choose to change this
Women and children more at risk in province
OAITH - Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses
released Monday, Nov. 24, 2003 - posted Nov. 26, 2003

reproduced from a PDF file

Since June 1995: 161 women, 21 children, 10 family and friends murdered.   33% increase in murders of women between 2000 and 2001--virtually all in Ontario

Women and children more at risk in province

The title of this report is borrowed from the Liberal Party election campaign slogan "choose change" because we look forward to a new approach that will offer hope to women and children experiencing violence in Ontario. Abused women work hard every day to change their lives and the lives of their children. Governments can take women's lives from poverty to promise, from fear to freedom--if they choose to take action now. During November Wife Assault Prevention Month in Ontario, we especially look forward to positive and speedy change.

This brief report outlines some of women's stuggles to end the violence in their lives and a few of the actions we hope to see as a new government takes the issue forward.

Since 1995, the lives of abused women and their children have become more difficult and dangerous. Policies of the previous provincial government took a "law and order" approach that shifted focus and funding from the independent, community-based services women primarily use to generic, gender-neutral criminal justice system programs. Cuts to women and children's services left both women and their advocates feeling more and more abandoned by their government.

While the criminal justice system is part of the comprehensive response needed to counter violence against women--and must continue to improve its response--it does not address the majority of concerns abused women in Ontario share for both themselves and their children. Consistently, research has shown that only a little more than a quarter of women will call police. Even fewer will be successful in having charges laid. Still fewer will see the abuser convicted in court. In 2002, Ontario shelters reported that 29% of women had called police. Charges were laid in 54% of cases, compared to 60% nationally. The national percentage also decreased from 64% only four years before. (Statistics Canada:
Canada's Shelters for Abused Women, 2001/02.)

Women and children live with the hope of escaping not only the crime of violence, but the whole experience of abuse and how it affects all parts of their lives. Addressing abuse brings women into contact with many community systems: shelters and women's services, housing access centres, social assistance offices, the legal aid and family law system, criminal court, hospitals, schools and counselling agencies to name a few. A lot of women's time, effort and energy is sapped in the process. Without strong advocates and community support, many women are forced to return to abusers. This has never been more true than today, when so many service cuts have fortified the barriers women must overcome to escape.

Poverty and lack of housing are two of the primary challenges women face. Services in rural and Northern communities remain inadequate and in some cases, non-existent. The specific needs of Aboriginal women, women of colour and immigrant women, women with disabilities and deaf women have not been taken seriously by governments and many women in these constituencies still have little to no access to services available to other women. French language services for women are also underfunded and struggling to meet the need.

Government abandonment of social development and equality-based approaches to understanding and ending violence against women, along with social program cuts, have made women more vulnerable to violence. It is now harder for most women to escape abuse and to raise their children in a safe, healthy and economically secure way.

Government policy must reverse this dangerous trend, and restore hope to women and children who try to escape violence. We are counting on the new Liberal government to "choose to change this" by making a commitment to equality and freedom for women.

Poverty traps women and children in violence

Women eating less, going without medical, dental care to survive on welfare

Lack of housing and money affect decision to return to abusers

Women and children are forced to remain with or return to abusers in Ontario because they lack money and a place to live. To survive on social assistance and feed their children, they go without food and medicine, sell basic goods, use food banks and even give up their children so the children will have food and a roof over their heads.

Over the last eight years, the search for affordable housing and economic security for women has become a bitter and discouraging one leading many women back to abuse. A snapshot of 38 OAITH shelters, representative of all geographic regions of the province, reveals that both low social assistance rates and lack of housing are significant factors in women's decision to remain with or return to an abusive partner.

Ninety-two percent of shelters in our sample report that women's decision to remain with or return to an abusive situation was influenced by low social assistance rates. Almost three quarters of these shelters report that welfare affects the decision 'often' or 'most of the time.' The rest report that it 'sometimes' influences the decision.

Whether women can find adequate housing is also a factor for most women trying to decide whether to leave. Ninety percent of shelters identify inability to find subsidized housing as a factor in women's decision-making and almost 80% of these said it was a factor either 'often' or 'most of the time.' Another 21% said lack of housing in their area 'sometimes' affected women's decision to escape.

Shelters report increasing waiting time for subsidized housing units, despite a provincial policy to provide priority placement on housing waiting lists to abuse victims. Even on the special abuse priority list, almost 75% of women will wait between one and six months for housing, and 40% will wait between three and six months, according to our shelter reports. Another 16% will wait longer than six months. Only 8% will get housing within one month. The provincial guideline for maximum stay in a woman's shelter is six weeks.

Almost three-quarters of shelters report that waiting times are longer in their area since 1995, with almost half (48%) reporting that they are 'a lot longer.'

While the Special Priority for abuse is an important support for women, shelters report that it is increasingly difficult for abused women to use it. Women who seek priority on waiting lists are subjected to more and more intense scrutiny by local housing access offices.

---

"Lack of affordable housing is a huge, increasing barrier for women. Rents continue to increase
substantially in our area."

---

In the past year, especially since the release of the Gillian Hadley inquest recommendations, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing has been conducting consultations with local housing officials, housing providers and advocates. One of the stated purposes of the consultation was to strengthen support for abuse victims within the housing sector. As yet however, it appears the support has diminished, not increased.

