A Most Violent Year: Changes For Domestic Abuse Victims Follow Killings

EDMONTON — The crooked middle finger on Maria Fitzpatrick's left hand is a reminder of the secret she didn't share with many people.

There were other broken bones, black eyes and bruises that healed. 

 

There were the times her husband raped her and threatened to kill her and their two daughters.

 

Three decades after escaping her violent marriage, Fitzpatrick — a newly elected Alberta politician — stood up in the legislature and told her story to the world.

 

It was time.

 

With a knot in her stomach, the 66-year-old grandmother brought many to tears with her speech in November.

 

She ended it with an appeal for support of a new law allowing victims of domestic violence to break housing leases without penalty.

 

In the '70s, an apartment Fitzpatrick shared with her abusive husband was rented in her name and she feared that if she skipped out she wouldn't be able to rent anywhere else. The women's shelters she fled to only let her stay for two weeks. Then she and her children would have to go home again.

 

"I will be horrified if anybody in this chamber votes against this bill," Fitzpatrick said.

 

She received a standing ovation and the bill passed.

 

Several high-profile crimes in 2015 shone a light on the scourge of domestic violence in Canada. Provincial governments across the country have proposed changes to better protect domestic abuse victims and advocates hope that push continues in the year ahead.

 

Manitoba has introduced new legislation to make it easier for courts to grant protection orders and — in what it calls a first in Canada — will confiscate guns from anyone named in such orders. It also plans to change its Employment Standards Code so victims of domestic violence can take time off work without losing their jobs.

 

The changes came too late to help two women killed in Winnipeg this year.

 

Selena Keeper had applied in the spring for a protection order against her boyfriend. And, although she told court he regularly beat her — even when she was pregnant — she wasn't granted one because it was determined she was not in imminent danger. She was beaten to death in October; her boyfriend is charged with murder.

 

Camille Runke did get a protection order against her estranged husband, a gun owner. She called police 22 times to report violations of the order and was shot in October outside her workplace. Her husband later committed suicide.

 

In Saskatchewan, the government decided to start reviewing deaths linked to domestic violence, a process already in place in other provinces.

 

 

"When you have healthy dads raising healthy children, they usually end up in healthy relationships."

 

Fitzpatick, who has received countless messages since her speech, agrees that better parenting and gender equality are key.

 

"If we can do this, the entire world would be a different place."