Calgary Herald two-part series on domestic violence - Part 1

Boom creates 'perfect storm' of domestic abuse in Calgary

Valerie Fortney, Calgary Herald

Published: Monday, September 08, 2008

The appointment was for 11 a.m., the plan to discuss how to stem the tide of Calgary's increasingly troubling domestic violence problem.

But police Chief Rick Hanson kept this writer cooling her heels for a good two hours on Friday before he was finally ready to sit down and talk.

It's not that the 32-year Calgary Police Service veteran isn't passionate about the issue; in fact, he has long been an outspoken proponent of improving the ways in which the police, courts, social agencies and others on the front lines of domestic violence deal with this threat to both private citizens and society at large.

The reason for the delay on this day was that Hanson had to attend a news conference on yet another domestic homicide in our city.

The night before, a man called 911 to report he had killed his wife; when two officers arrived at the couple's Bankview home, the man, bloodied and brandishing a knife, threatened officers. One officer shot the man, killing him. In another room in the apartment, the officers found Sabah Rizig -- who friends say had recently left the marriage -- but it was too late to save her.

"We can never put enough emphasis on dealing with domestic violence," says Hanson with a weary shake of his head. "But your timing is impeccable."

Some of the country's most high-profile incidents of deadly domestic violence in years have occurred in our city just these past nine months: the murder-suicide of the Lall family and tenant Amber Bowerman; the death of Darcy-Rae Elder, whose husband, Ricky Anguish, later drove into the path of an oncoming semi-truck; the death in Ottawa of former Calgarian Alicia Bateman, whose fiance, Ryan Sawchuk, hanged himself after killing her; and the life sentence handed to Steven Mitchell for killing his common-law wife, Mary Kay Schmidt.

And while each story is unique in its own way, these headline-making tragedies, unfortunately, are anything but isolated incidents.

Alberta leads the country in rates of stalking, domestic assaults and murder-suicide. We're also second in the country when it comes to spousal homicide.

The Alberta Council of Women's Shelters reports that since 2006 there has been a 35 per cent increase in calls to the province's 41 centres; over the past several years, the Calgary Police Service has seen a 10 per cent annual increase in domestic reports, now averaging 1,100 per month. For a crime long considered the most unreported, domestic violence is now in the top five of calls to the police.

Our province's dubious title as domestic violence capital of Canada caught the attention of Governor General Michaelle Jean last year while on a visit to Calgary.

"I think violence against women is unacceptable, and when you look at the number of incidents here in Alberta . . . it's the most acute situation in the whole country. Why? I don't know," Jean told the Herald in an exclusive interview.

"In the last five years, we are talking about 90,000 incidents of domestic violence here in Alberta. It's not an aboriginal problem, it's not a non-aboriginal problem, it's a global problem and we are all concerned about it."

On top of the human price tag -- victims of domestic violence are more likely to suffer from chronic health conditions, in addition to their injuries -- it's estimated that the 2,000 cases that make their way through our city's criminal justice system each year come with a cost of $39 million; overall in Canada, lost productivity in the workplace due to domestic violence is estimated at $94.6 million.

Yet public perception isn't keeping up with the hard facts about this crime that is perpetrated mostly by males upon females.

In a recent Ipsos-Reid survey, released exclusively this week to the Herald, it was found that only 48 per cent of respondents considered domestic violence to be a major problem in our city; this, despite 55 per cent reporting they knew someone personally who had experienced domestic violence.

The survey, commissioned by Homefront, a Calgary umbrella organization that employs a collaborative, community-justice response to domestic violence, also found that only 22 per cent said they would call the police if they discovered a friend or relative was a victim of domestic abuse, despite 84 per cent agreeing that private citizens also have a responsibility for the problem.

Nearly half said they thought most victims could leave the abusive relationship if they wanted to, confirming that old stereotypes are hard to shake.

Such a belief, says Jane Ursel, demonstrates that while much progress has been made in the field over the past decade, society at large still has a long way to go when it comes to understanding this complex issue.

"Leaving is the most dangerous time," says Ursel, noting this week's Calgary spousal homicide follows the typical pattern of escalating abuse or even death when a woman chooses to leave the abusive relationship.

Ursel, the Winnipeg-based director of Resolve, a regional research network on domestic violence involving experts from the three Prairie provinces, has been studying the problem for the better part of 25 years.

