Don't be a bystander: shelter boss
Lyda Fuller fears vulnerable women may be in danger; commends stranger for bringing injured woman to safety
Evan Kiyoshi French
Northern News Services
Friday, December 4, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The executive director of the YWCA is commending a mystery resident who she says found a bloody and beaten woman in a downtown shop Tuesday and took her to the organization's women's shelter. The gesture, says Lyda Fuller, may have saved the woman's life.
Ashley MacDonald, GirlSpace co-ordinator for the YWCA, left, and the association's executive director, Lyda Fuller, stand on 54 Avenue on Wednesday. Fuller said a woman delivered an abused woman to their shelter on Tuesday, possibly saving her life. - Evan Kiyoshi French/NNSL photo |
"A woman was in distress and somebody in the public picked up on that and asked if she could help and brought the woman to our shelter (Alison McAteer House)," she said.
Fuller said she doesn't know who the woman's saviour is but she hopes she realizes what she did.
"I hope she sees something in the paper and realizes she saved someone's life," she said.
Fuller is now urging residents to come to the aid of vulnerable women.
"The RCMP can't be everywhere and the rates of violence in the NWT are eight times the national average," she said.
Fuller said the bloodied woman told shelter workers she'd been attacked by more than one man before the stranger helped her.
Fuller said the YWCA reported the incident to police but since the injured woman didn't want to file a police report, RCMP told her there wasn't much they could do.
Reached by e-mail, RCMP spokesperson Const. Elenore Sturko confirmed the YWCA told police one of their clients "alleged that two males had confined and abused her, and other women and girls in the community."
But Sturko told Yellowknifer RCMP cannot substantiate that information as the client "did not report it to police, could not be compelled to provide a statement and did not want police involvement."
The victim's name was not disclosed to RCMP, stated Sturko by e-mail.
"Yellowknife RCMP would urge any person who has been the victim of an assault, forcible confinement, or any other crime to report it to the RCMP directly, or through Crime Stoppers," she stated.
The YWCA has a watch-list of more than 10 Yellowknife women who have reached out to the shelter for protection from abusive partners and who staff feel are in danger of being murdered by their spouses, said Fuller.
"We keep a list in our head of women we worry are going to be killed by their partners," she said.
She declined to give too many details of the watch list - to protect the identity of the women on it - but said the public needs to be aware of a possible threat, as it may be these men may be looking beyond their spouses.
"There are guys that we know, who in the past have been abusive partners, who are now casting their eyes on people other than their partners and are trolling the streets looking for girls and young women who they perceive to be defenseless. They're picking them up, taking them away and confining them and abusing them."
Asked if the RCMP is aware of people "trolling the street" and preying on vulnerable women, Sturko wrote the RCMP cannot substantiate Fuller's claims.
"RCMP are working with the shelter and meet with staff regularly to discuss concerns and share ideas for a collaborative approach on developing and providing safety strategies for vulnerable women," wrote Sturko.
Ashley MacDonald - GirlSpace co-ordinator for the YWCA - said she's glad someone offered to help the distressed woman.
"The key thing here is an every-day person saw that something wasn't sitting right," she said, adding girls aged eight to 17 attending the after-school program are taught to report strange or dangerous behaviour they witness, even if they aren't sure if a crime has been committed.
"This is something we teach a lot to the young girls we work with," she said.
MacDonald said when the group held its Take Back The Night March, RCMP officers who accompanied them stressed the role of the public in preventing crime.
"They really, really highlighted that anyone out in the public can be their greatest asset because the police can't be everywhere," she said. "And if you ever see something that just doesn't feel right - it doesn't have to be that you're witnessing violence - to call them."
Fuller said she can't ask people to intervene if they see a woman in distress if it means putting themselves in danger. But in Tuesday's incident, the woman's assailants weren't around when the bystander came upon her, she said. If it's possible to help someone without endangering yourself, you should do what you can, said Fuller.
"I wouldn't want anybody to put themselves at risk," she said. "I will tell you that after 30-years experience, I personally would get involved. If you're right there and you can help a woman get out of a situation, help her out and get her out of there. I would try to do it carefully."
