In February 2014 the government in British Columbia set aside $5.5 million dollars to address domestic violence problems. This money is in addition to $70 million that they invest every year. On May 5, 2014 Daisy Kler, of Vancouver Rape Relief, stated repeatedly on CBC’s BC Almanac radio show that there is “no political will” to stop domestic violence. That was the first of many lies.
“No political will,” in Daisy Kler’s world, means that $75.5 million dollars designated to prevent domestic violence is meaningless because they didn’t offer it directly to her. One point of annoyance in her CBC speech is that Daisy had to phone the ministry herself. That apparent lack of political will is further complicated by Daisy’s admission that an entire ministry exists, by name, to deal with domestic violence. She states “There is an office of domestic violence within the Ministry of Children and Families and Development. We have made contact with them today, that was on my initiative, not theirs.” Daisy is really annoyed they didn’t call her.
The government, with their lack of will, seems to have listened closely to feminist rhetoric and followed the advice of women’s groups who’ve recently been insisting that only men can stop violence against women. $1 million has been assigned to men’s programs. That’s the million that Daisy wants. And she has reasons.
[A]nger management somehow conveys the message that abusive men need to manage their anger. In my experience, men store up their anger. They don’t take it out on their bosses, they don’t take it out on bus drivers, they don’t take it out on their friends, they come home and they take it out on their wives and their girlfriends. So, this notion that there’s something to be managed about their anger really doesn’t um, speak to the, my, uh experience which is that men actually, on purpose, attack the women in their lives who they’re in an intimate relationship with.
In addition to spreading this idiotic nonsense, Daisy insists that “in [her] 15 years of working in, on the front lines with battered women and women who have been sexually assaulted I know that very few times will officers arrest on a breach.” As an “expert” in domestic violence, Daisy must also know the fraudulence of her claims about police guidelines.
Yeah, the police often have some discretionary ah, power, so what I’ve heard just in the last week is, “well that’s not really a breach,”, “you cant really call that a breach,” so if there’s no will from the higher-ups saying domestic violence is a serious issue and you’re to take it seriously, on every level, then they still make ah, discretionary decisions that are negative; have a negative impact on women.
The police response and protocol with domestic violence reports is set by the Attorney General (higher-ups) which, in BC, allows for zero discretionary power. Where there is any evidence of assault or threat the police must arrest or they’ll be found in neglect of duty. Police do not want to risk their careers by playing foolish guessing games. In discouraging women from trusting police Daisy has failed in her duty to the women she claims to help. She has dishonestly disparaged the very people who work to protect the public.
Another travesty committed upon the battered population is the warning that women are at greater risk if they try to leave their abusive partner. The number of women Vancouver Rape Relief claims to have successfully assisted far exceeds the number of women who have been killed by their partners. Telling women who are currently afraid that they are in more danger by leaving is grossly irresponsible. If a battered woman stays in the relationship while afraid of dying her chances of escaping harm are none. If a woman leaves the relationship in which violence is occurring, even if risky, her chances of survival greatly increase.
But Daisy’s motives for spreading disinformation are quite clear. She tells us “I did speak to the office of Domestic Violence uh today, and I spoke to Clark Russell. And we know that this is um, a lot of the money hasn’t been divvied out yet. We certainly haven’t been consulted uh, formally about what we think would be an important, ah, important issues to deal with.”
It’s all about the money.
Daisy Kler doesn’t think the money should go to treatment and prevention targeted at men because she believes men are untreatable. But, mainly, she thinks men haven’t done enough to deserve the money.
“The reason why there are services for women is because, more services, partly is because the women’s movement created them, not government. And government funded them later so men are welcome to create their groups on their own, ah, just like the women did in the women’s movement.”
Though Vancouver Rape Relief won’t counsel or assist men, Daisy claims that Vancouver Rape Relief has “no problem” giving out phone numbers to men who are looking for resources. For men who aren’t comfortable calling a group that claims men intentionally harm women, you can bypass them by calling us directly.
