The Federal Government has announed National Action Plan to end Gender Based Violence. Although, this is a step in the right direction, we need action now.
The global pandemic has created more isolation, economic stress, and widened the already-dangerous gender inequalities in Canada. Isolation has further put thousands of women, girls, trans, non-binary and BIPOC people at an all-time high risk of violence at home. Women are suffering at home at the hands of their abusers right now.
Although this joint declaration is a good first step; survivors and people at risk can no longer afford to wait.
The National Action Plan to end Gender Based Violence needs to:
- consult experts from IPV support services, shelters, and organizations,
- ensure a collaborative response with municipal, provincial, and national governments,
- include organizational structures such as law enforcement, judicial systems, health care.
The government must build a bold action plan that:
- prevents violence through education and awareness;
- ensures the legal justice system responds to lived realities of women facing violence;
- increases access to services and protections for women living in fear;
- breaks down barriers to housing, employment and child care;
- invests in further supports for women to rebuild their lives.
As a Canadian citizen, I believe that the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence needs to specifically include Intimate Partner Violence as a thread in hopes of supporting both survivors and potential future victims.
I stand with Interval House and advocates across Canada and call for a National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.
