We need to rethink the way we are responding to gender-based violence. Be the Peace Institute’s Board Chair and faculty at Dalhousie School of Social Work, Dr. Nancy Ross, shares promising practices for healing and prevention for all of those affected by violence: victims, perpetrators, children and communities.
Stacey Godsoe, Project & Resource Coordinator at Be the Peace Institute, shared some clear and recurring patterns across the research on the connections between mass shootings and gender based violence. If we do not make these connections we fail to understand the root of the problem and cannot prevent future atrocities.
Our very own Sue Bookchin (in collaboration with Emma Halpern of the Elizabeth Fry Society) wrote this plea for a more compassionate and trauma informed consideration of the role that domestic violence played in Lisa Banfield's life and decision making during the days surrounding the mass shooting in Portapique, NS on April 18 & 19, 2020. While we need to shine a light on all that unfolded during the events in Portapique, critical context is needed including the role that IPV played in order to formulate recommendations that might prevent mass killings in the future.
Some thoughtful analysis of the impact of the pandemic on domestic violence rates in NS from Transition House Association of Nova Scotia.
“If you add something as extraordinary as a global pandemic and then have the kind of economic insecurities that happen — another huge factor around amplifying domestic violence — it’s a perfect storm of being trapped with the abuser, not being able to use the normal mechanisms that women do to keep themselves and their children safe, economic insecurity and certainly the fact that the abuser is there 24/7,” Jenny Wright, a member of the expert advisory committee with the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability, said in April.
Cary Ryan is a survivor of domestic abuse and a former cop who says she was harassed in the workplace because of her mental illness. Now, she studies how cops respond to domestic violence.
Addressing domestic violence also means addressing male violence and male entitlement - at the root of inequality and so many incidents of societal violence, including mass shootings.
