Women’s advocates are concerned about a shortage of forensic nurses to administer rape kits in many Canadian hospitals.
Rape kits are exams conducted by highly-trained health-care staff to collect evidence that can be used in court, such as fluid samples, swabs and photographs.
Advocates say the problem is most acute in remote and rural parts of Canada and constitutes a huge barrier to justice for sexual assault victims.
A Squamish, B.C. councillor, Susan Chapelle, says the lack of kits is a result of underfunding and that some women in the province must travel as far as 200 kilometres to get a kit.
Ms. Chapelle says the issue is personal to her because he was raped as a young woman two decades ago.
She says women who want a rape kit in her region have to travel for an hour or more to Vancouver General Hospital, sometimes in the back of a police car.
Nova Scotia has also been criticized for a lack of resources, but the province says it currently has three regional teams of forensic nurses and plans to add two more.
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