Shelters across the province are reporting increasing eligibility criteria for housing priority placement. Eighty-two percent of shelters report that eligibility rules in their area have tightened to exclude more and more women and children from the abuse priority list.

Shelters report that women are expected to provide multiple 'verifications' of the abuse from community professionals and increased evidence that the woman was living with the abusive partner within 90 days before applying for subsidized housing. In some cases, verification from a women's shelter is not acceptable.

Multiple verification is not required under the Social Housing Act and has not been supported by the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs, but it increasingly continues to occur. Many women remain in danger well after 90 days from leaving abusers--particularly lethal abusers. Women in second stages may be excluded from the list because they have been there beyond the arbitrary 90 days.

Shelters also report that some housing centres are demanding police and medical reports (for which women must pay fees). Some are also restricting eligible abuse to physical assault reported to police, which seriously restricts many women and children who are in serious danger, given women's reluctance to call police. Lack of housing is a poverty issue for women. Women wait for scarce subsidized housing because they cannot afford market rental housing.

More serious than the pressures women face to find housing are the measures women must take to cope with unreasonable social assistance rates. Many women using shelters are forced to go on welfare when they first leave an abusive partner. Since the 21.6% welfare cut in 1995 (37% with cost of living) and the subsequent freeze on welfare rates, however, women are finding it more and more difficult to survive. Many use strategies to do so that should move any humane government to take immediate action on poverty.

OAITH member shelters surveyed for this port told us that besides giving up food and medical care, women also use food banks and the shelter to get food and clothing donations, sell needed personal goods like their furniture, and give up their children to abusive ex-partners who can provide better food and housing. Shelters report that some abused women have had to place their children in the temporary care of child welfare because of poverty or homelessness. They also borrow from family and friends and rely on community poverty programs like collective kitchens to get by. A few have even resorted to prostitution and other
crimes.

The chart below graphically shows the measures women are driven to take when they must leave abusive situations without enough money to live. Almost all (97%) shelters responding to our survey said that they knew abused women and children who were calling on local food banks for help. Over 90% of shelters said women also return to their shelter seeking food
and clothing.

Eighty-seven percent of shelters reported that they knew abused women who were eating less and going without medical or dental care because they didn't have money for prescriptions or dental work. Women made these sacrifices to feed their children and provide for children's other needs before taking care of themselves. Despite these extreme measures to get by on little or no financial support, some abused women are still forced to give up their children because of poverty.

Over half of shelters (53%) responding to our questions knew women who had given their children to their abusive expartner because of poverty. This shortterm measure may ensure children have housing and food, but can create serious problems for women who then must argue in family court for custody of their children who have been exposed to abuse. The strategy of placing children in the temporary care of child welfare also creates additional stress on both mothers and their children, and may result in continuing child welfare involvement in their lives.

Abused women are keen to get off of welfare as soon as possible, but the lack of training and education opportunities for low-income women with children keeps them trapped in the welfare system. Even when women can find opportunities for upgrading, they most often have no one to care for their children while they attend. Lack of subsidized childcare presents
another barrier that prevents women from building new, independent lives free of violence.


Eighty-six percent of shelters in our snapshot group reported that unavailability of childcare in their area was a deterrent to women accessing the education and training needed to remain free of violence.

Alternate text for above chart:

Shelter reports of abused women's survival strategies
chart indicating percentage of shelters reporting:

* Eating less 85%
* Using foods banks more 95%
* Using shelter for food/clothing 90%
* Going without medicine/ dental 85%
* Selling basics like furniture 70%
* Giving child(ren) to abuser 53%

From the Frontlines: "Women return to abusers because they have nowhere to go and no money to take care of their children. Period!" "The level of desperation, humiliation and isolation for women has significantly increased. Despair over denying their children some very basic needs (clothes, shelter and food) coupled with an inability to provide for demands from schools, organized sports clubs and other social opportunities further isolates women from their communities. Victim- and woman-blaming within institutions continues to create huge barriers with more and more emphasis on the criminalization of woman abuse leaving emotionally scarred women blaming themselves." "Lack of funding is the hardest barrier to women. They rely on the system to help them in a crisis. Social assistance does not pay enough, the lack of housing, daycare, etc. are huge barriers. Shelters are underfunded and the focus for government needs to be on matters regarding violence against women and children." "Women need recreational supports, more programs for themselves and their children. Women need access to safe and free transportation to reduce isolation. They need access to educational and training opportunities which have childcare and transportation available."

Funding cuts hurt women’s shelter services

Shelter needs and costs rising
but funding, staffing not
keeping pace

Agencies struggle to raise
enough money to keep
women’s shelters responding

Ontario women's shelters have never been appropriately funded and have always been forced to fundraise to cover basic core services. (This, despite a 1991 provincial all-Party committee recommendation that women's shelters receive 100% funding support from the Province.) Since a 5% annualized cut was made to shelters in 1995, however, these much-needed crisis services have been fighting just to survive.

A snapshot survey of 28 OAITH member shelters shows the mounting pressures on shelters in just the last four years since the 1999 re-election of the Progressive Conservative Party in Ontario. The snapshot sample includes shelters from every part of the province and every size of shelter from 10-bed shelters in the North to 25 and 39-bed shelters in Toronto. (A previous OAITH report, entitled Falling Through the Gender Gap, outlined the drastic effects of funding cuts between 1995 and 1998.)

