Is Violence Against Women Still a Serious Problem in Canada?

Excerpt from our 2015 newsletter. For this article and others, please click here: Winter 2015 Newsletter

Unfortunately, statistics show that…

Half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16.
67% of all Canadians say they personally know at least one woman who has been sexually or physically assaulted.
On average, every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner.
In 2011, from the 89 police reported spousal homicides, 76 of the victims (over 85%) were women.
On any given day in Canada, more than 3,300 women (along with their 3,000 children) are forced to sleep in a shelter to
escape domestic violence. Every night, about 200 women are turned away as shelters are full.
Each year, over 40,000 arrests result from domestic violence— 12% of violent crime in Canada. Since only 22% of all incidents are reported to the police, the real number is much higher.
In 2010, there were 582 known cases of missing or murdered Aboriginal women. Both Amnesty International and the United
Nations called for action on this issue. It is estimated that if this figure were applied proportionately to the rest of the female
population there would be over 18,000 missing women and girls.”
According to the Department of Justice, Canada annually spends $7.4 billion to deal with the aftermath of spousal violence. This figure includes immediate costs such as emergency room visits and future costs such as loss of income, as well as tangible costs such as funerals, and intangible costs such as pain and suffering.
In a 2009 Canadian national survey, women reported 460,000 incidents of sexual assault in just one year. Only about 10% of all sexual assaults are reported to police. Only a handful of reported assaults ever result in a conviction: each year, only
about 1,500 sexual assault offenders are convicted.
About 80% of sex trafficking victims in Canada are women and girls.
More than one in ten Canadian women say they’ve been stalked by someone in a way that caused fear for their life.

Let’s continue to work together to eliminate violence against women and children.