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Silent protest greets BC's women's minister at violence symposium

May 14, 2002 
BC Coalition of Women's Centres 

VANCOUVER -- Women attending a violence against women symposium stood in silent protest today as BC Minister of State for Women's Equality, Lynn Stephens, spoke at the podium. 

About forty women stood as the Minister was introduced, holding up signs reading "Women's Centres are HERE to STAY!"  More women joined the silent protest throughout the speech, bringing the number up to as many as eighty. 

Women's centres, which currently receive under $48,000 per year from the BC Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women's Services, provide information, support, referral and advocacy services to women across the province (including in remote communities, where few or no other services for women exist).  

Provincial funding for women's centres is slated to be cut by 100 per cent at the end of March 2004. 

The women remained silent through most of Minister Stephens' speech, speaking only to cry out "Shame!" when Minister Stephens spoke of cuts to programs and services for women in BC. 

After Minister Stephens' speech, one woman (standing on a chair near the back of the room) repeatedly demanded the right to ask questions of the Minister of State.  Her requests were denied and then ignored. 

The "Violence Against Women Symposium," held May 13-14 at the Coast Plaza Hotel in Vancouver, marked the 20th anniversary of the tabling of the "Report on Violence in the Family: Wife Battering" in the Canadian House of Commons. 

The symposium included participants from community agencies, government, justice systems, hospitals and educational institutions, and examined criminal justice, health, and community service initiatives in relation to the safety and protection of women who have experienced violence in their lives. 

In a letter dated May 13, 1999, Lynn Stephens (then the Women's Equality Critic) pledged that her Government would "carry on the core funding for Women's Centres and (that) the Ministry of Women's Equality will continue to exist, as a freestanding ministry." 

The Ministry of Women's Equality was cut when Ms. Stephens' was appointed the Minister of State, shortly after the 2001 provincial elections. 

Violence Against Women Symposium participants described the silent protest as "powerful."