Our current survey shows that while shelters are working harder, often with fewer staff, shelter
costs continue to rise while government support has fallen off the pace. Many shelters scramble to raise the money they need as they try to respond to the needs of women and children.

The chart illustrates discrepancies in government funding support compared to the increasing overall numbers of women served, increased occupancy of shelter beds and much longer stays in shelters over the past four years. It also shows that, on average, staffing levels for direct service to women and children remain virtually unchanged since 1999.

Pressures on shelter services are driven by different factors in different agencies. Both increasing numbers of women seeking help and increased lengths of stay caused by lack of permanent housing and other community supports create additional work without the additional staff (or with less staff) needed to support women and children.

Shelters report an average increase of 17% in numbers of women served. Even in the North, where occupancy rates of shelters has traditionally been low, shelters are reporting increases in women coming to the shelter. One shelter in the North reports serving over double the number of women in 2002/03 than in 1999/00; another reports a 140% increase.

At the same time, about half of our sample report that they admitted fewer women in 2002/03 than in 1999/00, but indicated that women were staying in the shelter longer before finding housing. Over half of shelters (52%) reported longer stays for women in the shelter. Lack of community supports like housing, financial supports, legal aid and counselling services mean increased advocacy work to find this scarce assistance, requiring longer stays by women.

Shelters in the Greater Toronto Area experienced the longest shelter stays, with some women forced to stay in shelter for up to 28 weeks before finding housing, more than double the average stay four years ago.

One disturbing trend reported by some shelters was a decrease in the numbers of children served since 1999. On average, the number of children served has declined slightly (0.1%) since 1999. While many shelters responding to our snapshot (41%) indicated an increase in the number of children using their shelter, over half (56%) reported a decrease. Three percent did not answer.

This trend was also pointed out by Statistics Canada in its most recent national Transition Home Survey. The survey reported an 8% decline nationally in the numbers of children residing in shelters on their "snapshot" day between 1998 and 2002. A breakdown of the Ontario figures requested from Statistics Canada shows that there was a 5% drop in the number of children residing in Ontario shelters between 1998 and 2002.

Statistics Canada has suggested that the increasing numbers of new child welfare policies requiring reporting of "domestic violence," including new legislation and practice in Ontario, has contributed to fewer women with children seeking shelter. Along with increasing housing wait lists and frozen welfare in Ontario, fear of child apprehension is another of a growing number of factors keeping women from taking action to escape. (Under an agreement with the Ministry of Community and Social Services, shelters for abused women in Ontario are not required to automatically report child exposure to violence to child welfare.)

In addition to added pressures on shelters caused by lack of housing and increased numbers of women seeking space, shelters also report that lack of resources and staffing affect their ability to respond to women with additional access barriers or specific needs.

Alternate text for above chart:

Changes in demand and resources from 1999 to 2003
chart reporting average % increase

Salaries and benefits 5%
Insurance costs 35%
Energy costs 27%
Fundraising required 22%
MCSS funding 4%
Children's counsellors 0%
Women's counsellors 1%
Length of stay 53%
Occupancy rate 11%
Children served 1%
Women served 17%

Although committed to accessibility and equality, less than half of shelters in our survey felt that they were adequately able to address the needs of racially, culturally and linguistically diverse abused women or women with immigration issues.

Lack of resources and staffing also limited their ability to serve women with disabilities and women with psychiatric issues. Only 14% of shelters felt they adequately support women with mental health concerns, while 31% reported they adequately serve the needs of women with disabilities.

Shelters also identified challenges meeting the needs of abused deaf women, women with substance abuse concerns, lesbian and transgendered women and women needing significant travel to get to and from the shelter (e.g. in the North where women may need to fly to the shelter community).

On average, shelters in our snapshot had largely frozen staff levels in 1999. Over half (58%) had no increase in staff working directly with women. Twenty-seven percent had fewer staff and only 15% increased staff in women's direct services.

The picture for staff working directly with children was worse. Seventy percent of shelters reported no increase in children's staff since 1999. Twenty-two percent reported a decrease and only 9% reported an increase. (Shelters also lost staff and staff hours between 1995 and 1999 when the 5% cut to all women's shelter budgets took effect.)

Shelters increasingly lack staff and resources to meet the needs of women and children because of chronic underfunding. Costs of operation have increased while Ontario government funding has been either frozen or increased only minimally, at best, since the cut.

As the chart on page 4 shows, funding from the Ministry of Community and Social Services has not kept pace with the costs of providing shelter. Services are spending more time seeking additional donations from the community. According to our survey sample, MCSS funding has increased only minimally by an average of 4%. (MCSS separately funds additional "transitional support workers" and children's group counselling leaders in shelter outreach programs that are often shared with other community services.)

Fundraising required to cover shortfalls in basic core service has increased by about 20%. Some shelters, especially in Northern and small communities do not have sufficient population to fundraise core shelter service funds.

Fixed costs like energy and insurance have increased dramatically, as the chart shows. Almost all shelters (97%) report increases in energy costs, the average being 28%; one shelter reported a 121% increase. Insurance costs have increased since 1999 by an average of 35%--over three-quarters (76%) of shelters report an increase, with one shelter reporting an increase of 142%.

