In 2016 Canada’s political left opposed a law that would have allowed for more severe sentences to those who commit violent crimes against pregnant women.
During debate in the House of Commons, the Liberal and NDP parties seemed to unanimously chime their preference for a “holistic approach” in response to the home invasion and murder of Cassandra Kaake who was 7 months pregnant with our daughter Molly.
Though measurably inappropriate to the case at hand, it is a fact that most occurrences of violent crimes against pregnant women happen in situations of domestic violence.
Those opposed to recognizing a woman’s chosen pregnancy with legislation to hold violent offenders to a greater accountability, instead deferred to a commitment of focusing on improving access to domestic violence shelters.
It has now been four years since that conversation, and a new CBC report has uncovered that an average of 620 women and children a day are being turned away from these shelters across Canada.
The report (as of yet) has stopped short of connecting any dots back to the governing bodies who opposed punitive responses in favour of the holistic approach that has failed to materialize.
In respect of this, will the CBC examine domestic violence shelters in the context of how they have been used as a political tool to defer away from other courses of action when the epidemic of violence against women has been the conversation at the federal level?
Below is the initial report. I will update this page to add subsequent reports as they become available…
March 5th, 2020 – Women, children turned away from shelters in Canada daily:
