Beyond the Epidemic Declaration

Beyond the Epidemic Declaration:

The GBV/IPV Working Group Organizes a Sector-Wide Consultation in the City of Toronto

Last year, Aura Freedom led the Urgent Call to Action that called upon the City of Toronto to declare Intimate Partner Violence an Epidemic in our communities. Building upon decades of feminist work, we led this Urgent Call in collaboration with Women’s Habitat of Etobicoke, and with the encouragement and endorsements of more than 40 organizations working to end gender-based violence in Toronto. We also had the support and advocacy of Councillor Lily Cheng and many survivors from our communities.

On July 20, 2023, herstory was made when newly-sworn-in Mayor Olivia Chow declared Intimate Partner and Gender-Based Violence an Epidemic in Toronto, with the unanimous support of City Council. As we celebrated this collective “victory”, it was important for us to ensure that the work didn’t end at the declaration.

From that time, along with our brilliant partners below, Aura Freedom collaborated in the GBV/IPV Working Group, which engaged in a deep analysis and organized a sector-wide consultation to ensure more voices were heard and more communities represented. The GBV Sector Consultation, held earlier this week, will inform the City on how address the IPV epidemic in a meaningful way. We also heard from City staff on the work that has been done so far.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to our amazing GBV/IPV Working Group co-members and our consultant extraordinaire with whom we’ve shared so much:

  • Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic
  • Native Women’s Resource Centre of Toronto
  • White Ribbon
  • Woman ACT
  • Women’s Habitat of Etobicoke
  • YWCA Toronto
  • Monica DaPonte, Shift & Build Consulting

And so much gratitude goes to all of the participants and attendees of the GBV Sector Consultation who brought their brilliance and passion to the table and to Councillor Cheng for her constant support of this work.

We are looking forward to what comes next. There is so much still to do.

Supporting Bill 173 as an Expert Witness to the IPV Epidemic

Appearing before ontario's standing committee on justice policy for bill 173

On August 14th, 2024, our Executive Director recently appeared as an Expert Witness before the Legislative Assembly of Ontario’s Standing Committee on Justice Policy to support their study of the Intimate Partner Violence epidemic. The study was requested by Premier Doug Ford in response to Bill 173, which has passed second reading and is now at the committee for consideration and further study. If passed, the Bill would see the Government of Ontario declare Intimate Partner Violence an epidemic province-wide.

Marissa highlighted the importance of urgently investing in Primary Prevention, but not at the expense of crucial frontline work, giving concrete examples and recommendations on the type of framework required to finally address one of the oldest and most normalized human rights abuse of our time.

We thank the Committee for the opportunity to present our expertise and recommendations and look forward to the passing of Bill 173 and the commitments that will follow.

“The solutions are there. It’s the investments – and really – the political will, that haven’t been there.”

Marissa Kokkoros

Hosting a Meeting with the UN Special Rapporteur

UN Special procedures & Aura freedom

In August 2023, Aura Freedom organized and hosted a meeting at Toronto City Hall with the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Tomoya Obokata, and a group of more than 50 anti-human trafficking stakeholders and other human rights advocates in Toronto.

We were happy to facilitate this meeting to allow the Toronto anti-human trafficking community to contribute to Mr. Obokata’s country report on Canada, which was published this August. We were also grateful for the Special Rapporteur’s willingness to listen to grassroots voices and community leaders.

Read the final report here which will be formally presented to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations in September 2024.

Our Contributions to Canada’s Study on Coercive Behaviour

Is criminalizing Coercive Control the answer?

Aura Freedom was happy to contribute to the study undertaken by the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women for their study on Coercive Behaviour in the context of intimate partner violence (IPV) and human trafficking (HT).

In our brief, we lay out out the risks of criminalizing coercive behaviour and the potential negative impacts on survivors, while also recognizing the importance of accountability for abusers and the power of feminist legislation.

We recognize:

  • Presently suggested legislation around coercive control does not identify nor integrate the necessary systems, mandates, training, procedures, etc. to prevent survivors of IPV from being accused of and/or charged using the same legislation intended to protect them. Those in the sector continue to see survivors face punishments intended for their abusers through current legislation and its consequences, such as abusers accusing their victims of IPV, mandatory charging, family court procedures, and bogus accusations of ‘parental alienation’. In fact, using the criminal justice system to further abuse, control and entrap victims is a cornerstone tactic of coercive control itself.

  • Criminal legislation does not ensure the legislative process (i.e. charges, prosecution, and guilty verdicts) reliably punishes abusers and ignores the 70% of survivors who do not report to police.

  • Criminal legislation does little to eradicate gender-based violence by addressing its root causes.

We also recognize:

  • While restorative justice alternatives are crucial, some perpetrators are simply too dangerous to have access to people in our communities, as the potential harm, especially to women and children, is simply too great to ignore.
  • The importance of listening to all survivors, both those who have been criminalized by the very system in place to protect them, and those who see accountability for their abusers as necessary for their safety and the safety of their children.
  • The cruciality of feminist legislation and acknowledging where it has brought us today.

Read our final recommendations below.

Our Final Recommendations

Read our full submission to the Standing Committee on the Status of Women for their study on Coercive Behaviour.

An Open Letter: Canada’s Human Trafficking Strategy

An Open Letter to Canadian Leadership on the National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking

On June 19, 2024, Aura Freedom, in collaboration with other community partners working to end human trafficking, sent an Open Letter to Canadian leadership regarding the renewal of the Canada’s National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking to ensure that efforts to prevent and eradicate human trafficking and support survivors do not disappear with the Strategy that is set to expire this year. Read the letter below.

A special thank you to our partners and co-authors of the Open Letter:

An Update on this Advocacy:

In August 2024, we received official responses from Public Safety Canada and the Office of the Prime Minister, acknowledging our Open Letter and advising us on plans for upcoming community consultations. We are keeping an eye out for more updates to come.

Our Thoughts on Budget 2024

Our Thoughts on Budget 2024

Introduction: 

On Tuesday, April 16th Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland released the federal budget for 2024-2025, “Fairness for every generation”.

Budget 2024 is one of the most robust housing budgets in decades. While we recognize the federal government’s urgency to address the housing and economic crisis to support every generation, we must also recognize that the budget fails to consider targeted support for women fleeing violence. Yet again, women’s homelessness remains invisible. 

The federal government’s budget claims to “build a Canada that works better for you… where you have a fair chance at a good middle class life”. We must ask the government, what chance at a “good middle class life” exists through this budget for those experiencing gender-based violence or human trafficking? Especially for those women, girls, and gender-diverse people who are the most marginalized

With the 2024-25 budget being labeled as “fairness for every generation”, we question if it also upholds “fairness for every gender”. When the budget fails to address vital gendered issues such as intimate partner violence, sex trafficking, femicide, and more, we must question who truly benefits – and who is missing – from this proposed “fairness”. 

Importantly, no additional funding to prevent and address gender-based violence (GBV), intimate partner violence (IPV), or human trafficking (HT) was announced in Budget 2024. The National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence continues to be cited in Budget 2024 only to acknowledge previous monetary investments. We have historically seen the funds set out to “address” GBV go to policing services, government services, legal or justice services, and predominantly response-focused services. To truly end GBV, we must work to prevent it. We implore the Canadian government to attribute funding intentionally towards prevention-focused initiatives. 

The following marks our fourth year in a row analyzing the federal budget through the lenses of GBV eradication, equity, human rights and intersectional feminism, as always.

 

Housing: 

Budget 2024 and Canada’s Housing Plan plans to build at least 3.87 million new homes by 2031 across communities in Canada. The budget aims to protect renters rights, and strengthen the Canadian Mortgage Charter to allow 30-year mortgage amortizations for first-time home buyers purchasing newly constructed homes.

We applaud the government for their intentions to support every generation with access to affordable housing. We also know that creating new housing units, stabilizing rent prices, and providing more opportunities for first time home buyers may address aspects of the housing crisis, but simply does not address the root causes of the issue. This is only a band-aid solution. 

Housing policy is an economic policy, but it is also a gendered policy. 

Last year, we called for Canada to address the housing crisis with a gendered and intersectional lens, as we know women who experience violence experience homelessness at higher rates, and women experiencing homelessness experience violence at higher rates.

Findings from our Relentless Resilience Report showed that on any given night, 6000+ women and children in Canada sleep in emergency shelters because it is not safe at “home”.

In fact, women and girls face the greatest danger in their own homes. In Canada 55% of women killed by their partners or family members were killed in their own home or the home they shared with the accused. 