Staff salaries and benefit costs have risen in over three-quarters of shelters, but by significantly less--an average of only 6% over four years. The highest reported increase in costs of salaries and benefits was 39% over four years. Some shelters explained they had reduced costs for staff salaries and benefits because senior, experienced staff had left in frustration to take work in other fields or other services. Frontline salaries have clearly not kept pace with the16% cost of living increase in Ontario since 1995.

Women’s shelter pay equity expenses will not be reimbursed


A recent pay equity victory for women has a strange twist for women's shelters. A legal challenge of the decision by the Harris government not to cover pay equity increases for "proxy" comparator workplaces resulted in a mediated settlement requiring the Ontario government to pay $400 million to cover pay equity raises not provided to women in proxy comparator workplaces since 1999 when the government stopped coverage of the legally required raises.

The settlement money, however, will not be used to reimburse those government funded agencies that did comply with pay equity legislation by cutting staff hours and services or working harder to raise the additional money needed to honour the law. Women's shelters have been told that regardless of any hardships endured to comply with pay equity increases, there will be no reimbursement of funds already spent on providing pay equity.

Most shelters adopted multiple measures to provide pay equity. A survey of OAITH shelters discovered that of shelters in our sample, 21% reduced staff numbers and a quarter reduced staff hours to cover pay equity costs. Between 16% and 21% reduced or eliminated pay increases, and a similar number either decreased or eliminated cost of living increases to find the resources to comply with pay equity requirements. Over half of shelters had to increase fundraising and reduce or cut training, travel and special events to meet pay equity targets.

Approximately 75% of shelters answering our survey had paid pay equity and reported budget shortfalls from $12,000 to $120,000 since 1999 as a result. Many shelters have expressed shock that those agencies that had the foresight not to pay out the raises--in effect to ignore pay equity legislation--will enjoy a reward, while most women's shelters will never recoup the losses they faced when the previous government refused to include the increases in government approved shelter budget allocations.

"Since the 5% cutbacks of 1995, our agency's fundraising goals have grown by almost $10,000 per year. At present, current fundraising requirements have become extremely difficult, if not
impossible. Our services and programs for abused women and their children are suffering!"

Women tell the government what they think

We asked women to comment on what they would tell the new government of Ontario to do if it wants to make the lives of abused women and their children better.

Women checked off a listing of all-systems and supports they might use to address violence and where they thought the new Ontario government could make positive changes. They chose everything from support for crisis services like shelters, second stage programs and counselling services, to broad prevention systems like social assistance, housing and legal aid, as well as family and criminal legal systems as all in need of improvement.

Not surprisingly, women focussed much of their commentary on the lack of financial support and housing availability also reported by sheltersin our sample.

Here are some of their comments:

"Due to the increasing high cost of living, it has become close to impossible to find even the lowest end of adequate housing for single mothers, low income and middle income families. The social assistance program needs to be reassessed and made to reflect the needs of those trying to find appropriate housing for their children as well as be given the ability to feed their children."

"Subsidized housing waiting list is ridiculously long. Rules to be put on the priority are unfair and put women in a position where they are better off if they go back to an abusive
partner. Need more legal aid and free counselling. Police need to be trained and retrained to the real issues."

"STOP making it the woman's responsibility to leave an abusive relationship by taking children away through CAS. Make the guys leave. While they sit nice in our apartments, we have to go to a shelter with our kids."

"I've already been abused, just please help me pay my bills and feed my kids."

"Social assistance has not kept pace with present inflation. The cost of clothing and particularly food has risen dramatically. There should be much larger subsidies made available for eye and dental care for adults. There is little subsidized housing available for single women. If it were not for the second stage program here in Atitokan, I would be having a very difficult time. All of the programs on the list need attention but these are the three that most affect me. Thank you for considering my input."

"I would like to tell the new government that it is not easy for single women and their kids with no support. I think they should get more money so the kids don't have to go without too much that other kids have (no one knows how hard it is to live that way until they have to). I also think they should give people with disabilities more money. They should not be punished because they can't work, for example. My mom has scoliosis, diabetes and weight problems. She is 5 feet and only weighs 76 pounds. She is too sick to work and does not get enough money to even get enough food, so she can gain weight. How is she going to get better so
she can work? It's not that she doesn't want to, she has her BSW but she is too sick. Just a question for thought."

"Increase women's equality; more programs for women; more subsidized housing."

"I have a hard time getting around. There should be free public transportation for people to access medical appointments. I would like to get counselling-it should be more accessible."

"Housing, affordable housing would certainly be a priority. Women are struggling to find affordable, liveable apartments. Not only are most of them starting up with social assistance (which allows minimal rent) but they are going against 4 or 5 other people looking at the same apartment. Who are likely working people. Questions like "how will you afford to eat after you pay your rent?" is quite common for someone on welfare when searching for a dwelling. Landlords fear not receiving their rent, therefore, they are more likely to chose one of the other 4 or 5 working individuals. Thank you."

"More and better housing for women and children; more help for women with disabilities like myself. Faster ways to get counselling for children and mothers."

"To have better police protection. More subsidized housing available; more shelters or rooms available; more services available for children who have witnessed some kind of abuse or violence."

"Raise social assistance rates and minimum wage! Social assistance has been slashed 21% and the minimum wage has been frozen for years, despite increases in the costs of living, inflation, etc. Social assistance is barely enough to live on, as is minimum wage."

