TRANSCRIPT 🔗
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Check podcasts. Welcome back to this is Van Keller. From
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November twenty fifth, the International Day for the Elimination of
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Violence against Women, to December tenth, Human Rights Day, the
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Global sixteen Days campaign calls for an action to end
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violence against women. Across Canada. At least one woman or
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girl is killed every two days, according to the Canadian
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Femicide Observatory. For Justice and Accountability, advocates are calling for
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gender based violence to be recognized as an epidemic. Our
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guest night is one of those advocates, a former BC
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Minister of State for Childcare, Katrina Chen And this conversation
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is brought to you by Pacific Sands Beach resortant to
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Fino laid back luxury as beachfront as it gets So, Katrina,
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you co signed a letter from the YWCA two BC
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Premier David eb basically asking him to declare gender based
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violence as an epidemic. Can you explain why this horrible
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thing should be considered an epidemic?
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Of course, when you think about it, gender based violence
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is the most pervasive, persistent, and most widespread human rights
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violation across Canada, across the world in human history. You
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can barely think of anything else that has been so
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persistent and so devastating that has touched so many people's lives.
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So we should call it for what it is. It
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is an epidemic. And statistically, if you look at in Canada,
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about a girl, a woman or more every two days
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right here in Canada are being killed because of violence.
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Right here in BC, about thirty percent of women have
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been touched by physical or sexual violence. About half of
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women have experienced some forms of violence, whether it's emotional
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or abuse or trauma. And then the statistic actually goes
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way higher for Indigenous women and women of color. So
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that's call it for what it is.
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Survivors of gender based violence, they have many challenges in
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terms of navigating both the culture and the legal injustice system.
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There may be people at home thinking who have not
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experienced this, thinking, well, if you're in the situation, just
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get out and go through the legal system. Can you
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explain why it's not as simple as that, and some
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of the barriers that exist for women.
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There's definitely many barriers. I'm sure we've all watched a
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movie where a survivor, a victim, a woman is being questioning,
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a questioned in courts because of what happened a violence
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against them, or being questioned about their character, what was
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she wearing, why was she.
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Out late at night?
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Victim bliming, and there's you know, some people may say, oh,
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there's two sides of the story. We don't know what happened.
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And we even had a former BC politician actually in
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a leadership position that has called domestic violence a tough marriages.
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I don't know if people remember that. So there is
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definitely a barrier and a stigma and challenges for survivors
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to come forward to share their story. And I always
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say that it's so important that when you have a wound,
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you need to open it up and to let it heal,
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to look at it, to face it before you can
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find a treatment to treat your trauma. But for gender
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based violence is still a topic that so many people
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find it really difficult to talk about. So the society
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needs change and that's what we need to call it
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an a pandemic and really to talk about what gender
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based violence is, and then we look at core system
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reform because survivors tend to be re traumatized through the process.
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Many survivors have shared that they have to share their
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stories over a dozen times through the core process or
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through applications, and that is just re traumatizing on victims.
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We're currently in the sixteen days of Action. Aside from
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the province declaring gender based violence and epidemic, what other
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kind of reforms are you and other advocates looking for.
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Load full transcript
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There's definitely a lot has to be done. First of all,
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like I mentioned, we need to have a public conversation
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about it, whether it's through our K twelve education, post secondary,
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at our workplaces, at home with our children, to inform
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people about what gender based violence it is and how
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it touches so many people in our community around us.
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Many survivors, including myself, have faced that challenge of coming
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forward to share our story. I had a childhood trauma
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that I never talked about until in my late thirties
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when I was touched by violence again. So we need
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to really think about how can we create a safe
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space for people to share this and of course, at
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the same time, we need more prevention and support for
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victims and survivors who are experiencing violence or have been
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impacted by violence, and also their families. We need to
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look at court reform as well. The core process. Often
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we traumatize this victims and survivors. How can we make
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sure it's more trauma informed? For example, intimate partner violence
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is a very frequent common form of viol gender based
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violence and survivors often has to go through family court
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and court separately, and why can we not have an
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integrated court like many other jurisdictions have to ensure that
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it's survivor centered trauma inform process for survivors to go through.
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So this is being done in other jurisdictions. It's not
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that we're completely starting from new No.
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There's many other good examples across the world about how
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can we better support survivors and also ensure that there's
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proper conversation in training and trauma inform practices for survivors.
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Let's say there's someone watching the show right now who
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is impacted by this, either directly or they know someone.
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What are the first things that they should be doing
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here in BC? What are the resources or supports or
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what would you recommend them do to get out of
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that situation.
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There's definitely many organizations that can provide supports, such as
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YWCA that we talked about is leading this campaign to
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call it an epidemic. There is BWSS, Better Women Support
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Services and many other organizations that provide such support. But
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if you know someone or you are at risks of
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violence or experiencing violence, make sure you get help right away.
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Call nine one one or to contact on local organizations.
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And I do understand it. It's very hard sometimes to
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take that first step to get help. Depending Jendabe's silence
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can be very complex. Maybe talk to a trusted friend,
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share the story. Like I mentioned, unpack your wound, open
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it up, talk about it, and then take the steps
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to get those resources and the help that you need.
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We do need to make sure there's enough actions and
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support for survivors to end this tremendous and very widespread
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human rights violation.
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Katrina, I know that this is not an easy subject
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to talk about, but it is a very important subject.
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So I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you so much,
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and thank you for all that you're doing on behalf
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of victims and survivors.
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Thank you so much for having me folks.
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The former BC Minister of State for Childcare, Katrina Chen.
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Thank you so much to Pacific Sands Beach Resort and
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to FINO for supporting local conversations about very serious and
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very important issues that affect all of our communities. Now,
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after some business, we're going to end on a lighter note.
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Taking a suggestion from one of our viewers, Kyla's Court
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is up next