OTTAWA — In Ottawa each day more than 50 calls are made by abused women seeking shelter.
Last year, Ottawa’s seven women’s shelters received more than 18,600 phone calls for service.
These statistics are among the findings found in Hidden from Sight: A Look at the Prevalence of Violence Against Women in Ottawa. The report, released on Monday by the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women, paints a picture of abuse and sexual violence within relationships and homes.
Of the women seeking shelter, the vast majority will be turned away from the city’s over-crowded shelters.
In 2007, 613 women and 486 children fleeing domestic abuse situations were sheltered in Ottawa. However, 5,150 women were turned away because the shelters were full, according to the Community Foundation of Ottawa, which last year released
Vital Signs 2008.
It was the alarming results of the Community Foundation report that prompted the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women to gather their statistics together to understand better violence against women in Ottawa.
Women’s shelters, sexual assault/rape crisis centres, counselling services, police and the hospital have always collected statistics on violence against women separately. Hidden from Sight brings this data together. The report consolidates data from 16 local agencies.
“We’ve been talking for years about the low level of awareness of what is really going on. So we’ve presented the data together for the first time,” says Holly Johnson, Professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa and advisor to the project.
“The figures are staggering, especially when we consider that many women do not come forward for help. Therefore, they are not even counted in these statistics. As well, disturbing new trends are emerging, such as the numbers of men charged with forcible confinement of women partners.”
In 2007-2008, a total of 606 sexual assault cases were reported to Ottawa police. In addition to that startling number, Statistics Canada reports that only one in every 10 sexual assaults is actually reported. Prof. Johnson said we can predict the number of sexual assaults is closer to 6,000 in one year.
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• Ottawa has a population of 1 282 500 habitants ( 870 250 for Ottawa only). Let’s say we accept the fact that we have about 6000 abused women (613 in shelters and 5150 refused for no vacancy in these shelters as written in your article). It comes to a Domestic Violence ratio of 0,0047% a lot less than 1%.
• Concerning phone calls, 18 600 calls for a total possibility of 1 174 072 = 0,0145 % (0,0213).
• Since Juges in our justice courts find 68% of Domestic Violence cases not founded, how many of these calls ended in condamnation? Even more, if Courts consider 68% of these claims not founded, how many men and fathers falsely accused and destroyed ? Where are shelters for these fathers ? Where is the money for it ?
• Holly Johnson is a Professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa. Professor Holly Johnson’s primary research interests include sexual violence and intimate partner violence with criminal justice responses, and methods of measurement. She was principal investigator of Statistics Canada’s first national survey on violence against women and is a coordinator of the International Violence Against Women Survey. She is also working about «Feminist theory and gender theory».
Obviously her belief is that domestic violence is only a men business. So how can she be impartial about it ? All statistics (from Statistics Canada as well as from Institut de Satistique Québec and about 130 other scientific documents across the world) report a 50-50 rate of violence among men and women. Did she explore the possibility of Domestic Violence perpetrated by women ? Where? How many of them ? 10 000 falsely accused fathers in Quebec and destroyed every year is it Domestic Violence ?
Did she only went to Los Angeles, California this year, on June 26th, to share with specialists on Domestic Violence Murray Strauss, PhD, Deborah Capaldi, PhD, Don Dutton, PhD, Daniel O'Leary, PhD or Sandra Stith, PhD and others her views about the subject. She would have realized that her datas don't correspond with the last research.
In California, she would have had the opportunity to talk to Errin Pizzey Founder of the Domestic Violence Shelter Movement which views are completly at the opposite to hers.
Feminist lobbies gave all sort of false datas for the past 30 years. Infortunately, journalists didn’t take enough time to verify these statistics, how they were collected, by who ?. They should have.
No doubt about it, Domestic Violence exists, both ways, and we will not correct the situation if we are one side blinded by feminist lobbies.