"To be able to have more affordable housing. Also, to have more resources for youth. Youth who cannot or don't want to live at home should have some sort of shelter to get them off the streets. They should also be able to get an apartment or some place to live at reasonable and affordable rates. A lot of youth are in trouble too!" (age 16)

Women tell the government what they think "Thank you for the opportunity to speak safely. I voted in the most recent election while living in (a shelter), something I could not have done without the opportunity to vote in an advance poll outside my own neighbourhood. This practical help, so simple, is the kind of support and acknowledgement of difficult and even surreal situations that abused women need."

"Help women and children who live with abusive relationships to get back to their own lives. To get assistance how to get a job, help, counselling to guide them until back to their own feet. Impose strict rules on the partners who abuse them. Partners who abuse are to be punished. Women's shelter funding. Job training for women in abusive situations."

"I feel it is very important that subsidized housing be increased for more single women with children. As well as social assistance--it should be increased not only for women with children, but for single women alone, who are make to live on $524 a month, which only allows $375 for shelter. Women should have more offered to them as far as programs, child care and legal aid is concerned, as well as counselling."

"Ontario Works needs to stop pulling the teeth from my mouth every time I need a filling, or pay for my dentures once they've pulled them all."

"Stricter enforcement of existing laws, e.g. restraining orders. Underenforcement of violations is causing more abuse situations and even death. Less time-consuming access to financial and housing assistance. Secondary housing and more shelters are needed."

"More housing should be number one!"

"The cost of food, hydro, gas, rent; all has gone up but social assistance has been the same for at least 5 years. I am a single woman living in a shelter at the present time. I am unable to find something to rent for $320 a month unless I want to live in a dump. We need more affordable housing and a wait list not two years long. And maybe some training courses for women to take to get off welfare."

"Build more affordable housing for women and children in the North."

"The national child benefit needs to be given back to the kids. Basic shelter and utilities need to be adjusted to the current cost of living. Believe in the reality of abusive relationships and the impact that this has on children. Women always have to prove their 'fitness' has mothers, whereas fathers seem to have ownership of the children. Subsidized childcare for women who are trying to reeducate themselves or are working. Dental care should be part of health care."

"Support payments must not be deducted penny for penny from Ontario Works because that money does not belong to me, it belongs to my kids."

"I would tell the government that they need to increase social assistance for women and children. Poverty is at epidemic proportions. Fear of starving is a big barrier to women who need to leave violent situations. The other barrier is fear of CAS. The government needs to start holding violent men responsible for their behaviour, not punishing the women who have no resources to leave with. Social housing has no houses in our town and very limited 3-bedroom apartments, so women and children often have no options but unsafe inadequate housing."

"Thank you for the opportunity to speak safely. I voted in the most recent election while living in (a shelter), something I could not have done without the opportunity to vote in an advance poll outside my own neighbourhood. This practical help, so simple, is the kind of support and acknowledgement of difficult and even surreal situations that abused women need. To vote in my own neighbourhood was not safe for me and would have endangered my children's lives, and yet I believe to not vote means I will not have a voice in my own governance for five years...

...Social assistance levels have not been revised for seven years at least...when one is already at the minimum, to not allow for inflation means that one is living in abject poverty and without necessities of life, such as soap...I cannot afford to shop for bargains at the farmer's market, the discount food store and the bulk store if I cannot afford transportation. If my children are ill, I cannot afford to call Telehealth Ontario if I cannot afford telephone service...

...In my struggle, I require on-going validation, counselling and support for my self-esteem. It has taken a beating, sometimes literally, along with that of my children. I encourage the government to be proactive to reach out to find the powerless, listen and give them voices ...Tell the women of Ontario they will be heard. Don't wait for them to cry out, because when they do so most often they are at the end of their rope."
(Excerpts from a 4-page letter which, unfortunately, we did not have space to include in its entirety.)

"More funding is desperately needed for shelters, for social programs, daycares, counselling agencies and in particular, those agencies who run programs to assist women who are victims of violence. We need affordable housing for women and children fleeing abusive relationships and are financially dependent on their partners. We need to spend more money on the safety and well-being of women, who are the caregivers and custodial parents of children--the same children who are the future of our country!!"

"Hire more women that have past experience so we're on the same page. Recognize the impact on what women need to do to stay strong, to fight and stand tall, 'cause many, many women are still getting victimized through the courts and police departments. More wareness of abuse. Six weeks is not long enough to stay in shelter, to start healing, getting counselling, figuring out what to do. You can't just forget about everything--it takes time to get mobilized once again."

"I would like more programs for children. They need to have volunteer drivers to help women get counselling if they need it for their safety."

Ontario has blueprint to change women’s lives

Coroner's inquests make 271 recommendations for change

'Emergency Measures' give direction from the frontlines

The list of recommendations to stop violence against women from studies, reports, consultations and public policy experts is almost endless. Action to implement the list, however, is short by comparison. So it is no surprise that under the Mike Harris government numerous recommendations for change were added to the stack. Or that all too little has been done to make them real for women.

There have been two lengthy inquests into the deaths of women in Ontario. The first was the inquest into the death of Arlene May, a mother of five children who was shot by her ex-boyfriend, Randy Iles, on International Women's Day, 1996. Her three children had just been released from a closet and ran crying for help. Iles then killed himself with a gun he bought despite a court order not to possess weapons. The order to surrender his Firearms Acquisition Certificate was inadvertently left off his typed bail orders.

