To mark this International Women’s Day, we collaborated with other women’s services and anti-violence organizations to publish the following open letter in the Times Colonist. Text is below. View the print copy of the open letter here.
Intimate partner violence impacts everyone. It crosses every boundary – age, income, culture, and community. It is not “someone else’s” issue. It could be your mother. Your sister. Your daughter. Your friend. It could be you.
Women must be believed when they say they are afraid. When a woman says she fears for her safety, this is a critical risk factor that must be taken seriously. She deserves protection that is comprehensive, consistent, monitored, and enforced.
Right now, that protection is not being delivered. Too many women are being failed by the very systems meant to keep them safe: policing, the legal system, and child protection. Instead of being supported, women are too often left to shoulder the responsibility for their own safety and the safety of their children. This expectation is unrealistic at best and lethal at worst.
We do not lack knowledge about what needs to change. The solutions have been identified repeatedly for decades.
Most recently, our provincial government has highlighted three priority recommendations from Dr. Kim Stanton’s 2025 report, recommendations that can and must be acted on immediately:
- Create a new provincial policy framework that directs all legal, child welfare, police, and victim service providers to make women’s safety the top priority.
- Implement risk assessment and safety planning that informs every stage of criminal and family court processes.
- Establish a government mechanism for accountability to ensure recommendations are implemented, timelines are met, and ministries work together rather than in silos.
Violence against women and femicide are preventable public safety failures.
On this International Women’s Day, we are calling on government to act now. These recommendations are not optional. They are the minimum required to begin addressing the epidemic of violence against women.
We are asking our community to stand with us. Raise your voice.
Demand action. Write, call, or email your MLA and tell them you support immediate implementation of these critical changes. Women’s lives depend on it.
