Triple-stabbing-part of disturbing gender-based violence trend: advocate

A Vancouver women’s advocacy group says the case of a deadly triple stabbing this month is part of a disturbing trend of gender-based violence in B.C.

On Wednesday, police in Vancouver confirmed that one of three victims, killed following stabbings in a residential building near Joyce Street and Vanness Avenue on Sept. 5, was the former spouse of the man accused in the attacks.

The VPD says 50-year-old Jinfeng Guan was the spouse of 54-year-old Viet Quy John Ly, who is in custody and facing two counts of second-degree murder.

An additional murder charge against Ly has not been laid after Guan died in the hospital last week from her injuries.

Angela Marie MacDougall of Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) is asking police to release the details of the accused’s relationship to the victims.

“We thought that was an important consideration because we believe it’s in the public interest to understand how many intimate-partner related killings that we have in Canada, but also in Vancouver and British Columbia. We think that’s in the public interest, and we were concerned that they were perhaps withholding that — any details about the relationship — in order to not highlight the fact that we’ve had so many killings of women by intimate partners in British Columbia over the last 13 months,” said MacDougall.

BWSS is calling on the government to take urgent action and increase investment in victim support services and broader systemic reforms to address the root causes of gendered violence.

MacDougall says B.C. is in crisis. She wants the province to mandate risk assessments and increase funding to support services, saying victim support programs are seeing a 25 per cent rise in demand.

“There have been, from our accounts, 35 women in the last 13 months that have been killed in British Columbia.”

The VPD has not yet revealed the nature of Ly’s relationship to the other two women.

Ly is expected in court on Sept. 28.

Meanwhile, the federal Conservatives want Ottawa to tighten up the country’s legal response to intimate partner violence.

A private member’s bill introduced by B.C. MP Frank Caputo Thursday proposes automatic charges of first-degree murder for anyone accused of killing a current or former partner.

It also includes rules that would make it easier to detain someone accused of intimate partner violence “at any time,” so that a risk assessment can be carried out.

MacDougall says the bill is a step in the right direction, but “not the whole answer.”

The family of Bailey McCourt raised similar ideas after the Kelowna woman was killed in a violent attack in July. But MacDougall points out that the bill ignores the family’s request for suspects charged with intimate-partner violence to face a mandatory risk assessment.

“The absence of risk assessment in the bill is deeply concerning because we have to recognize the risk and act on it.”

She says BWSS is also advocating that the government officially distinguish the term “femicide” in the criminal legal system.

McCourt’s ex-partner is facing second-degree murder charges in her death.