This morning, we joined forces with Atira Women’s
Resource Society, Battered Women’s Support Services, The YWCA of Metro
Vancouver, Kiwassa Neighbourhood House and WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre to launch our latest
report: Imagining Courts that Work for Women Survivors of Violence.
This report is the result of a multi-year collaboration among the women
who participate in Pivot’s Jane Doe Advocate’s group, which meets monthly to
network, participate in legal education and to work on access to justice issues
impacting vulnerable women. The catalyst for this project was an informal
conversation at one of our meetings about whether specialized courts could
better meet the needs of the women we work with.
Today’s report lays out
concerns with the current criminal justice system response to violence against
women, but the real focus of this project is on imagining an  achievable alternative for British Columbia. None of the
concerns raised in our research were unique to British Columbia, so we were able
to evaluate a broad range of program and practice solutions from other
jurisdictions in our quest for solutions.
In the report we make the case
that BC is falling behind other jurisdictions when it comes to innovation in the
area of violence against women. With the exception of a small pilot program in
Duncan, British Columbia is one of the few jurisdictions in Canada without
specialized courts mandated to hear cases involving violence against women in
relationships.
BC is at a critical juncture on the path to developing an
effective system response to violence against women. We didn’t plan it this way,
but we are excited to be launching this report in the midst of the BC Justice
Reform Initiative and less than two months after the new Provincial Office of
Domestic Violence released its preliminary action plan.
There have
already been calls for specialized courts in British Columbia, including from
the Office of the Representative for Children and Youth and, more recently, from
Geoffrey Cowper who suggests specialized courts in his report commissioned by
the Minister of Justice as part of the BC Justice Reform Initiative.
Our research highlights the diversity of specialized court models and
demonstrates that the most successful specialized courts rely heavily on
partnerships with women-serving agencies that have a deep understanding of the
dynamics of violence against women. As relative latecomers to the discussion on
specialized courts, I believe we have an opportunity to draw on the best aspects
of specialized courts in other jurisdictions in order to create the most
effective justice system response to gendered violence in this county. In order
to seize that opportunity we now begin the difficult work of turning a report
into action.
We have sent copies of this report to the Minister of
Justice and to the new Provincial Domestic Violence Office. Along with copies of
the report, we have extended an invitation to government to meet with us to talk
about the way forward. In so doing, we are presenting government with an
opportunity to make the most of the Justice Reform Initiative by developing
partnerships with women’s organizations and community-based agencies that have a
wealth of expertise to contribute to project of ‘modernizing’ BC's justice
system and creating courts that work for women survivors of violence.
Sincerely,
Darcie Bennett
Campaigns director, Pivot Legal Society
P.S. Read the whole report by clicking here.
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