'Women are dying and being killed'
Council needed to combat violence against women, said Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council president
Myles Dolphin
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 2, 2013
NUNAVUT
The Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council (QNSWC) is calling for the creation of a family violence prevention group to alleviate the increasingly high rate of violence against women in the territory.
Charlotte Borg, president of the Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council, said on Nov. 28 the creation of a family violence prevention council is overdue. - Myles Dolphin/NNSL photo |
Alarming statistics prove it's time to establish a council made up of important organizations to decrease that rate, said QNSWC president Charlotte Borg.
"We need to create a council that puts forward an articulated strategy to end family violence in Nunavut," she said. "A group, similar to the Embrace Life Council, that can champion and oversee the issue. It's too overwhelming for one department (Family Services) to handle."
The group would ideally contain members from the QNSWC, YWCA Agvvik, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the RCMP, the three regional organizations and the Nunavut government departments of Justice, Health, Family Services, Education and Housing.
Borg spoke to Nunavut News/North on Nov. 28, a few days after International Day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women, held on Nov. 25.
The day marked the beginning of a 16-day period of activism against gender-violence, which will culminate with Human Rights Day on Dec. 10.
In Nunavut, the rate of violent crime against women is
more than eight times higher than the rate for the rest of Canada.
The rate of violent crimes per 100,000 persons in Nunavut was 10,004 in 2012, as opposed to 1,190 country-wide, according to Statistics Canada.
"The good news is there is a reported increase in promising practices and interventions," Borg said.
"We don't want to point fingers. We already have one successful model of intervention (Embrace Life Council), and it's critical to establish a similar one for family violence because women are dying and being killed."
Across Nunavut, victims of violence have limited resources. There are four shelters in the territory's 26 communities - in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, Cambridge Bay and Cape Dorset.
Per capita rates of shelter use are highest in Nunavut, said YWCA Agvvik executive director Suny Jacob, adding that the lack of adequate community mental health services and housing has a particular impact on women and their increased risk to violence.
"The resources available for women in Nunavut who are the victims of violence, and for their children, fall far short of meeting their needs. Safe shelters are not able to keep up with the demand for their service," she stated in an e-mail.
"We want women to be safe and, at the same time, to be strong and develop the inner potential that will be their instrument to advocate for themselves. In parallel with the voice of women being heard, (we want to be) educating men about violence so they will be able to identify the line between their thoughts of the 'norm' and human rights."
The Apex-based shelter operates at between 100 and 110 per cent occupancy rate most months of the year.
A symposium on family violence, held in Iqaluit in 2006, attracted more than 100 participants and prompted then-premier Eva Aariak to announce the creation of a Family Violence Prevention Strategy by the end of 2011.
No formal strategy has since been released, although a draft document was tabled at the legislative assembly in March.
"Not enough action has come of it, and there needs to be a commitment to acting on the recommendations of the Family Violence Prevention Strategy," Jacob said.
Katharine Irngaut, manager of abuse prevention at Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, said violence and victimization of Inuit women in Canada is occurring at an alarming rate.
"There is a chronic and widespread lack of basic health and social services in most Inuit communities across the North, and specialized services can only be accessed in southern urban centres, if at all," she said.
"There are very few men's groups or culturally and linguistically relevant resources for Inuit men who are concerned about reducing the levels of violence in their own family or community.
"This pervasive lack of safe shelters for women and their children can be attributed to randomly under-funded programs and services that are offered without being sustainable, Inuit-specific or consistent between communities."
Irngaut said there are many precursors to being victimized, and many situations that put Inuit women and girls in vulnerable positions.
She cites the implications of the housing crisis, coupled with unemployment and poverty, as issues that "exacerbate family tensions, including family violence and child sexual abuse."
Borg added that long-standing trauma in Nunavut, spurred by repeated waves of colonialism and residential schools, as reasons why violent is so prevalent in homes.
"There are cascading effects to trauma," she said.
"When faced with trauma, the human instinct is to either fight, flight or freeze. Flight leads to addiction, fight leads to violence and freeze leads to depression."
She said it's no longer a question of asking what's wrong with someone but, rather, asking what happened in their past.
The QNSWC, in partnership with YWCA Agvvik, the Qikiqtani Inuit Association and Alianait Arts Festival, has organized a vigil of "remembrance and hope" on Dec. 6, starting at the Igluvut building in Iqaluit at 5:30 p.m. and ending at Inuksuk High School, where refreshments and entertainment will be provided.