The question, what is the dedicated funding for women and their children experiencing or fleeing violence in their own homes?, still remains unanswered. 

Violence against women and girls, and women’s homelessness has remained invisible far too long. We urge the housing policy to implement an intersectional lens to ensure that there is targeted support, preventative measures, and safety resources available for women, as well as Black, Indigenous, disabled, newcomer, and gender diverse people – as we know that they experience higher rates of homelessness and violence than anyone else.

From housing to economy, violence against women is impacting families, communities, and entire countries. So, when we work to end violence against women, we are actually investing to see our communities – and country– thrive

 

Cost of Living: 

Budget 2024 recognizes the global rise in the cost of living – and aims to address this through efforts towards “lowering everyday costs” by targeting grocery prices, internet and phone plans, airline fees, and even concert and sport tickets. 

We must ask what the government is doing to address the fact that for countless women and children, the “cost of living” is living with their abuser. Evidence shows that women may stay in violent relationships to avoid poverty for themselves and their children. Further, women who do leave a partner to raise children on their own are 5x more likely to be poorer than if they had stayed. We know that this economic pressure for women to remain in their “homes”, where they are experiencing violence, leads to intimate partner femicides occurring weekly in Canada. The cost of living crisis in Canada in turn results in the deaths of women. 

The cost of living is our lives.

When we talk about saving Canadians money – we must consider the billions it costs Canadians (disproportionately women, girls, and gender-diverse people) who experience violence. We must address the $7.4 Billion it costs Canadians annually to contend with the aftermath of spousal violence alone, and the $3.4 Billion it costs Canadian women who experience sexual assault. 

Further, we call on the government to address the ongoing gender pay gap, as we know this cost of living crisis disproportionately affects women and girls, and further affects those with intersecting identities: Black women, Indigenous women, women with disabilities, 2SLGBTQIA+ folks, migrant and refugee women, and more. 

From Statistics Canada, we know that the gender pay gap is “one of the root causes of gendered poverty. Women are more vulnerable to low income than men in Canada due to the gender pay gap”. Importantly, the UN’s Human Rights Committee has raised concerns about the “persisting inequalities between women and men” in Canada – specifically citing the “high level of the pay gap”. If Budget 2024 wants to bring “fairness to every generation”, specifically targeting “younger Canadians”, then we ask, why do girls aged 12-18 experience a summer job gender pay gap of almost $3.00/hour? 

While we applaud Canada’s dedicated efforts to create possibilities for younger Canadians to attain a “good middle class life”, we urge Canada to create equitable possibilities – ones that address the intersecting barriers faced by women and girls to live financially stable, safe lives. When the growing cost of living crisis results in more women continuing to live with their abuser, the very person most likely to commit their femicide, women’s lives depend on it. 

 

 

Gender Equity and Violence Against Women: 

In 2024-2025, WAGE has stated they will focus on four key priorities: promoting and advancing women and gender equality; promoting and advancing 2SLGBTQI+ equality; preventing and addressing GBV; and leading and advancing Gender-based Analysis Plus implementation throughout the Government of Canada. While we are hopeful for these priorities to be implemented, we are disappointed to see that these priorities – particularly around preventing and addressing GBV – are not shared in Budget 2024 itself. 

Budget 2024 has once again kept the Statement on Gender, Diversity, and Inclusion separate from the budget. We reaffirm that gender, diversity, and inclusion must be ingrained in every initiative, every funding pot, and every aspect of the federal budget and be done with intentional, actionable, and clear implementations – not simply ongoingly vague, monetary commitments. 

We know that gender equity will never exist until women, girls, and gender-diverse people live free from violence. We also know that this violence is an epidemic – perhaps the oldest epidemic to exist. This is why Aura Freedom, alongside Women’s Habitat of Etobicoke led in the Urgent Call to Action to have Toronto declare IPV an epidemic last year, and continue to advocate for the same declaration to be made in Ontario today. We have said time and time again, we need a strong commitment to end the ongoing and escalating epidemic of GBV in Canada. 

Instead, throughout Budget 2024’s 430 pages, we see the issue of GBV mentioned JUST ONCE – and only in the context of acknowledging the National Action Plan to End GBV as a “key ongoing action”. We continue to implore the federal government to follow through on the National Action Plan (which was introduced in 2021), as well as provide supplemental gender-equality funding, share additional details on the NAP, and do so with a clear plan.  We continue to ask ourselves why there is no sense of urgency for the safety and rights of women in Canada when we know that HALF of the 19 million women and girls in Canada will have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16. And when we know that a woman or girl in Canada is KILLED every 2.5 days, most often by the men closest to them. 

