RED DEER – Edmonton crown prosecutor Valerie Campbell startled members of the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada recently when she told them that Alberta has the highest number of family violence cases in Canada.
In a presentation that included frank talk and graphic photos of victims, Campbell said the public does not understand the menace of domestic abuse. While most fear terrorists or gangs as the major sources of public danger, one-quarter of all violent crime in Canada is domestic, and the victims are usually women.
Campbell said 139 murders in Canada in 2003 were due to family violence, compared to 84 that were gang-related.
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“People think domestic violence doesn’t affect them but abusive behaviour is learned in the family.”
She said it is manifested by bullying in the schoolyard, teenagers who join gangs, sons who grow up to beat their spouses and girls who learn to accept it.
For 2003-04, Alberta’s 41 women’s shelters housed more than 6,000 women and 6,000 children, while about 4,000 of each were turned away because the shelters were full.
Campbell said women leave the shelters and return home to their abusers mainly because they run out of money and the children cry to go home. Women receive no money while in a shelter because the province deems that all their basic needs are being taken care of. Children, while they don’t like the violence, love their fathers and are unhappy to be removed from their home, toys, friends and school.
The situation is even worse for aboriginal women, who are eight times more likely to be assaulted and six times more likely to be killed by their intimate partner than the average woman.
Campbell is part of a special unit of six lawyers in Edmonton who prosecute family abuse cases. She also helps train police officers to be more sensitive to domestic violence. Often the police are called to deal with a hysterical woman, whose bruises won’t show for another day or two, and a calm, controlled husband refuting what she says.
She said the legal system works against successful prosecution of continued domestic violence because it is set up to deal with an isolated act of violence between strangers. In one of her cases, where a man was charged for throwing a cup at his wife, it was just one incident in a line of broken bones and bruises. However, Campbell couldn’t bring up his past violence in the present trial.
Another problem of the law is that a wife who defends herself against a violent husband can be charged with assault.
In another of her cases, a man who was convicted after confronting his estranged wife with a shotgun received only one year in jail, whereas an armed robber received eight years.
Campbell compared a bank robbery and a domestic violence situation to show the unfairness of the law. The bank teller who must testify at the trial doesn’t have to worry about retribution because the robber doesn’t know where she lives, doesn’t have custody of her children every other weekend and is not the source of her family’s income.
The riskiest times for a woman who has an abusive spouse is when she becomes pregnant or just after she leaves the man. Campbell said her frustration is that cases of domestic abuse that result in murder are usually predictable. The man is depressed, drinking or doing drugs and has a history of violent abuse.
Campbell said she does her job because of the contrast in quality of life between her two sons and the children who are in court to deal with family violence cases.
“Oppression of women is still prevalent.”
