Bits and Bytes

Excerpt from the Director of Programs and Services Annual Report to the Membership 2000

In our 15^th year of operation, the Assaulted Women’s Helpline continues to provide an exceptional service to women. In the face of funding cuts, conservatism and backlash - the Helpline remains strong and prepared for the new century. Our commitment to women and community has never been stronger.

Three years ago in the 1997/1998 Annual Report to the membership I suggested that we were currently in the era of “more with less”. On the dawn of the year two thousand I re-iterate that sentiment. Women are still being deprived of the most basic human right – safety. With further erosion of the social safety net, increased gaps in services, and barriers to accessing support, women are at more risk than ever. The summer of 2000 has been a horrendous one for women in Ontario. We reel at the deaths of women and children, with the haunting reality that there is little relief in sight. The despair witnessed by crisis counsellors on the line resonates to the very fibre of our humanity. Hollow announcements and Band-Aid solutions provide us little comfort.

A component of the agencies mandate is to identify gaps in service and response to assaulted/abused women. Our crisis line statistics tell a very clear tale of what women need. The countless horror stories paint a very clear picture. Women need access to emergency services, including second stage housing and shelters. During the summer of 2000 for almost two weeks there were no available shelter beds for women fleeing violence in the City of Toronto. Women need access to community and neighbourhood services and supports, including accessible and affordable childcare services, ethno-specific services, women centres and violence against women specific services available to them through settlement agencies. Legal supports are also a critical area of concern. Mandatory risk assessments and stronger Bail limitations. One bail breach must mean incarceration for an abuser. Legal aid certificates and hours must be extended. Women need access to affordable counselling and appropriate mental health services. Childhood sexual abuse survivors and women who have experienced sexual assault have indicated a need for a short-term safe house facility. Finally, and most importantly, the 21% cut to welfare rates must be restored.

As a service, our areas of priority are strongly directed by the current identified needs of women who use our service. As women and community inform us of our priorities, the Helpline then responds by trying to incorporate, diversify, expand or include where appropriate. Our strength as an agency lies in the ability to work with community and other stakeholders, most importantly our callers.

Important to Remember!

When you are writing about the issue of violence against women it is critically important to also provide resource numbers for women who may want to reach out for help or support. Be sure to include the toll-free AWHL phone number and other appropriate local resources and supports in your piece.

Speak to an expert! Contact your local violence against women service (shelter, rape crisis centre, women’s centre, AWHL) and discuss your piece. You can also contact provincial agencies and associations such as:
OAITH (Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses), OCRCC (Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres), Education Wife Assault, DAWN (The DisAbled Women’s Network), AOCVF (Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes), ONWA (Ontario Native Women’s Association, or OCASI (Ontario Coalition of Agencies Serving Immigrants).

Frontline women’s advocates are experts on the issue of violence against women and can give you a real “snapshot” of what is happening in your community in regards to violence against women. They can also provide an analysis of the issue of violence against women, which is intrinsic to writing an accurate and balanced piece. Frontline women’s advocates have been doing this work for over 30 years. If you are not sure how to contact advocates in your community please call the Director of Programs and Services at the Assaulted Women’s Helpline administration office and we can put you in touch with an expert in your community.

Violence against women is a complex and pervasive systemic issue, with multiple layers and differential impacts on different communities of women.

Cross-Sectoral Strategy Emergency Measures

To All Parties of The Legislature of Ontario:

This summer, the brutal and unrelenting reality of violence against women was brought home to Ontarians. Virtually daily reports of women murdered or seriously injured by abusive partners or stalkers served to underline the urgent nature of the crisis.

As well as the highly publicized murders of Gillian Hadley of Pickering and Bohumilla Luft of Kitchener: Hemoutie Raghunauth of Pickering, Harjaap Bolla of Mississauga, Laurie Lynn Vollmershausen of Stratford, Renee Joyson of St. Catherines and Patricia Real of Etobicoke were brutally murdered.

Maria Frana of Malton, Zahra Zeinali of Rexdale and Camille Bonterre of Scarborough just barely survived horrific injuries. Theirs are only the reported attacks, and they all took place within just a few months over this past summer.

The shocking murder of Jennifer Zumach serves to further underline our concerns.

These are not random or isolated crimes committed by strangers. On average, 40 women a year in Ontario are murdered by their partners or former partners. Men are charged daily with assaulting, threatening and stalking their girlfriends, wives or common-law partners, both past and present. Hospital rooms treat women and children injured by family members every day. And while thousands of women seek refuge in women's shelters, many more remain with abusive partners because they do not have the means to leave.

It is well established that violence against women is rooted in social, political and economic inequality between men and women. Women are not victims by nature; we become victims because we cannot access the means to protect and support our children and ourselves. Strengthening women's economic and social position therefore must be the centerpiece of any plan to stem violence against women and children. Adequate social and economic supports may well have saved some of the women murdered this past summer.

Canadian society is becoming dangerously polarized between the "haves" and "have-nots", and many women find ourselves at the short end of the stick. Over the past two decades, the percentage of women living in poverty has been climbing steadily " ... almost 19% of adult women are poor ... " This has unquestionably weakened women's position in averting partner-abuse.

