The recent comments by Ontario's Social Services Minster that he doesn't want battered women to become dependent on the state is both ignorant and offensive. Women who are fleeing the control of an abusive partner are dealing with enormous stress and emotional trauma, everything from fears for their family's physical safety and economic security to the ordeal of divorce court. The Cross-Sectoral Violence Against Women strategy group in Ontario has been waging an intensive campaign to move the Ontario government ever since last summer's terrible killings. Most women who are victims of male violence do not turn to the criminal justice system for help. Law and order agendas, so popular with right-wing governments, do little to help women.
Women are much more likely to be victimized by someone they know than by a stranger.
Cracking down on criminals won't help these women. Fully funding women's services and restoring cuts to social assistance will. To truly honour those 14 women so cruelly struck down 11 years ago, governments should start listening to the women who work every day to stop violence against women.