Randy Iles had been in bail court on numerous occasions--each time receiving less stringent conditions--because he refused to obey orders to stay away from Arlene. Arlene May, a mother who was trying to survive on social assistance, had few resources to take on Randy Iles and counted on a criminal justice system that let her down. In only three months she had given up hope and written her will just before she was murdered.

The 213 recommendations of the May-Iles jury, released in July of 1998, included a myriad of very clear, specific changes to criminal justice system response as well as calls for increased independent, community-based women's services, such as shelters and women's advocate programs. They also included changes to the family law and legal aid systems to support women in civil legal processes. The government was directed to consult with women's advocate groups before implementing changes.

A small implementation committee was struck that further studied the recommendations and submitted its own 'five-year plan' for change offering another 173 recommendations. Women's advocate groups with legal standing at the inquest were not invited to participate.

In response to all of these ideas for improving abused women and children's lives, the government began work on selected recommendations in the criminal justice system, declaring often that from 85% to 90% of the recommendations had been implemented or were "in the process of being implemented."

This "process" has been excruiatingly long. To this day, it is unclear exactly what specific recommendations of the May-Iles jury have been completed, despite claims of implementation. Shelter advocates tell of little change for women in their communities. In fact, they report a disturbing number of abused women being charged by police in a "mutual
charging" trend.

We know for certain that shelters have not received the support intended by the jury. And we know that the women's advocate program suggested has not materialized. Government did provide $10 million in annualized funding to create child witness group programs and "transitional support worker" programs to help women liaise with community systems. Although certainly welcome, many of these programs are shared by a number of community agencies and groups.

In June of 2000, Gillian Hadley was shot to death after a public struggle for her survival on the street outside her front door. Frantic neighbours on their way to work called 911 several times, while others responded to her terrified pleas to save her baby. Ralph Hadley fought off rescuers with a loaded gun and, slamming the door, murdered Gillian and himself. The details of criminal justice system intervention were eerily similar to those of Arlene May four years before, and both press and public began to ask why the murder happened given claims that the May-Iles recommendations had been implemented.

During that spring and summer, murders of women exploded across the headlines: Harjaap Bola, Hemoutie Raghunauth, Gillian Hadley, Bohumila Luft and her four children, Daniel, Nicole, Peter and David, Laurie Lynn Volmershausen, Renee Joyson, Patricia Real.

Members of the Gillian Hadley jury and Gillian's neighbour joined OAITH and the Cross-Sectoral VAW Strategy Group at a Queen's Park press conference to seek action on the inquest recommendations. From left: Lorna Ruder, one of the jury members present,
Denise Brown of the Strategy Group, Eileen Morrow of OAITH and John Wallace, who
tried to pull Gillian from the hands of Ralph Hadley on the day she was murdered.

Women's anti-violence advocates began to demand immediate action to give women and children more than a criminal justice system response that was clearly failing. A broad-based coalition of groups formed called the Cross-Sectoral Violence Against Women Strategy Group. It included advocates from a number of sectors:

• women's crisis services like shelters and rape crisis centres,
• anti-poverty and social justice groups,
• legal support services,
• labour representatives,
• advocates for Aboriginal women,
• Francophone women,
• women of colour and immigrant women,
• and women with disabilities.
  

A week after the murder of Gillian Hadley, the Government of Ontario announced it would table a Domestic Violence Prevention Act, a plan already in the works to strengthen civil restraining orders. The Act had no real connection to the facts of either the Arlene May or Gillian Hadley murders. Despite some serious flaws, it was read three times but never proclaimed.

The Office of the Chief Coroner announced another inquest, this one into the death of Gillian Hadley.

In response to government inaction, the Cross-Sectoral VAW Strategy Group prepared 39 Emergency Measures for violence prevention and called for all-Party support from the Legislature. Both the NDP and Liberal Party supported the Measures; Howard Hampton and Dalton McGuinty personally signed, in front of media, a Declaration of Commitment (pictured above) to work on them.

The Emergency Measures include not only crisis services for women, such as increased shelter spaces and restoration of funding cuts to first and second stage shelters, but broad prevention strategies: annualized increases in social assistance, legal services for women such as legal aid, and implementation of the May-Iles recommendations.

The Measures call for funding supports for neighbourhood women's centres and provincial women's advocacy groups such as OAITH. They also include economic security measures--pay equity, elimination of the clawback of the national child benefit and reform of welfare policies in Ontario.

The PC Party refused to sign the Declaration but was eventually pressured to provide expansion of the Assaulted Women's Helpline and the establishment of 300 new and 136 refurbished shelter beds in areas where need was desperate. It also increased some funding for interpreter services that were also part of the Cross-Sectoral list.

Over a year later, the Gillian Hadley inquest began. For almost four months, it reviewed the recommendations of May-Iles, those of the May-Iles implementation committee 'five year plan' and even the Emergency Measures of the Cross-Sectoral Group. The jury released a further 58 recommendations for change in February 2002.

The Hadley recommendations went beyond those of the May-Iles inquest jury to focus on broad prevention and community-based social development approaches. Although the recommendations again included changes to the criminal justice system, they also highlighted increased social assistance, development of new subsidized housing and second stage housing for women. There were recommendations for adequate funding of women's services, including shelters, a system of women's advocates working both within and outside of the justice system, reform of workplace legislation to include intimate violence issues, and many other important public policy recommendations women sought.

