Statement from BC Gender Justice and Anti-Violence Organizations

For Immediate Release

August 25, 2025

Vancouver, BC: Today, gender justice and anti-violence organizations from across British Columbia met with Rechie Valdez, Canada’s Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Secretary of State for Small Business and Tourism.

Organizations representing the north-west and north coast, rural and remote communities, provincial associations, Indigenous and Black women’s organizations, law reform advocates, anti-violence programs, child care advocates, and sexual assault centres came together with a unified message: survivors, girls, women, and gender-diverse people frontline services, and equality movements across BC are speaking with one voice.

An Urgent Meeting in an Urgent Time

We thank the Minister for her time and openness to hearing directly from frontline organizations. This meeting was an important opportunity for BC leaders to present evidence, experiences, and solutions rooted in the realities of survivors across our province.

1. What we shared was clear: the situation facing women, girls, and gender-diverse people in BC is dire.

• Every 6 days a woman in Canada is killed by her partner.
• BC has some of the highest femicide rates in the country, with recent tragedies still fresh in our communities.
• Resource extraction and man camps continue to put Indigenous women and girls at risk, in direct contradiction to the MMIWG Calls for Justice.
• The National Action Plan on Gender-based Violence has not achieved enough profile and there is not commitment to continue beyond year 5.
• The housing and child care crises traps survivors in unsafe situations and prevents them from building safe futures.
• Digital misogyny and online harms are targeting girls, normalizing violence, and fuelling extremist ideologies.
• And now, an 80% cut to WAGE’s budget threatens to gut the very sector working to hold the line.

2. BC organizations highlighted our unique realities:

• The province’s femicide crisis is deepening, with women and girls killed in Abbotsford, Kelowna, Richmond, Surrey, Vancouver and beyond.
• Extractive projects in northern and rural BC make this province a frontline for resource-linked violence against Indigenous women and girls.
• Housing costs and shortages in BC are among the worst in Canada, child care are the highest in Canada, both intensifying the dangers survivors face.

Three Core Asks

Together, we called on Minister Valdez to advance three urgent priorities:

1. Stable, core, sufficient multi-year funding for the gender justice and anti-violence sector, ending the cycle of project-based precarity.
2. Shifting federal investment toward the care economy, child care, housing, and prevention — recognizing that these are violence prevention measures as essential as policing or infrastructure.
3. Independent, Indigenous- and survivor-led accountability for the National Action Plan on Gender-Based Violence and the MMIWG Calls for Justice, ensuring promises do not remain words on paper.

The BC Difference

BC organizations highlighted our unique realities:

• The province’s femicide crisis is deepening, with women and girls killed in Abbotsford, Kelowna, Richmond, Surrey, Vancouver and beyond.
• Extractive projects in northern and rural BC make this province a frontline for resource-linked violence against Indigenous women and girls.
• Housing and child care costs and shortages in BC are among the worst in Canada, intensifying the dangers survivors face.

Our Commitment

Organizations across BC are committed to working with Minister Valdez and WAGE, but we will also hold the federal government accountable. Our work is not optional — equality organizations are the backbone of public safety, economic participation, and democracy in Canada.

Quotes:

“Child care in BC is the most expensive in Canada and there’s only enough licensed child care for 25% of children in our province. Women with children fleeing violence need access to $10aDay child care where educators are valued and fairly compensated.”– Sharon Gregson, Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC and $10 a Day Child Care

One in three women in B.C. have experienced sexual assault and this is unacceptable. – Laurie Hannah, Westcoast Community Resources Society

“The heaviest consequences are disproportionately carried by racialized and Immigrant women” – Nataizya Mukwavi, Black Women Connect Vancouver and Pacific Immigrant Resources Society

“There can be no meaningful access for justice for women and gender-diverse people without the advocacy and support services provided by our sector. – Shannon Daub, West Coast LEAF

“Women and children cannot survive another era of austerity.” – Jennifer Mackie, Fraser Region Aboriginal Friendship Centre Association

“The creation of safe and affordable housing is a key lever for addressing women’s safety and investments are necessary because the home can be one of the most dangerous places.” – Amy Fitzgerald, BC Society of Transition Houses

“Women, girls and gender diverse folks in the north need and deserve safety.” Lynnelle Halikowski, Prince George Sexual Assault Centre

“Every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her partner. In British Columbia, we are losing women and girls at an alarming rate, yet the federal government has not committed to the National Action Plan on Gender-based Violence past year five. Today, we are telling the Minister clearly: gender equality is not optional. Without safety for women, girls, and gender-diverse people, there is no public safety in this country.” – Angela Marie MacDougall, BWSS Battered Women’s Support Services Association