Women in abusive relationships, she says, continue to be caught in acatch-22: they don't want to expose themselves or their children to violence, but they also don't want to end up at best struggling to pay for necessities, at worst homeless.

"They are torn between fleeing and staying," she says. "When people are caught between two negatives, it tends to immobilize them. It's a terrible set of choices to have to make, with huge fear overtop of it all."

Ursel says the situation in Calgary and the rest of the province has created a "perfect storm" when it comes to domestic violence.

"First of all, you have a younger population, and a mobile one, two situations which create higher risk," she says. "Your demographics alone are challenging."

Others on the front lines agree, adding other boom time pressures to the list.

Like the rap song goes, more money brings more problems, says Gary Gibbens. "Explosive growth brings a quick rise in pay for many, but it also brings a quick rise in substance abuse, infidelity, divorce and domestic violence," says Gibbens, manager of adult counseling programs at the Sheriff King Home in Calgary.

"The boom has brought about some pretty dramatic changes in our society, and not all of them are good."

Robbie Babbins-Wagner says it's the first time in her nearly three decades living in Calgary that she's seen a boom and a bust occurring simultaneously.

"Some people are doing really well, while others aren't enjoying any of the advantages," says Babbins-Wagner, CEO of the Calgary Counselling Centre.

"We're also struggling with the challenges of a more diverse community," she says, noting that English isn't the first language for many of its clients; they also bring with them different cultural views on the roles of men and women.

Chief Hanson says misconceptions about domestic violence also dogged his field for decades, and it has been playing catch-up for the past few years.

"I remember as a young officer, you'd walk in and have two people telling you two different stories," he says, noting there was almost no training for officers on domestic violence when he was a front-line officer more than 20 years ago. For the past decade, the police service has had a dedicated domestic conflict team that investigates about 400 cases a year.

"We didn't understand the complexity of it, the psychology of abuse," says Hanson.

"We have so much ground to make up, but at least we now recognize that," he says. "Every officer on the street is now trained to a higher level on domestic abuse. It's not something we sweep under the carpet anymore."

Front-line workers can also attest to the growing problem of both domestic violence and the day-to-day obstacles they face.

"It is an epidemic," says Arlene Adamson, director of fund development for the YWCA.

"We have all these people coming to Calgary, and this boom has got regular people caught in the middle. All the issues and problems bubble up in these situations."

But the ability to deliver services, she says, hasn't kept pace with the city's exploding population at large, or its growing number of domestic violence incidents.

At the YWCA, the city's only provider of post-shelter accommodation for women and children, the 96 beds are full 365 days of the year. Adamson's organization, like that of most others, is in the unenviable position of having to turn away desperate people looking for help.

"There's a very high likelihood that in these times, if you manage to get yourself to a shelter, there won't be a bed waiting," says Adamson.

"And if you are lucky to get one of those beds, where do you go on Day 22? We absolutely need more inventory on the market when it comes to affordable housing."

Jan Reimer tells a similar story. The provincial co-ordinator for the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters confirms the sad statistic: more than 27,000 women and children were turned away from the province's shelters between April 2005 and March 2007, including 2,700 at one Calgary shelter alone.

Shelters as a structure have always been just hanging on and stretching as much as possible," says Reimer. But the economic boom, she says, has brought a number of forces into play, simultaneously, that has made for the most challenging times she's ever witnessed.

"Our staff can get better money working at a fast food outlet. Our costs for everything from gas to food to paying utilities have gone way up," she says. "And at the same time, the government hasn't increased our funding to the extent that takes this new reality into account."

Adamson agrees it's time for government to bring more to the table.

"This sector is still chronically underfunded," she says, noting that between three and five children in every classroom goes home each day to an environment of domestic violence. "We need the core funding, not the restricted funding. We're the experts, and they need to trust the experts," she says, adding that government should let the providers decide where money is needed most, whether it's for secure doors, bullet-proof windows or more counsellors.

But still, says Reimer, things have improved in the 35 years since the country's first emergency shelter opened its doors.

"We know so much more about domestic violence, about its complexity and ways to fight it," says Reimer, who will host the inaugural World Conference of Women's Shelters inEdmonton from Sept. 8 to 11, bringing together the world's top experts, educators and workers in the field of domestic violence

"It's been slow going, and we still have far to go . . . but at least they don't laugh about it in the House of Commons anymore."

vfortney@theherald.canwest.com

© The Calgary Herald 2008