After months of silence from government, on the second anniversary of Gillian's murder, two of the inquest jurors and Gillian's neighbour joined women's and community groups to call for the immediate establishment of a committee to implement the recommendations. Their
pleas remain unanswered.

The previous government has responded to the Hadley inquest with little more than high profile, low cost one-time project grants for community coordination, public education and
the sponsoring of conferences to generate more discussion and recommendations.
It also established a Domestic Violence Death Review Committee to study cases after women have been murdered in order to make yet more suggestions for change.

The social development and broad prevention measures called for by the jury have been largely ignored. Shelter funding has not been reviewed and increased. No housing has been built, either subsidized or second stage. The other recommendations for changes to
family law processes and programming for children are yet to be implemented.

Shelters were offered $4.5 million capital money to replace ailing furnaces and install bullet-proof glass, but they were not allowed to apply for additional support for the counselling and advocacy the jury clearly intended.

Most of the recommendations of the May-Iles jury, the May-Iles implementation committee five-year plan, the Cross-Sectoral VAW Strategy Group Emergency Measures and the Hadley jury recommenations still await substantive action. A lot of work, time and money has been spent in creating these comprehensive plans for public policy and social development change. The new government of Ontario has the blueprint for change for abused women and their children in these documents. All that is needed is the political will and courage to take the steps to choose those changes.

In Opposition, the Liberal Party was vocal and passionate in its support of the inquest recommendations and the Emergency Measures and we took heart from their unflagging support.The new government now has the opportunity to take the action they called for in support of abused women and their children.

Women and children look forward to that action now.

Liberals in Opposition support needed changes

Here are only a few excerpted statements by the Liberal Party taken from Hansard since 1995. We look forward to seeing these important changes soon in Ontario.

April 29, 1997

Mr Dalton McGuinty (Leader of the Opposition):
…I want to raise with you the issue of violence against women in Ontario and what your government has done to women. You may be aware that this morning a new study was released confirming that the number of Ontario women who are being murdered by their husbands or boyfriends is on the rise. We are also already aware of the fact that the number of incidents of violence against women in Ontario is on the rise.

Minister, you will shortly be drafting a budget. In that budget, as you are well aware, you will not only be giving a statement of account, you'll be giving a very real expression to the values you hold dear as government. I want to ask you, in light of this new, fresh evidence of violence against women in Ontario, are you going to restore the millions of dollars in cuts that you've already made to women's programs?...There is a massive human deficit that is mounting in this province. You have become fixated in an unhealthy way with the fiscal deficit at the expense of people in this province. When you cut 24-hour crisis intervention hotlines, human costs add up. When you cut community counselling services, human costs add up. When you cut programs to help women from returning to abusive situations, human costs add up.

December 6, 2000

Mrs Marie Bountrogianni (Hamilton Mountain):
...For the past 11 years, the activists have been trying to raise this issue in the consciousness of the public, the media and the government. With great fortitude, they have persevered, even as governments have ignored and confused the issues...

…Violence against women is an epidemic of shameful proportions. By averting our eyes from its existence, we ourselves become complicit in its perpetuation….It is only when a paradigm shift occurs in our understanding of the principle of the equality of men and women that we will be able to eradicate violence against women…Let us reinstate funding for women's shelters, for crisis lines, for second-stage housing, for pay equity, for all the most important front-line services that provide the assistance and the stepping stones to enable women to leave their abusers.

November 29, 2001

Mr Dalton McGuinty (Leader of the Opposition):
...When an abused woman is forced to take her children and run from a man who is beating her, our society has a moral responsibility to help...According to today's auditor's report, you are failing these women and their children. You are not providing them with a safe haven from abuse. In fact, you are turning them away, and that is nothing short of a disgrace…This is not the kind of Ontario that I want my daughter to grow up in. This is about our mothers, this is about our sisters and this is about our daughters. You have a solemn responsibility, together with the minister responsible for women's issues, to make sure that any woman who feels that she must leave her home, take the kids and hit the streets has a place of refuge which is sponsored by our government. That's how we come together. That's how we give expression to those women that we're here and we're going to care for them.

December 6, 1995

Mrs Sandra Pupatello (Windsor-Sandwich):
Today we remember the Montreal massacre. Today is the national Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, a day for ribbons, candles and tears for fallen sisters, daughters and mothers…The grim news is that crime against women is not levelling off; rather, police say that reported incidents of conjugal violence are still on the rise in Canada...We must be ready to take the necessary steps if we are truly committed to doing all we can to stop the senseless violence against women. We must do all we can to ensure that women can walk alone at night without fear, ensure that they're not vulnerable at home, at the workplace or at school…


November 27, 2000

Mrs Marie Bountrogianni (Hamilton Mountain):
…In September the crosssectoral strategy group came to Queen's Park demanding action on a list of emergency measures. These demands were the compromise position reached by over 125 women's groups from across the province who work on the front lines dealing with all aspects of violence against women…My leader, Dalton McGuinty, was proud to sign his support of the emergency measures initiative at the meeting. He and the Liberal caucus understand the urgency of this issue. We understand that the lack of action from your government is costing women and children their lives…I call upon the minister to commit to the emergency measures...

