SASKATOON – The groups with clout in rural areas are still reluctant to deal with domestic violence, says one activist.
Linda Ungar, a member of the Saskatchewan Women’s Agriculture Network, said although there’s a “certain amount of support” for discussing the issue, she’s still disappointed at the response from the wheat pools, credit unions and the co-operative movement.
She made a video called Fear on the Farm to fill the gap in public education about farm family violence. Before that 1992 video, the only other film with a rural setting was obviously out of date, with the actors wearing bellbottoms.
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The funding for Ungar’s 30-minute video came from the federal health department and the Saskatchewan government’s broadcaster, SCN. Despite appeals, none came from the farm or co-op organizations. The film has been shown at women’s groups meetings, university classes, church groups and some small town meetings across Canada.
They still have yet to be asked to show the video at the pool’s annual general meeting, said Ungar.
“This video is not meant to belittle or degrade any segment – men don’t feel attacked by it.”
Violence not discussed
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool annual meetings are meant to deal with the “business of the co-op and deal with resolutions,” said Verna Mitura, secretary to the board.
She said domestic violence has never been brought forward at any of the annual meetings and the likely route for it and other social issues would be through a resolution from members on local pool committees.
Ungar said domestic violence was a more prominent subject three years ago when the federal government put money into surveys and education campaigns. Since then, the issue of family violence “has been buried.”
But one of the groups presenting the video, the Canadian Farm Women’s Network, is raising the issue in other ways through a policy paper that asks how society determines “who gets custody of the farm” in the aftermath of violence.
Rural women tend to return to their abusive spouse “because the system is too hard to crack,” said Ungar. And the man is usually perceived as the only one who can do the work on the farm.
Another group active in the violence issue is Saskatchewan Women’s Institute which at its annual meeting last year asked the provincial education department to include a compulsory class for all grades dealing with non-violent solutions and behaviors.
Fear on the Farm is available for $150 from Filmwest Associates Distribution Ltd., 2399 Hayman Road, Kelowna, B.C., V1Z 1Z8, phone 604-769-3399. A federally developed community kit on violence is available for $20 from the Canada Communication Group-Publishing, Ottawa, Ont., K1A 0S9, phone 819-956-4802.
