According to Statistics Canada The Violence Against Women Survey, The Daily, November 18, 1993 ; Over half of women in BC have experienced physical or sexual violence since the age of 16.

Host Cathy Cena interviews Bonita Zarrillo, Coquitlam City Councillor and a member of Soroptimist International of the Tri-Cities, about their Walk A Mile In Her Shoes fundraiser and awareness event. This event shines a light on issues of violence against women and gender inequality in our society. During the event men from around the Tri-Cities region walk around the block in high heel shoes in order to demonstrate their solidarity with women.

The Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, Police Services Division, 2006a; The National 2009 GSS Survey on Family Violence in Canada states that there are over 60,000 physical or sexual assaults against women every year in BC, almost all of them are committed by men.

While national statistics on domestic violence amongst immigrants are unreliable for a number of reasons we do know that social isolation, lack of information about rights and available services, lack of English language skills and lack of services available in their own language, immigration and sponsorship issues, poverty, and lack of support from their cultural community increase the vulnerability of immigrant women.]

Only 12% of sexual assaults against women are reported to the police.

In 2020 the West Coast LEAF, or Legal Education and Action Fund, a non-profit that advocates for gender equality through law and education. released a report that found that many processes left marginalized women and gender-diverse people behind. “While the BC government has introduced some progressive changes, marginalized women and Two-Spirit, trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people continue to fall through the cracks,” said Alana Prochuk, one of the report’s authors, in a press release. “To correct these gaps, BC needs to listen to those communities who currently find it difficult or impossible to access the systems and services that should be supporting them,” said Prochuk. The lowest grade BC received in the report was a D- in the area of justice for people who are criminalized. The passage of the Community Safety Amendment Act raised procedural concerns in the report, as the law allows neighbours to police one another and leaves marginalized communities, particularly Indigenous women, at a greater risk of losing their housing.