Violence is always the responsibility of the abuser and is never justifiable. Violence against women transcends class, culture, race, and ethnicity.

• 61% of all Canadians say they personally know at least one woman who has been sexually or physically assaulted¹
• On average, every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner. In 2009, 67 women were murdered by a current or former spouse or boyfriend²
• Over half of Canadian women have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16 ³
•  On any given day in Canada, more than 3,000 women (along with their 2,500 children) are living in an emergency shelter to escape domestic violence ⁴
• Violence against women exists in all cultures, ages, religions, sexual orientations, educational backgrounds and income levels.  Our calls come from a range of socio-economic backgrounds who may not all access shelters but still require critical and immediate assistance
• In just one year in Canada, 427,000 women over the age of 15 reported they had been sexually assaulted⁵ .Since only about 10% of all sexual assaults are reported to the police, the actual number is much higher ⁶
• The cost of violence against women in Canada for health care, criminal justice, social services, and lost wages and productivity has been calculated at $4.2 billion per year ⁷ 

For immediate help call 1-866-863-0511

 *Sources:

 ¹  Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile 2005, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics,  
    Statistics Canada, page 34
²  Homicide in Canada, 2009, Sara Beattie and Adam Cotter, Juristat, Volume 30, Number 3,
    Statistics Canada, page 14
³  The Violence Against Women Survey, Statistics Canada, 1993. Although more up-to-date data
    would be preferable, no future Statistics Canada survey asked women about their life-time
   experience of violence.
⁴  What Their Stories Tell Us: Research findings from the Sisters In Spirit initiative, Native
   Women’s Association of Canada, 2010, p. 18.5. Canada: Missing and murdered Aboriginal
   women and girls: Families deserve answers – and justice, Amnesty International, Media
   Release March 8, 2011
⁵  Sexual Assault in Canada 2004 and 2007, Shannon Brennan and Andrea Taylor-Butts,
   Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada, 2008, p. 12. . This figure is for 2004.
⁶  Ibid, p. 6
⁷  Measuring Violence Against Women: Statistical Trends 2006, Statistics Canada, p. 34.