While all women live with the threat of male violence, aboriginal women, racialized women, recent immigrants, women with disabilities and poor women are faced with compounded inequalities that weaken our position even further.

In recent months, public discussion of solutions has focused on the criminal system and "tightening up" on offenders as well as pouring money into programs for male batterers. While violence against women needs to be understood as a serious crime which is the responsibility of the men who commit it, the tendency for policy-makers to divert attention away from the needs of women and children is both dangerous and reprehensible.

Women's advocates have long called for criminal law reforms to ensure much needed protections for women and children but we are disturbed by the way our safety issues are now used to justify law-and-order initiatives in place of effective social programs. Law-and-order rhetoric is based on the exploitation of public fears of "stranger danger". It favours the use of heavy-handed law enforcement strategies against socially disadvantaged groups, which in no way address the violence women face in their intimate and familial relationships. It also serves to scare off women in low-income and racialized communities from reporting violence, putting them at further risk of death or serious injury.

Male batterer programs are as yet unproven in their effectiveness and cannot, in any case, be seen as a priority over much-needed programs and services for women.

Years of cuts to social programs, legal aid, direct anti-violence services and neighbourhood supports have left women in a hardened state of inequality, leaving us increasingly defenceless in the face of abuse.

Women's safety depends on a comprehensive, consistent, long-term approach that addresses the root problem of women's social, economic and political inequality. Numerous reports, studies, inquest juries and safety audits have documented the broad range of policies and programs needed to ensure the safety of women and children. It must be our goal and responsibility as a society to address all of these needs, in their entirety.

But women and children cannot wait. The coming session of the Ontario Legislature must enact immediate measures, which bring down some of the obvious barriers standing in the way of women's ability to protect ourselves and our children.

Townson, Monica (2000) A Report Card on Women and Poverty. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Emergency Measures for Women and Children
In the Fall 2000 Legislative Session