How can our cities and provinces be encouraged to declare GBV and IPV an epidemic if our country continues to make it invisible in the federal budget? 

 

 

Indigenous Economic Reconciliation and Housing: 

As expected, Budget 2024 largely focused on addressing the economic and housing crisis as seen across Indigenous communities. Some of the noteworthy investments are the following, 

  • $350 million, over five years, starting in 2024-25, to renew Canada’s commitment to Indigenous Financial Institutions;
  • $2.5 million in 2024-25, to continue supporting the Indigenous tourism industry through the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada; 
  • $36 million, over three years, starting in 2024-25, to renew support for the Strategic Partnerships Initiatives’ Clean Energy program to promote Indigenous participation in clean growth opportunities; and
  • $918 million over five years, starting in 2024-25 proposed to accelerate work in narrowing First Nations, Inuit, and Métis housing and infrastructure gaps. 

While these may appear to be progressive investments that propose efforts for Indigenous economic reconciliation and housing affordability, it does not consider an intersectional gendered lens. 

We know that far too often, Indigenous women fall through the cracks in large part due to the ongoing impacts of colonization and the persisting intergenerational trauma experienced by Indigenous communities.  

Affordable housing is a human right. 

Yet, on their own historic lands, Indigenous Peoples have to remain on 10 to 15-year long waitlists, or simply don’t have access to safe spaces to call home. 

We will continue to monitor the investments and hold those that have committed to achieving these goals accountable. 

In 2022, three First Nations women went missing in Winnipeg, and the remains of two are still undiscovered to this day. We applaud the federal government’s announcement of $20 million in 2024-25 to support efforts (in partnership with the Government of Manitoba, Indigenous partners, and impacted families) to search the Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of missing and murdered Indigenous women. 

We recognize that in 2021, $2.2 billion was announced over five years to respond to MMIWG2S, yet there has been no new investment programs proposed to prevent violence and empower Indigenous survivors. 

We need to stop pulling people out of the river, and implement an upstream, intersectional approach to end the violence and trafficking of Indigenous women and girls.  

With one year remaining from the 2021 announcement, we urge Canada to consider implementing preventative strategies and funding opportunities that address the root cause which keeps Indigenous communities in intergenerational cycles of violence and hardship.

 

 

Human Trafficking (HT): 

We are disheartened to have to repeat this statement for yet another year. Canada’s federal budget continues to overlook human trafficking (HT) and sexual exploitation. In Budget 2024, HT is referred to only once under the “Protecting Canadians from Financial Crimes” category. Further, the only efforts listed in Budget 2024 are Canada’s efforts towards establishing public-private partnerships with the financial sector. But where are the GBV sector, the women’s sector, and the HT sector – the grassroots advocates, survivors, and experts – in these national “efforts” to address HT?

We know HT is more than a crime – and a financial one, at that – it is a human rights abuse. At Aura Freedom, we recognize that HT takes place across many industries including the sex industry, domestic labour, the care sector, the service industry, farming industry, fishing industry, and more. Forced/child marriage and  forced crime are other forms affecting Canadians today. Yet, the budget dedicates merely a sentence to address the complex issue. 

In 2019, a five-year National Strategy To Combat Human Trafficking (National Strategy)  was launched to strengthen Canada’s response to HT, including commitments to prevent and address GBV, and support the safety and security of Indigenous peoples. It was surprising to see that the budget did not indicate any commitment to renew the National Strategy. 

We know GBV and HT is preventable, and we implore the federal government to make permanent funding investments as it will require years of intentional planning towards addressing the root causes, including sexism, colonialism, gender inequity, racism, homo/transphobia, ableism, and more. We know HT is not simply a financial crime, but a GBV issue, a gender issue, and a human rights issue. We implore the Canadian government to treat it as such in future budgets. 

Online Exploitation: 

Budget 2024 proposes to provide $52 million over five years, starting in 2024-25, with $2.1 million in remaining amortization, to Canadian Heritage and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to protect children, and all Canadians, from harmful online content, as well as, provide $2.5 million in 2024-25 to Public Safety Canada to support the important work of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection in preventing and responding to online child sexual exploitation.

