It’s not just Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, and Callan Foote. Many men in hockey, men in sports, men in general, commit sexual violence against women with impunity.
Hockey Canada has settled 21 sexual assault “allegations” since 1989. And these are just the cases that have been brought to and settled by Hockey Canada. Who knows how many rapes/sexual assaults male hockey players have actually committed against women with no recourse or justice for the women.
We urge the committee to call on Canada to denounce and condemn any attempt to intimidate, threat, attack, silence and boycott women’s groups and individual women for speaking up on the unique experience and needs of female born women and girls and remind Canada that the “Attempts to silence women based on the views they hold regarding the scope of gender identity and sex in law and in practice and the rights associated with these, severely affects their participation in society in dignity and in safety, as well as their country’s prosperity and development.”
Although efforts to increase the number of women in policing is worthwhile, it alone will not shift the toxic, misogynistic culture into one that values women’s contributions.
We see time and time again that men are charged with assault and uttering threats, and released back into the community with no meaningful oversight to ensure they do not make good on those threats. Last year in B.C., five women were murdered by a current or ex-male partner that were released on conditions to stay away from these women. These orders did not protect them. We desperately need robust mechanisms to ensure that women and their children are protected from men who pose grave risks to them.
The Women’s Equality Coalition believes that poor understanding and implementation of the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA, 2014) is the main cause of inefficiencies in Canada’s efforts to end human trafficking. The Women’s Equality Coalition is encouraging the government to fully implement the Equality Model to protect and support women and girls in prostitution and those who are victims of human trafficking.
