Domestic violence in Canada pretty much bubbles along–unabated–below society’s collective conscience–except of course when your family or someone you know is affected.
Or, when the violence unfolds in such horrendous fashion that the ever-fickle news media throws itself into the fray.
That happened again this past week when murder charges were announced against a father accused of killing his wife in a house fire in Port Moody, B. C., east of Vancouver.
Five of the couple’s six kids were home at the time but managed to escape with only minor injuries.
So there was plenty of media attention.
As you mull over those events, consider these facts, courtesy of research by the Canadian Women’s Foundation.
–Approximately every six days, a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner.
–Half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16.
–Sixty-seven per cent of all Canadians say they personally know at least one woman woman who has been sexually or physically assaulted.
–On any given day in Canada, more than 3,300 women (along with 3,000 children) are forced to sleep in an emergency shelter to escape domestic violence.
(There’s are plenty more statistics. Those interested can simply google the Canadian Women’s Foundation.)
It’s not like people aren’t trying to bring a halt to this mess.
One of them is Angela Marie MacDougall, the executive director of Battered Women’s Support Services in Vancouver.
She says what’s happening an epidemic and continues to call on governments to provide more funding to combat the issue.
She spoke by phone with RCI on Wednesday.
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