to be killed by firearms (45%) compared to females (24%) who were more likely to be beaten to death (15%) than male victims (10%). A different pattern emerged, though, when the method of killing was examined in non-urban locations … equal proportions of females and males were shot to death in rural areas (36% each) (Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and and Accountability, 2020).”
It is estimated that, each year, $7.4 billion is spent to deal with the aftermath of spousal violence alone. This includes immediate costs, such as emergency room visits and related costs, such as loss of income. It also includes tangible costs such as funerals, and intangible costs such as pain and suffering (Department of Justice, 2009).
Every year since 1990, a group of Vancouver men have met to honor the women lost in the Montreal Massacre and to recognize that we have an ethical obligation as men to respond to the ongoing ravages of toxic masculinity and sexism. Each year we have pooled money and made donations to groups promoting women’s liberation and fighting violence against women. This letter is an invitation to men who read Rabble to do something similar in their own communities.
Please read the material linked in this note and share it with others. In Vancouver, we pool our money and split the donation between Plan International women’s and girls’ literacy programs in the Third World and the front line feminist work of the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre in Vancouver. But wherever you live, there will be a feminist women’s centre or crisis line that could use your donations. Please lend them a hand this season, and discuss these issues with other men. And one more thing. Please watch the brilliant spoken word piece by Steve Connel “We Are the Lions” and share it with other men. I think it argues for our shared responsibility as men on this issue far more eloquently than I can, and should be seen by every man. Here is the link:
Thanks, my brothers
Tom Sandborn
Vancouver, BC
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