The London Abused Women’s Centre (LAWC) has launched their 13th annual Shine the Light campaign on violence against woman with this year’s focus on coercive control and filicide.
Last year, the LAWC reported over 11,700 service interactions, including over 6,000 individual counseling group urgent support interactions, and over 5,700 service calls.
“The severity of the abuse that women and girls are subjected to, as well as the urgent need for support due to housing and food insecurity continues to increase,” said Jennifer Dunn, executive director of LAWC. “We first opened our doors in 1983, nearly 40 years ago, and to this day, we continue to provide immediate access to support without a waitlist.”
According to Dunn, coercive control is “a pattern of behaviors intended to isolate, humiliate, and exploit a woman, while filicide is the deliberate act of a parent killing a child.”
The 2022 campaign honours survivor Jennifer Kagan-Vaiter as well as her 4-year-old daughter Keira Kagan, who was killed by her biological father in February 2020.
“She and her biological father were found at the base of a cliff or rattlesnake point in Milton, Ont., in a murder-suicide,” said Kagan-Vaiter. “She was an innocent victim to a deranged predator, and she was failed by systems that were supposed to protect her.
“She was my best friend in the world and was so much like me in many ways, and when her light went out, so did mine,” she continued.
Shine the Light is a public awareness campaign that aims to raise awareness of men’s violence against women by turning buildings and landmarks purple for the month of November, “as well as to stand in solidarity with women and girls who have been victims of physical, sexual, emotional and or psychological abuse,” according to the LAWC website.
Kagan-Vaiter, who was a victim of intimate partner violence, was subjected to “isolated episodes of physical violence and coercive control among other forms.”
“I was able to escape that relationship with the systemic failures, but I was not able to protect Keira,” she said. “This is the real tragedy in this situation, that an innocent 4-year-old girl lost her life to murder because she wasn’t protected by those that were supposed to protect her.”
Following her daughter’s death, Kagan-Vaiter has been raising awareness about intimate partner violence, as well as system failures for woman and children in situations of family violence, specifically in family court and child protective systems.
She explained that in her and her family’s situation, if officials “had education on domestic violence, it would have made a considerable difference to Keira.”
“When going through our trial, I brought up the domestic violence and I spoke to it on the stand,” Kagan-Vaiter recalled. “But the judge said that ‘domestic violence is not relevant to parenting’, and that he’s going to ignore it and said to sit down and talk with my abuser.
“So, there are all sorts of myths and stereotypes about intimate partner violence that judges are still relying on,” she added.
In pursuing change and keeping the spirit of her daughter alive, Kagan-Vaiter and her second husband Phillip Viater, of Viater Perelman Family Law Group, developed Keira’s Law, which is contained within Bill C 233 and pertains to raising the level of education on domestic violence and coercive control for federally appointed judges.
“There’s another very important part of the bill around electronic monitoring as a condition of bail orders,” Kagan-Vaiter explained.
The bill was passed in the House of Commons back in June and is now headed before the senate.
“While this bill is not going to solve the whole problem, it’s certainly a step in the right direction,” Kagan-Vaiter said.
In May of this year, the Supreme Court announced changes to the Divorce Act by removing the terms ‘custody’ and ‘access’ in stressing the need to protect children against family violence. The court said that, in the child’s case, avoiding abuse that undermines the other parent may be more important for their best interests than spending as much time as possible with each parent.
“It’s important to keep up the pressure to enact change because the moment you stop putting that pressure on, the same mistakes will continue to repeat themselves and people will forget about it,” Viater said.
“We can’t bury the stories,” Kagan-Vaiter added. “It’s important to keep talking about them and to keep shining a light, no matter how many times the story has to be told.”
Kagan-Vaiter and Viater thanked the LAWC for highlighting their message for the 13th Shine the Light campaign.
“Raising stories like this and campaigns and create that conversation, and remind women at the end of the day that they’re not alone,” Dunn said. “People will listen to them, and the community will support them.
During the launch of the campaign on Friday, various city councillors and members of parliament came to show their support, feeling moved by Kagan’s story, work, and perseverance, as well as the tragedy of her daughter.
“I must commend Jennifer and Phillip for their strength and bringing their story forward,” said MPP of London North Centre Terance Kernaghan. “The murder of Keira really strikes all of our hearts, and this is the kind of thing that we all need to act on.”
Deputy mayor Josh Morgan said that “it’s incredibly important to bring these stories to light, to share them, to talk with others about them, to stand up for change, to not be bystanders, and to speak out.
“When you hear or know about instances of violence and abuse, to be an active participant in something as important as this, from the simple act of wearing purple, to donating and supporting agencies that are on the front line of this fight, there are many ways that Londoners can help and I strongly encourage them to do so,” he said, adding that addressing violence against woman and children is important work for the next council to focus on.
However, Morgan said that through the COVID-19 pandemic, “things did not get better” for woman and girls experiencing violence.
“For many people who were in a working home environment, it was just a change of place. But for those who live with an abuser, it was like being in prison all the time,” he said. “We have to recommit ourselves to the change that needs to happen so that women or girls are never in that situation again.”
Dunn noted that the LAWC specifically saw an increase in the severity of abuse and violence that women were experiencing.
“During those times of lockdown, we noticed a little bit of a decrease in calls and people coming through the door and that kind of thing. But when those lock downs lifted, it skyrocketed back up,” she explained. “Not only that but the severity of the violence that women were experiencing increased as well.”
Fabienne Haller, Shine the Light campaign coordinator, said that raising campaigns creates needed conversations and remind woman that “at the end of the day, they’re not alone.”
“Continuous advocacy work will make a difference and save lives,” she said.
The LAWC is inviting the community to Victoria Park on Nov. 1 at 5 p.m. in lighting of the Tree of Hope and to wear purple on Nov. 15. For more information, visit the LAWC website.
If you or someone you know have experienced sexual or gender-based violence contact LAWC at 519-432-2204 or the Abused Women’s Helpline at 519-642-3000.
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