A Progressive Male on Recommended Legislation

Brian Vallée writes to the Toronto Star:

• Create a category of crime called femicide with penalties the same as those for first-degree murder (25 years without parole).
• Whenever there is a history of abuse and a woman is killed by her male intimate, the charge should be femicide, and the provocation defence ("she left me and I just lost it") should not be allowed.
• Establish halfway houses for batterers so women and children aren't the ones forced to leave the home.
• Implement legislation (with adequate funding) for universal daycare and provide women with opportunities to earn income and escape a battering spouse.
• Provide sustained funding for shelters and second-stage (medium-term) housing, with counselling services and income support so women who flee are not forced to return to a batterer for economic reasons.
• Restore full funding for Status of Women Canada and other women's advocacy groups.
  In cases of domestic violence, transfer jurisdiction for restraining and protection orders from civil courts to criminal courts, with mandatory incarceration when orders are breached.
• When restraining or protection orders are in place, make it an offence for a private investigator or other third party, aware of such orders, to find, or seek to find – on behalf of an abuser – an estranged intimate partner who is in hiding or a shelter.
• Implement full registration and licensing of all firearms.
• Ensure adequate long-term funding of the front-line services needed by aboriginal women to escape violence.
• Undertake comprehensive national research on the magnitude of domestic violence in aboriginal communities.
• Ensure the full participation of aboriginal women in the planning and implementation of the policies that directly affect their welfare.

See Also:
LINK: Breakfast With The Boys - Winnipeg
LINK: Time for guys to step up, stop abuse
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