September 26, 2002

Mrs Marie Bountrogianni (Hamilton Mountain):
…The Association of Interval and Transition Houses and the members on this side have repeatedly told the government that very little was being done to protect threatened women in Ontario despite two major inquests into murder-suicides in recent years. …I implore the government to move swiftly in implementing the outstanding Hadley recommendations.

Women's Equity Act

In December 2000, Marie Bountrogianni, as Women's Issues Critic, introduced the Women's Equity Act, calling for measures to ensure women's equality in Ontario, including the Emergency Measures and increased services and supports for abused women and their children.

Provincial action plan needed for change

Women and children need immediate gesture of hope from new government

Provincial action plan must start from material conditions of women and children's lives and their advocacy needs

It has long been known that intimate violence against women is a mechanism of power that abusive men use to establish and maintain control. It is not a mental illness. It is not only a crime. It is not caused by stress or alcohol abuse. It's root cause is historical inequality of women: socially, economically and politically. Only a plan that addresses the historical disadvantage and unequal material conditions of women's lives has any hope of ending violence against women. That means examining and implementing social policy from an gender equality rights perspective between men and women--and among women themselves.


This report outlines some of the material conditions abused women and their children struggle with. It especially focusses on poverty and lack of housing as only two of the critical conditions that drive women back into abuse. It also highlights the struggle of shelters for women and children attempting to escape violence. A platform for effective action recognizes these material conditions and builds a plan of action based on them.


There are many steps to be taken on this journey--many of them are included in the inquest recommendations and Emergency Measures outlined previously and others are still to be developed. Some broad areas for immediate attention include:

Economic, Housing and Childcare Supports for Women

For abused women, an immediate increase in social assistance and housing development would show that the Liberals will not wait to address the desperate conditions of poverty abused women and children face. While we recognize that the Province has a deficit, we very much agree with Premier McGuinty's statement in Opposition that there is also a human deficit that must be addressed in Ontario--and that its costs are rising.

We would also like to see immediate action to eliminate increasing barriers for women and children accessing social assistance, legal aid and priority housing placement. The recommendations of the Hadley inquest provide guidance to policy makers in this regard.

Women also need increased subsidized childcare in order to live independently, coupled with access to education and job training that can help them rebuild their lives. Abused women experiencing poverty want to get off welfare. Government can help them do that now.

Women's Shelters, Second Stage Programs, Neighbourhood and Community Services

Women's shelters need an immediate restoration of the 5% cut to their core service budgets. Second stage funding cuts must be fully reinstated and provided directly to services to bring them back under provincial jurisdiction. Following an influx of crisis funding, a review of ongoing funding needs must be undertaken immediately to ensure that shelters never again have to turn women and children away or fail to serve their diverse needs. The new Liberal government must implement the recommendations of both the May-Iles and Hadley juries, as well as the Emergency Measures as the blueprint for change to prevent further murders.

Violence against women and the poverty that traps women in abusive relationships has greater impact on marginalized groups of women. Funding must be provided to ensure that all women have access to services, advocacy and equality. Racially and ethnically specific neighbourhood women's groups and women's centres must have stable ongoing funding. Immigrant women and children need expanded cultural interpreter services and assistance with immigration issues. Francophone women's services need expansion and stable funding. Women in rural and Northern regions need increased transportation supports. Specific supports must also be developed for abused women with disabilities and deaf women, women with psychiatric concerns and substance abuse issues, young women in dating relationships, as well as older women who need additional assistance.

Legal Systems and Child Welfare

Both the family law and criminal systems still have a way to go before they are the true allies of women and children escaping abuse. Women need expansion of family law legal aid immediately. They need to know that family law will help them protect their children from abusive ex-partners and provide the child support they need to raise their families. Women need a province-wide differential response by child welfare that holds abusers, not mothers, accountable for the abuse children witness. Child welfare must refuse to re-victimize women when abusers expose children to violence.

Support for Women's Public Advocacy

Under the previous government, advocacy was an unwelcome practice. For abused women and their children, however, it is critical, not only for individual women and children, but at policy levels as well.

An effective action plan includes the support of women's public advocacy groups and activities: provincial advocacy groups like OAITH, the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres, Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes, the Ontario Native Women's Association, the DisAbled Women's Network of Ontario, the Ontario Women's Justice Network and the creation of additional women's advocacy groups to analyze practice and policy, advise government and monitor the effectiveness of actions taken. We welcome this new opportunity for change.

"The realities of women and children's needs seem to be overlooked often and women continue to live in poverty."

"The more barriers in place for abused women and their children, the more difficult it is for them to leave and live a life free of violence. Let's eliminate the barriers."

choose to change this

Since June 1995: 161 women, 21 children, 10 family and friends murdered. This is a partial list taken from major media reports.

We remember:

 

This document was distributed in PDF format. It took exactly 10 hours of reformatting today, by hand, as the original text appeared in 3 columns.

This was done in part for the benefit of women with disAbilities using screen readers and also for women with older computers that cannot run Adobe Acrobat Reader; and in part because I wanted to do something to help make this report more accessible to a wider audience beyond the converted.

But mostly, this work was done in Memory of Mary Pritchard, who worked tirelessly on VAW initiatives and assisting abused women and children.

~ Barbara Anello

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