Town hall meeting to address violence against women

Broken homes, broken lives, and huge social and monetary costs to the public.

Those are the products of domestic violence, which accounts for about 25 per cent of all violent events in Canada and approximately $7 billion in costs to health and criminal justice services. 

Last year, in B.C. alone, the provincial coroner recorded 14 cases of spousal homicide and that does not include deaths of children, the suicide that often follows a spouse’s killing, or the hundreds of victims who suffer mental and physical injury. 

Concerned citizens can find out how they can help prevent this damage at a town hall meeting in Richmond featuring the founding co-chair of Prevention of Violence Canada, Shannon Turner.

The meeting, presented by the Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) Richmond, takes place Oct. 22 at 7:30 p.m. in the Ralph Fisher Auditorium at Richmond Hospital (7000 Westminster Highway).

Prevention of Violence Canada (POVC) is a coalition of concerned organizations representing public health and education, community groups, and government, which seeks to implement the World Health Organization’s recommendations in its landmark 2002 study, World Report on Violence and Health. 

Turner is a former director of public health for the Vancouver Island Health Authority with a 20-year record of volunteer work in public health and social advocacy. As co-chair of POVC, she is a member of the Global Violence Prevention Alliance and is much in demand as a public speaker.

She has won prestigious awards in B.C. and Hawaii for her contributions to public health. 

For more information on the CFUW Richmond meeting, contact Linda Russell, President of CFUW BC Council, at 604-929-7500, or linda_russell@shaw.ca  or president@cfuw-richmond.org  For information on POVC, visit povc.zimsoft.ca.

— CFUW