Certainly, with so many people using the internet for school, work, socializing and entertainment, there is also an increased risk of online exploitation. Often, traffickers use digital platforms to target, recruit, groom and exploit at-risk youth.  

In a survey conducted by Aura Freedom with over 2000 youth in Toronto, 38% said they feel unsafe online and 73% said they have had online interactions with someone they didn’t know, showing a significant gap in internet safety awareness.

While we applaud Canada’s investment efforts to create safe places online for children and youth that enable participation, connection, and a sense of community, it is striking that the funding has been predominantly allocated to Canadian Heritage and the RCMP to address online child sexual exploitation. Once again, we urge the federal government to listen to grassroots organizations and survivors: focus efforts in communities, focus efforts on prevention, and allocate additional funds to address the complex human rights abuse of trafficking and sexual exploitation that occurs across Canada everyday, both online and offline. 

 

 

Child Care: 

We recognize the hardships that the younger generations are facing, and the efforts that Budget 2024 is taking to address this. We also recognize how closely this ties in with GBV. Each year in Canada, roughly 362,000 children witness domestic violence. These children have double the rate of psychiatric disorders as children than those from non-violent homes. Additionally, we know that 9/10 women killed in Canada had at least 1 child. And when we discuss ‘living victims of femicide’, we know there are at least 868 children in Canada who are left without their mothers due to femicide. 

Budget 2024 highlighted the new Youth Mental Health Fund that will allocate $500 million over five years, starting in 2024-25, which will help younger Canadians access the mental health care they need. 

This is huge. We celebrate this investment and support it whole-heartedly. 

We also implore the government to continue to work towards equitable, accessible, comprehensive and appropriate mental health supports for all Canadians. Further, we implore the government to ensure these efforts acknowledge the root causes of trauma, mental illness, and addiction for youth. With the new Youth Mental Health Fund, we hope that it creates intentional opportunities to equitably support children and youth who experienced or witnessed violence, as well as, work towards prevention efforts. 

In addition, Budget 2024 established “The Child Care Expansion Loan Program”, which will offer $1 billion in low-cost loans and $60 million in non-repayable contributions to public and not-for-profit child care providers to build more child care spaces and renovate their existing child care centres. This investment is also celebratory as it creates opportunities for women and caregivers to easily access more child care spaces, resulting in them participating more fully in the workforce, leading to increased economic independence and empowerment. At the same time, we also acknowledge that these supports are predominantly loans. We know that without adequate childcare options, many women may be forced to choose between professional advancement and childcare responsibilities. Investing in childcare is investing in women as it directly contributes to a more equitable society.

 

 

Canada and the World: 

We recognize that the global violent conflicts, including genocide, civil and internal violence, and war, occuring today are disproportionately impacting the lives of countless women and children around the world. 

We recognize Canada’s responsibility to take action towards protecting human rights and safety on a global level, and Canada’s announcement of $350 million over two years in additional humanitarian aid is an important first step. We stand with other feminist organizations in our hope that the government will utilize their global influence, such as through hosting the Group of Seven countries next year, to work collaboratively with other economic powers in order to respond to the “large-scale and deteriorating humanitarian crises around the world”, as recognized by Budget 2024.

 

 

Conclusion:

Although we have applauded the federal government’s investments to address GBV in previous years, including efforts to implement the NAP at local levels, we know that GBV is not going away tomorrow. We also know that the sector addressing this violence has been hanging by a thread for decades and needs long-term commitments and the unwavering support of its government to continue doing the life-saving work it has done for so long. Indeed, a thriving feminist sector is the key to a thriving country.

Violence against women and children is a Public Health issue and a Public Safety issue, and efforts to both prevent and address it must be embedded in each and every federal budget. 

When we look at some of the biggest issues of our time – housing, healthcare, food security, addiction, mental health, workforce participation – we can draw a straight line to GBV and its impacts on those very issues. Those of us at the grassroots level know that GBV is a national emergency, yet it has never been treated as such. In Canada, IPV, femicide and sexual exploitation continue at alarming rates. Yet, the government continues to fund reactionary approaches and band-aid solutions that intervene when the violence has already happened. What is needed is a preventative approach that focuses on education, equity and decolonization which will eradicate GBV from the root. This takes long-term, robust funding that will need to appear in the Budget – every single year. 