A.	Community Based Services for Women and Children
	We call for the immediate establishment of a $50 million fund for the provision of community-based services to women and children to be spent on the following measures:
	1.	Emergency Services
		CRISIS LINES The few Crisis Lines that do exist for women who experience violence are hard pressed to meet the need for their services. A busy signal can mean the difference between life and death for a battered woman. The Toronto-based Assaulted Women's Helpline gets crisis calls from all over Ontario but is funded to serve only the Toronto area. A province-wide line that serves women in a broad range of languages is a critical addition to (not replacement for) local crisis lines.
	Make the Assaulted Women's Helpline a province-wide service as per its proposal circulated to members of the Legislature this summer.
		SHELTER FUNDING Since 1995, demands for shelter services have increased while financial pressures on shelters have resulted in diminished services to women and children. This summer, shelters across Ontario were at full occupancy and overwhelmed with the increased number of crisis calls. While the allocation of $10M in last year's budget for transitional workers and child witness programs was a start towards addressing the overstretched resources of emergency women's shelters, these front-line services need significant reinvestment to ensure appropriate assistance to the women and children who seek refuge there.
	The coming year's budget should allocate a further $15 million in annualized funds to independent community-based women's shelters, including those not currently funded by the MCSS. In communities where there is a documented urgent need for additional shelter beds, funding should be allocated to begin this expansion (as promised in the Government's Common Sense Revolution documents). Immediately implement the shelter funding review, as recommended in the Arlene May Inquest report.
		SECOND STAGE HOUSING PROGRAMS Access to housing, beyond the emergency stage, is an essential protection. Many women, who have found the courage to leave, find themselves returning to abusive situations because they have no housing options. Second stage housing is a critical safety bridge for these women and their children. This sector is currently dangerously under-funded and under-staffed.
	Allocate $3,360,000.00 in annualized funds to Second Stage Housing Programs via Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services.
		SEXUAL ASSAULT & RAPE CRISIS CENTERS Community outreach workers at rape crisis centres are struggling to keep pace with demands. Women who cannot or do not want to contact police rely on rape crisis centres as their point of contact. The centres are crucial in linking women to appropriate social services.
	Reinstate the 5% cut to rape crisis centre funding and make provision for annualized increases in core support. Fund one community outreach worker per rape crisis centre. Fund counselors within rape crisis centres to provide support for women who are sexually harassed in the workplace.
	2.	Community & Neighbourhood Supports
		The number one place of disclosure of violence against women is to family and friends. Isolation of women within their neighbourhoods and communities is an urgent concern. Local women's groups and services need links to province-wide advocates to access up-to date information so they can effectively support women. Shelters, rape crisis centres, counseling services and crisis lines are struggling to provide specific services to Francophone and First Nations women as well as women of colour and women with disabilities. Supplementary community supports are essential.
	Grant funding for women's neighbourhood & advocacy groups Funding to province-wide women's anti-violence advocacy groups Trained violence against women cultural interpreters in Immigrant and Settlement agencies Sufficient and stable funding to French language services in community-based agencies throughout Ontario. Stable funding support to Women's Centers.
B.	Legal Reforms and Services
	We call for a further $50 million to be immediately allocated to ensure the following legal reforms and services:
	1.	Legal Aid
		Women have a constitutional right to fair and equal treatment under the law. This right can only be exercised if they are ensured access to legal representation. With the legal aid system in a funding crisis, supports for women fleeing abuse are increasingly inadequate.
	Increase hours for private representation of abused women in Family Court matters. Abandon plans to increase use of duty counsel. Provide funds for cultural, deaf and ASL interpretation in Family Court as per the current provisions for criminal and immigration court. Extend Legal Aid coverage to abused women to include divorce and all property matters. Provide Legal Aid to women who are victim/ witnesses in criminal cases. Provide Legal Aid funding for representation of women making human rights complaints about harassment in the workplace.
	2.	Criminal Law Reforms
		Criminal law reforms to increase protections for assaulted women have been on hold for many years. The Province has yet to implement the many, detailed recommendations of the Arlene May Coroner's Inquest Jury and must do so immediately. There is no need to wait for results of further inquests. Recommended changes must be put on the front burner.
	Risk Assessments must be conducted, and offender's previous history of violence must be completed and on file, before first bail hearings for abusers. When release on bail is granted with a no-contact order to men charged with violence against women, one breach of that order must mean that he is denied further bail. Immediate direction to Crown Attorneys to argue women's Charter rights to life, liberty and personal security in all bail hearings.
	3.	Family Law Reforms
		Fear for the safety of their children is one of the most important concerns for abused women. Manipulation of the Family Court system is a common tactic of abusers to continue their control over the family. Possible apprehension of children who are witnesses to violence is a major deterrent to women reporting abuse.
	Implement a policy of no mediation where there is evidence of past or present abuse. There can be no negative judicial inference when women decline mediation due to safety concerns. Increase the availability of supervised access exchanges and centres to ensure they are available to all women who have safety concerns. Improve and expand the nature of supervised access so that fathers and children can have safe, meaningful visits with proper, trained and consistent supervision. Implement the family law recommendations of the Arlene May inquest Jury. Implement a mechanism to track the impact of new child welfare legislation and practices on abused women and child witnesses of violence (Child & Family Services Act).
C.	Economic Survival and Workplace Safety
	We call for the allocation of core Government resources to ensure the economic survival and workplace safety of women and their children across the Province:
	1.	Economic Survival
		Financial solvency is central to women's safety. Without it, many women remain in, or return to, abusive relationships. Women who have no economic supports have no way of fleeing violent situations. Most women leaving abusive situations need welfare and other social supports to re-build their lives and the lives of their children.
	Implement an annual cost of living adjustment to welfare rates to take effect immediately. Referrals to a community legal clinic, via plain language letters, to all people denied a benefit or cut off welfare. Anyone denied benefits through the new call centres to be linked, by phone, to a community legal clinic for advice. Drop the appeal on the "spouse in the house rule" to ensure that women are able maintain financial independence. Drop the plan to penalize for "benefits stacking and maintain current policies allowing women to access multiple Provincial services as they need them". End the clawback of the Federal child tax credit for families on welfare (approx. $50 per child per month). Implement a policy to abandon the practice of requiring and/ or requesting that women disclosing violence seek child support or spousal support in order to qualify. Full deferment of or voluntary participation in workfare for social assistance recipients disclosing violence against women. Fund Pay Equity Ð 1% adjustment to all proxy agencies to ensure the survival of women's agencies and services as they meet their legal pay equity obligations.
	2.	Workplace Protection
		Working women who are suffering abuse in the home, sexual harassment at work or who are being stalked are in danger of losing their jobs due o related absences or lowered performance and currently have no protection from termination. Women cannot be made to choose between their jobs and their safety. The current review of the Employment Standards Act allows the Government to enact immediate workplace protections for abused women.
	The Province designates the first week of June as Sexual Harassment Awareness Week in honour of Teresa Vince who was killed by her harasser on June 2, 1996. Include, in the Employment Standards Act, protection from termination for women who are facing harassment, abuse or stalking in the home or workplace. Extend the proposed Emergency Family Leave provisions to provide protection for women who are being assaulted, abused, harassed or stalked at home or in the workplace. Extend proposed Family Leave provisions to cover workplaces with less than 50 employees, as only about 5% of all businesses in Ontario have more that 50 employees. Employment Standards Act parental leave provisions be extended an additional seventeen weeks to cover the entire one year period for which Employment Insurance benefits are now available.

Declaration of Commitment

Hadley Jury Recommendations

Hadley Recommendations - Ontario Women’s Justice Network – Commentary on the Hadley Recommendations, Author Pamela Cross, Legal Director, OWJN http://www.owjn.org/issues/w-abuse/hadley2.htm
OAITH's recommendations to the Hadley jury http://www.owjn.org/issues/w-abuse/oaith.htm

May/Iles Jury Recommendations

May-Iles recommendations
http://www.owjn.org/archive/arlene.htm

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