Tiled corridors lined with women’s and girls’ shoes, each pair accompanied by a card memorial, provided shoppers with a grim reminder about the toll violence against women continues to exact in Canada.
The annual December 6 memorial at Powell River Town Centre Mall, in sharp counterpoint to the mall’s festive atmosphere, marked Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. The memorial aims to raise awareness around the ongoing social problem. This year it also marked the 25th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, where 14 women at Montreal’s École Polytechnique were gunned down in their classroom and school halls in 1989. Many other students, including men, were injured by the lone gunman who set out with a bowie knife and a high-powered hunting rifle looking for revenge. He claimed, in his suicide note, feminists had ruined his life.
While this national tragedy may have transpired a quarter century ago, times and attitudes around violence against women change at glacial pace. The number of sexual assaults each year in Canada is estimated to be around 460,000. On top of those, many go unreported. According to information from YWCA Canada, a 2012 look at the country’s criminal justice response to sexual assault reported that for every 1,000 incidences only 33 are reported to the police, 29 are reported as a crime, 12 have charges laid, six are prosecuted and three lead to convictions, leaving 997 assailants to walk free.
This fall, however, with the high-profile sexual assault cases in the media, change may be quickening.
What started out at the end of October as a puzzling dismissal of former CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi has lead to sexual assault charges and a call from the head of the Toronto Police for all victims of sexual assault and abuse to come forward.
The former host of the program Q has plead not guilty to the charges. His trial is pending and throughout he has denied the allegations and maintained that all his sexual interactions were consensual, though he did admit a history of rough sex.
Actress Lucy DeCoutere was the first of Ghomeshi’s accusers to publicly identify herself. Author and lawyer Reva Seth and seven other anonymous women have also come forward and alleged they were abused during sexual encounters with the former broadcaster.
DeCoutere released a statement shortly after Ghomeshi was granted bail at the end of November.
“The past month has seen a major shift in the conversation about violence against women,” said DeCoutere. “It has been an overwhelming and painful time for many people, including myself, but also very inspiring. I hope that victims’ voices continue to be heard and that this is the start of a change that is so desperately needed.”
After several women came forward with allegations, some have asked why they did not report what had happened earlier. DeCoutere has said that she did not go to the police because she believed it would be a case of his word against hers. She worried that police would ask her why she had put herself into the vulnerable position of entering the home of a man she did not know well and that they would think there were too many holes in her story to be believed.
Users of the popular social media platform Twitter attempted to answer the question of why women around the globe remain reluctant to report incidents of sexual assault through the use of the hashtag #BeenRapedNeverReported. At its height of use, 35 tweets per minute were being posted with stories of unreported rape and assault.
The fear of not being believed is one of the main reasons so few sexual assault cases are reported, but for one woman who returned to Powell River for safety, not being believed came as a shock.
The woman came forward in 2012 with sexual abuse allegations against her ex-husband and she said RCMP in the community where she used to reside did not believe her or her children. She approached the Peak with her story, but can not be named because she is pursuing civil lawsuits against both her ex-husband and the RCMP.
No criminal charges have been brought against the perpetrators of the assaults.
“My little girl, who is now five, told me that her daddy and grandma hurt her privates,” the woman said. “Disclosures came out from her and my son, then eight years old. We reported them to the police but because my children were interviewed by untrained personnel, the abusers still walk free.”
She said she and her children were denied crime-victim services and she has spent close to $50,000 on legal costs to “keep us safe and my children away from those that hurt them.”
As a result of the verbal and sexual abuse, she said that her children suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“This experience is an ongoing nightmare,” she said. “I also have PTSD and do my best to support my children through this nightmare.”
She said she has enrolled her son in Little Warriors, an Alberta-based outpatient program for children between the ages eight to 12 who have been victims of sexual abuse.
“He is finally starting to heal, feel empowered and use his voice,” she added. “He wants to help other children in this situation by raising awareness about child sexual abuse.”
The boy is also raising money to send a child to Sherwood Park’s Be Brave Ranch, a treatment facility for children and their families who have been sexually abused.
A lightbulb fundraiser for the Be Brave Ranch will take place at 6 pm on Friday, December 12, at Town Centre Mall.