While we recognize the dedicated efforts in Budget 2024 towards developing housing policies for future generations, we also recognize that the demand for housing is inherently tied with our demands to address GBV. True gender equity leads to housing equity.

The positive impacts of ending GBV will not only be seen in our people (which should be enough to take action), but there are also profound, intergenerational fiscal benefits to ensuring the safety and well-being of women and all those they carry on their backs.

Violence against women can no longer be an afterthought.

A Double Launch for GBV In The Media

A Double Launch for GBV In The Media

For years, feminist advocates have raised their voices about the importance of accurate media reporting of gender-based violence in the media. For years, we have seen gender inequality furthered and strengthened through media representation of gender-based violence. For years, survivors and their loved ones have seen their stories (and lives) misrepresented, mischaracterized, and in many cases ignored by media. 

The relationship between the GBV and Media sectors has been historically strained. But we know the only way for us to create transformative change, and utilize media as a means to prevent and end gender-based violence, is to bridge that divide. This is why we are so proud to have officially launched our GBV In The Media project, funded by Women and Gender Equality Canada, in which we created:

  • National Network of pan-Canadian GBV and media stakeholders (with a parallel Indigenous-led Network)
  • Media Guidelines around reporting on gender-based violence, which were expert-informed, and included dedicated sections on Violence Against Indigenous Women, Human/Sex Trafficking, Femicide and more.
  • Research Background & Literature Review that explored portrayals of GBV in the media, with an Indigenous-specific section.
  • Journalist’s Scorecard, a tool created to support media professionals’ usage of Aura Freedom’s Guidelines on GBV in the Media.
  • An Online Resource Centre to house all project info, tools, and resources, including: the guidelines, research, scorecard, a list of our National Network, our definition for Transformative Media, and more.
  • Awareness & Events to promote the issue of GBV in the Media, dissemination of the guidelines, our research, our tools, and more through partnerships, events, social media, and more. 

We are grateful to everyone who attended our launch events, both in person in Toronto our online webinar. Our launch events consisted of both a Project Presentation to introduce the project, provide a background on the project’s research, and give overview to the media guidelines, as well as a Panel Discussion that brought together experts from both the GBV and Media sectors, many of whom were National Network members. We are grateful to the numerous journalists and GBV advocates who joined us at these events, and continue to join us in this growing movement dedicated to combating GBV through the power of media.

Together, we have created a project that seeks to radically change the way gender-based violence is viewed and addressed in our communities.

Watch the recap of our Toronto launch!

Toronto launch - March 20, 2023.

We first launched our GBV In The Media project on March 20th at the Globe and Mail Centre in Toronto. This event was designed for journalists, media professionals and VAW/GBV advocates to connect over the importance of transformative media reporting of GBV, and share thoughts on how we can collaborate to make it happen.

A thank you to our amazing panelists:

  • Firdaus Ali, Canadian Centre of Muslim Women & Journalist
  • Ci Ci Fan, Independent Journalist
  • Pamela Hart, Native Women’s Resource Centre of Toronto
  • Carla Neto, Women’s Habitat of Etobicoke
  • Moderated by our own Executive Director, Marissa Kokkoros

Online launch - March 26, 2023.

To provide an opportunity for those across Canada unable to attend our Toronto launch, we hosted a virtual launch on March 26th with GBV advocates and media professionals from across Canada.

A thank you to our amazing panelists:

  • Laura Baziuk, Global BC
  • Nana Boateng, Elizabeth Fry Toronto
  • Myrna Dawson, Canadian Femicide Observatory
  • Elizabeth Renzetti, Journalist and Best-Selling Author
  • Benedicte Shoepflin, Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse
  • Moderated by our own Executive Director, Marissa Kokkoros

Thank you

Thank you to our wonderful team members, Board members and volunteers for all their efforts!

Thank you also to the many GBV In The Media network members, panelists, and community partners who attended our launch events and engaged in the conversation.

Of course, a huge thank you to Women and Gender Equality Canada for funding this important work and a special thank you to Forsman & Bodenfors, Tottographs, and Insert Marketing for their support.

