<aside> <img src="/icons/report_red.svg" alt="/icons/report_red.svg" width="40px" /> We would like to acknowledge that our website has been created on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) people. This acknowledgment is particularly relevant as our website revolves around preventing gender-based violence in Canada. The elevated levels of gender-based violence that Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit experience in Canada today is a product of violent settler-colonialism and a means to maintain the legitimacy of the settler-colonial state. Ensuring the respect and recognition of the human rights of Indigenous peoples is vital to prevent gender-based violence.

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What is Gender-Based Violence (GBV)?

Gender Based Violence (GBV) refers to the violence that people experience due to their gender, gender expression, gender identity or perceived gender.

GBV is a pervasive issue in Canada. For instance, according to a 2018 report by Statistics Canada:

• Nearly 1 in 4 Canadians reported that they had been a victim of physical or sexual assault since the age of 15.
• 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experienced unwanted sexual behaviour in public within 2018.
• 3 in 10 women were targeted by inappropriate sexual behaviour in a work-related setting compared with 17% of men within 2018.

GBV disproportionately affects women and girls. Specific marginalized populations at risk of GBV or underserved when they experience these forms of violence include Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit; Black women; women of colour; immigrant and refugee women; two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and additional sexually and gender diverse (2SLGBTQIA+) people; people with disabilities, and women living in Northern, rural, and remote communities.

• Intimate Partner Violence
• Intimate Partner Homicide
• Sexual Assault
• Unwanted Sexual Behaviour
• Human Trafficking

The severity of GBV within Canada elucidates the need to take action and prevent GBV.

Website Aim:

Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is a pervasive issue in Canada—as many are increasingly victims to acts of violence on the basis of their gender, gender expression, gender identity, or perceived gender. As such, the need to prevent GBV is immensely important. Our website has congruently been created for the purpose of informing anyone who wants to further their understanding of the prevention of GBV within a Canadian context. This website encompasses a wide variety of topics, including what GBV is and why it occurs, how politics and the judicial system is intertwined with GBV, as well as the elevated amounts of GBV that Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit folks face in Canada.

About Us

We are a diverse group of undergraduate Political Science students at the University of British Columbia Vancouver campus who have a shared interest in the prevalence, effects, and prevention of Gender-Based Violence (GBV). Growing up with different backgrounds, we all have unfortunately had unique experiences with GBV—igniting us to develop a passion for its prevention. We hope this site is informative and allows for a better understanding of the intricate ways in which GBV manifests in a Canadian context, why preventing GBV is important, and actions currently taken towards its prevention.

By: Priscilla Ng, Julia Dhillon, Della Mulcahy, & Paige Call

Table of Contents

Context

Politics

Judicial System

Indigenous Peoples and GBV

Context regarding GBV in Canada, including how GBV is defined, why GBV occurs, and trauma and violence-informed approaches to helping GBV victims.

Political role in preventing GBV, looking at different levels of government, specific party stances, and advocacy/special interests groups.

Legal aspects of GBV, what it looks like in the judicial system, and the effectiveness of governing structures in preventing this type of violence.

Elevated rates of GBV against Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit in Canada, and how violent settler- colonialism causes this violence.