The chair of the Vancouver Island University Students’ Union, Chantelle Spicer said changes need to come from society, the general public, from the legal system and from the government.
“We are at the point now where we require real action and systemic foundational changes to the law, to the way that we imagine our communities, to the way that we interact with each other. It’s one thing to call out the government in this situation but it’s also our own community accountability to make real changes and to push for real changes as well. It needs to come from all angles.”
Spicer cites the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women that’s collecting a national narrative of the horrific situations that our indigenous women, communities and families are put into.
That Commission, she said, may be documenting the stories but is under criticism because it doesn’t actually have any teeth to come up with solutions to could create real justice.
Spicer said there needs to be stable funding for shelters, services and intervention programming for women.
She said, often, when funding is available, women’s centres have to reinvent programs to get targeted funding and having to do that can actually limit the work they can do.
Spicer was making the comments on the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
