A local agency says the number of women facing extremely dangerous situations in Calgary has jumped dramatically.
According to the Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter, the number of women being choked has jumped to 33 per cent over the last year while threats with a weapon jumped about 25 per cent.
“That type of violence is very intimate and [a] controlling type of violence and very calculated,” said Kim Ruse, CWES executive director.
“We need to be paying attention to this shift in the type of violence. We need to make sure we’re training our staff to recognize what this violence can mean for the clients we work with, and also the repercussions.”
The Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter has 50 beds — and they’re at capacity.
According to the Calgary Police Service, there has been a slight reduction in total domestic violence incidents compared to last year, but 2019 is still on track to have more incidents than the five-year average.
“Knowing what we know now, in today’s day and age, we should not be seeing these levels,” said CPS Staff-Sgt. Paul Wozney.
“We need to start dealing with this situation at a very early age through programming in schools, having the boards of education engaged in this,” said Wozney. “It’s teaching little boys and little girls from a very early age what a healthy relationship looks like, and what it feels like, and how to communicate properly in a relationship.”