Independent review calls for B.C. to declare gender-based violence an epidemic

An independent review of the treatment of victims of sexual and intimate partner violence in the British Columbia legal system calls on the government to declare gender-based violence an epidemic. 

The review says most survivors never report violence to police, and those who do experience more barriers to justice.

Statistics show 80 per cent of those who have experienced intimate partner violence and 94 per cent of sexual assault survivors do not report the crime, while more than one-third of women over the age of 15 in B.C. say they have experienced sexual violence. 

Attorney General Niki Sharma says some victims “don’t feel safe coming forward, they fear not being believed, retraumatized or dismissed,” which is why the government appointed Kim Stanton in May 2024 to conduct the review. 

Stanton says her review found numerous barriers for action, and identifies nine recommendations for the best way to help survivors, including an increased focus on prevention, reform in the courts, and legal aid funding for family law services.

She says that change starts with ensuring province-wide, age-appropriate consent education, supplying additional support services for men who use violence before they interact with the criminal justice system, and ensuring police and legal professionals have unconscious bias training. 

“My work is done on the review, but now it’s over to the attorney general and her colleagues to take up the road map that I’ve given them and move forward,” Stanton told a news conference Tuesday.

Angela Marie MacDougall, the executive director of the Battered Women’s Support Services, says the findings of the review provide an opportunity for B.C. to show “political courage” and act on the findings with urgency.

MacDougall explains that the organization is calling for gender-based violence to be declared endemic, as it’s embedded in all systems.

“The systemic failures that were outlined in Dr. Sanders’ report recognize the inconsistent application of the law, as well as the lack of accountability and the institutional neglect,” she explained. “We’ve been highlighting all of these issues to have this powerful language shift, to recognize that violence against women and gender-based violence is both endemic, in every system it’s there, and an epidemic, because it’s widespread and also escalating.”

Gendered violence is endemic and an epidemic: advocate

Violence is not a health issue, MacDougall explains, but rather, it’s part of a broader culture and system that also minimizes, denies, and blames survivors and victims.

“Canada has some of the best laws and policies related to the different forms of gender based violence and violence against women, and the inconsistent application of those laws and policies is a big part of the problem, because it’s at the discretion of the system,” MacDougall said.

“It’s at the discretion of police when they arrive. It’s at the discretion of Crown Counsel when they decide to approve charges or not. It’s at the discretion of the judge, in the sense of sentencing. It’s at the discretion, in many cases, in terms of corrections. And so that inconsistency is a big problem, and it is the reason for the institutional failure to follow through on these legal obligations.”

MacDougall adds the report highlights that there is no way to file complaints against Crown Counsel, and the absence of provincial standards that would ensure a higher and more equitable level of conduct for all of the system’s players.

While the BWSS and MacDougall are welcoming the report’s findings, she says she’s worried about how the province’s attorney general will act on the recommendations.

“What we don’t want is another report to sit on shelves and collect dust. We have too many of those, and survivors deserve more than that, and we expect that the government will take action and show the political will and the courage to adopt the recommendations that Dr. Stanton has put forward.”

With files from Raynaldo Suarez.