MEDIA RELEASE
March 2010
For Immediate Release
Domestic Violence Industry Covers Up Half of Problem
FathersCan, the National Voice for Canadian Fathers, estimates that more than two billion dollars of taxpayer money is distributed annually by all levels of government to various shelters and other domestic violence programs in Canada. This figure is based on information from Statistics Canada, Status of Women Canada, Health Canada, and other similar provincial agencies and government departments.
The entirety of this sum is provided to programmes and shelters that purport to provide services to women who are the victims of domestic violence. Interestingly, and tragically, not a single cent is provided to any program or shelter to provide services to men who are the victims of such violence.
Health Canada (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/
Nowhere in that definition is recognition of the fact that hundreds of thousands of Canadian men are victims of domestic violence, as defined by Health Canada, at the hands of their female partners. Jeremy Swanson, National Director of FathersCan notes that this alarming and seldom reported statistic is borne out by Statistics Canada information.
Mr. Swanson stated, “In 2005, the last year in which Statscan has released information, it was reported that the 2004 General Social Survey (GSS) on Victimization indicated some 653,000 women and 546,000 men in Canada were the victims of spousal violence in the five years preceding the survey, or about 7% and 6% respectively. The Survey goes on to point out that nearly all domestic violence victims (95%) who seek out assistance from social agencies, government programmes, or shelters are women. The Survey totally ignores the fact that there are no such agencies, programmes, or shelters for men even if they wanted to seek them out.”
He went on to point out that there are about 550 shelters for woman in Canada, as reported by Statistics Canada, yet “they failed to even mention that there is not even one single shelter for abused men in the entire country”.
StatsCan reported that in 2006 twenty-one men in Canada were killed by their female partner, an increase of 75% from just one year previous and a continuation of an increasing trend. Yet in 2006 the number of women killed by their male partner decreased by 10% from the year previous, continuing a trend of 5 years of continual decline.
“Men in Canada are victims of domestic abuse in numbers almost equal to women. The courts ignore it, and in some cases even laugh in the faces of men who report it as part of their divorce testimony. Successive governments have lavished taxpayer money on women’s and feminist groups in support of Domestic Violence studies, programmes, and shelters, ignoring the fact that 85% of such accusations made by women during divorce proceedings are known to be false. ”
“Yet Canadian men continue to suffer, continue to bleed, and continue to die at the hands of their female partners. Do Canadian men not deserve equal help from their government in preventing, escaping, and recovering from such abuse? Do Canadian men not deserve even one single dollar in their fight for protection and justice? Is there any party or any party leader that has the guts to make this an election issue and to step up to defend and protect men from their female abusers? There are a large number of votes out there that are waiting to be cast for the party that does.”
For more information contact:
-30-
