News

YWCA Canada has launched a national “Rose Button” campaign calling for a federal strategy to stop violence against women.

Paulette Senior, the group's CEO, said a “major societal shift” is needed to end the problem.

Ms. Senior is calling on Canadians to e-mail their members of Parliament a virtual rose on Dec. 6 – the ninth anniversary of the Montreal massacre, in which gunman Marc Lépine shot 14 women dead.

Ms. Senior and a group of advocates held a news conference Tuesday urging Ottawa to develop a comprehensive action plan on violence against women in the home, workplace and community.

She said taking action now will save lives.

The YWCA quotes federal government statistics estimating the medical costs of violence against women at $1.1-billion a year, plus $4-billion annually for criminal justice, social services, and lost productivity.

It says governments can help women establish independent, violence-free households by ensuring they can find employment, affordable child care, safe and affordable housing, and have adequate financial support.

“To prevent violence before it starts, it must be treated as unacceptable behaviour whenever and wherever it occurs,” says a YWCA statement.

“Women need full equality in practice, not just in law. That means equal pay, not 73 cents of each dollar earned by men. More than a third of families led by single mothers live below the poverty line.”

The YWCA campaign encourages Canadians to speak up about violence in their communities, encourage perpetrators to get help, teach girls to protect and empower themselves, and “raise children who can resolve conflict without violence.”

It also says Canadians should speak out against negative media images of women and girls and promote women's economic and political equality.

The organization reports:

• More than 31,000 incidents of spousal violence against women were reported to police in 2006. It's estimated that over 70 per cent of incidents go unreported.

• Women are more likely than men to be the victims of the most severe forms of partner abuse, such as homicide, sexual assault and stalking.

• Almost 40 per cent of women in Canada who reported assault by a partner said their children witnessed the violence and the woman feared for their lives in half those cases.