National Council of Women of Canada - Blog

A Blog gives you current information and items of inerest. The National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC) has done two blogs on the meetings of the Commission on the Status of Women, 2010, and 2011. We are continuing now with a blog, on a range of topics of interst to members and the public. The NCWC has a very complete web site where you can learn more about the history and members of Council.

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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Petition in support of the long gun registry

Please visit http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/supportguncontrol/ to sign this petition in support of the long gun registry.

TO: 
Stephen Harper, Leader, Conservative Party
Michael Ignatieff, Leader, Liberal Party
Gilles Duceppe, Leader, Bloc Québécois
Jack Layton, Leader, NDP
Elizabeth May, Leader, Green Party

Violence against women is a $4 billion problem in this country. Every year, 100,000 women and children leave their homes fleeing violence and abuse. Almost 20,000 of those come through the doors of the 31 shelters operated by YWCAs across Canada looking for safety, for a roof over their heads, for care and support.
As the nation's largest single provider of shelter to women and children fleeing violence, YWCA Canada knows the long gun registry is a public safety tool that makes women’s lives safer. Across the country, our shelters tell us the long gun registry is useful and needed. Our rural shelters tell us police consult the long gun registry every time they go to a domestic violence incident. These are not automatic checks, but deliberate and specific searches for the presence of firearms in the home, especially long guns.
Among service providers working in violence against women there is no rural-urban divide on the registry. YWCA Canada's national network of shelters is urban and rural, and includes Sudbury, Niagara Region, Brandon, Prince Albert, Lethbridge, Peterborough, St. Thomas-Elgin, Saskatoon, Banff, Yellowknife and Iqaluit, where shot guns and rifles are part of the culture. In every province and territory, the shelter and transition house associations support the long gun registry.
Why? Because shot guns and rifles are the guns most commonly used in spousal homicides, and especially when women are the victims. Not handguns. Shot guns and rifles. In the last decade, 71% of spousal homicides committed with a firearm involved a shot gun or a rifle.
Women's voices from rural Canada tell the tale. Lyda Fuller, Executive Director of YWCA Yellowknife, which operates shelters in Yellowknife and Fort Smith for women and children fleeing violence, reports that, “Women have told us that the guns used here in the North predominantly for hunting – that is, llong guns – are also used to intimidate, subdue and control them. Wee hear this over and over again, in small communities without RCMP and in larger communities with RCMP. Women do not want these guns to be unregistered, but do not feel safe expressing this opinion other than in whispers to people who may be able to voice these "unpopular" opinions and who may be heard.
When YWCA Canada addressed the House Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, Lyda Fuller said, "Please make it clear that it is not city-born, city living folks who are asking for this registry to continue; it is the voices of northern women who fear for their lives and their mental health who are asking for protection. We see women who have experienced years of brutal intimidation. These women cannot safely express their need for protection themselves, and it is up to Canada to understand this and respond in an appropriate way."
Dismantling the long gun registry would not serve the interests of women and children vulnerable to violence. It would put them and the police services who respond to domestic violence at greater risk.
As a nation, it's time to listen.
Paulette Senior, CEO YWCA Canada

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