July 15th, 2025

Dear Premier Eby,

Today we at Salal Sexual Violence Support Centre are writing to urge the provincial government to adopt the recommendations outlined in Dr. Kim Stanton’s report, “ The British Columbia Legal System’s Treatment of Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence”, beginning with formally declaring gender-based violence as a provincial epidemic.

Salal Sexual Violence Support Centre is proud to be one of the organizations whose experiences supporting survivors is represented in the report. With over 40 years of experience providing support services to survivors of sexualized violence, our work has consistently echoed similar challenges outlined in Dr. Stanton’s work.

Since 1983, Salal Sexual Violence Support Centre (formerly WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre) has been supporting survivors of sexualized violence in British Columbia, working to dismantle rape culture and create a future free from sexualized violence. Salal works with thousands of survivors each year, providing support on our 24-hour Crisis & Information Line, hospital accompaniment services, justice system support, counselling, support circles and violence prevention programs in the community.

We consistently hear from survivors that they do not have confidence in the justice system to protect them and to hold offenders accountable from the outset, or that their confidence in the justice system has been eroded through their experiences. In addition, quantitative analysis suggests that there are credible reasons for survivors to feel skeptical about the efficacy of the criminal legal system as a path to achieving justice.

Since 2008, Salal has tracked how cases move through the legal system using data from Salal’s client files. As part of this work, we analyzed the records of 717 individuals who accessed Salal’s Victim Services Program between 2014 and 2017.

We found that while 58% of survivors reported to police, a significantly low subset of them saw their cases advance in the legal system. Only 14% of survivors had charges forwarded to the Crown, 11% saw charges approved, 4% went to trial, and just 3% resulted in a conviction.

One of our clients, who already experienced the harms and loss of autonomy after sexual assault, described the additional harms she experienced moving through the long legal process:

“When you’ve been so horribly violated, whatever the circumstances behind
that are [you have hope] that there is accountability and restitution for it in
a timely manner… It’s cruel. I think that’s a really good word. It’s cruel to
continually engage someone in and bring them back to it over and over again.
I’ve been dealing with this for five years now. It’s cruel.”

Survivors Deserve Better

Each year, we support more than 6,000 survivors of sexualized violence. And still, there are thousands more we don’t have the capacity to serve. This is a clear and urgent indicator of the widespread nature of gender-based violence.

Declaring gender-based violence a provincial epidemic is a critical step in acknowledging and addressing the complex barriers faced by survivors each and every day. Nearly half of BC women over the age of 15 have experienced intimate partner violence, along with 1-in-2 trans people and 1-in-3 women having been impacted by sexual violence. We echo her calls for committing to integrated services, funding culturally safe and accessible programs, and data-driven and results-based approaches to addressing this violence.

Making this declaration will position BC as a leader in the country. While Nova Scotia has declared gender-based violence an epidemic and New Brunswick is taking steps to do the same, other provinces are falling behind on addressing this critical issue. The Union of BC Indian Chiefs is also calling on the federal government to take action by making a declaration nationwide, adding “the economic health of Canada requires a rights-based and gender-based analysis plus approach which upholds Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit peoples’ rights to health, security and safety.”

Governments across Canada—including here in BC—must now show their commitment to the safety, health, and well-being of marginalized genders, including women, Two-Spirit, trans, non-binary, and gender-diverse people.

In light of the urgency of this issue, we respectfully urge you to include a declaration of gender-based violence as an epidemic in this fall’s legislative agenda. Salal will be in Victoria on August 27th, 2025 until August 29th, and hope to meet with you to further discuss the needs of survivors.

We call on you to take bold, sustained action to help build a province where survivors are seen and supported, and systems are rooted in equity, dignity, and care.

Sincerely,

Dalya Israel
Executive Director
Salal Sexual Violence Support Centre

For media inquiries, please contact media@salalsvsc.ca