Toronto Launch Event - full photo gallery

Aura Freedom acknowledges the support of Women and Gender Equality Canada

EmpowerU – Sharing Human Trafficking Knowledge

EmpowerU – Sharing Human Trafficking Knowledge

In honour of National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, Aura Freedom hosted EmpowerU, a special online event where we invited youth, youth-serving frontline workers, community organizations, advocates, educators, parents/guardians, healthcare workers, and other stakeholders invested in eradicating human trafficking and gender-based violence in Ontario and beyond. 

During this event, we hosted a Panel Discussion and Community Dialogue with anti-human trafficking advocates, activists, and frontline workers who shared their insights on sex trafficking prevention rooted in equity, intersectionality, and human rights. We also hosted a Resource Spotlight featuring different community advocates, we will shine a spotlight on various community resources, services and tools available in Ontario and Canada to advance human trafficking prevention and support survivors/those at risk.

Our goal was to EmpowerU to end exploitation and gender-based violence in your communities, enhance youth safety, and support survivors.

We are grateful to our panelists, our attendees, as well as The Regional Municipality of York Region for supporting this event!

Watch the Recording of EmpowerU:

Aura Freedom turns 10!

Aura Freedom turns 10!

Our hearts are bursting! A heartfelt thank you to all those who came out to A Day After Freedom and celebrated 10 years of Aura Freedom with us at the legendary El Mocambo in Toronto.

There aren’t words to describe what this evening meant to us and our community. The sisterhood and siblinghood felt in the room that night was especially powerful and beautiful. It was truly a night of music, celebration, and – of course – of powerful activism. 

Here’s to decades more of the feminist movement, and of Aura Freedom. 

A Day After Freedom featured performances from Neon Nostalgicas well as a surprise performance by our very own Executive Director, Marissa Kokkoros!

Thank you to our wonderful hosts, longtime supporter Adwoa Nsiah-Yeboah (left) and Board member Kimberley Fowler (right), for lending your broadcasting and media skills to A Day After Freedom!

Thank you to our amazing community. To our Board Members, Advisors, Staff (past and present), Partners, Supporters, Donors, and more who came out and joined us, as you do in our mission to end violence against women and girls, each and every day. 

What a night! Check out our photos.

MANY THANKS TO OUR EVENT SPONSORS:

MAIN GRASSROOTS SPONSORS:

SILENT AUCTION & PRODUCT SPONSORS:

We thank the El Mocambo for generously sponsoring a portion of our venue.

Aura Freedom launches the Body Bag, For Her

The Body Bag, For Her

In honour of the 16 Days of Activism to end Gender-Based Violence, Aura Freedom created the Body Bag For Her to call attention to the prevalence and urgency of femicide in Canada. 

Drawing on traditional advertising tropes of gendered campaigns for ‘women’s products’, Aura Freedom created the Body Bag, For Her to illuminate the fact that every other day a woman is killed in Canada, most often by a man. Indigenous women are murdered at the highest rates in Canada, contributing to the genocide of Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Spirit Peoples (MMIWG2S).

Aura Freedom created the Body Bag, For Her to show the sobering realities of femicide in Canada, and how it isn’t the same as homicide. Women are being killed by men, precisely because they are women. And these murders are completely preventable.

Femicide is an emergency in Canada, and until we treat it as such, we will continue to lose women and girls in our communities.

The campaign is a multi-media one (print, TV, social, digital, etc.) and includes an educational microsite where people can learn more about femicide and MMIWG2S. Watch the powerful campaign video here.

Explore the 'For Her' microsite on Femicide in Canada

The For Her microsite was created in sisterhood and partnership with the Canadian Femicide Observatory and the Native Women's Resource Centre Toronto.

We are grateful to our partners:

Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice & Accountability

Native Women’s Resource Centre of Toronto

The Canadian government has still not officially recognized the term Femicide in any legislation.

Femicide is happening in Canada. Ignoring it will not make it go away. Recognition of this most extreme form of male violence against women is the first step forward to addressing it.

We call on the Government of Canada to take the meaningful steps towards ending femicide across the country, and to declare femicide an emergency in Canada through a petition created in partnership with the Canadian Femicide Observatory and the Native Women’s Resource Centre of Toronto. 

Sign the petition for the Government of Canada to declare femicide an emergency and act accordingly.

We’re not waiting anymore.

The 'For Her' launch event in Toronto!

In honour of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and to kick off the 16 Days of Activism, we held our launch event for the ‘For Her’ campaign at It’s Ok* Studios in Toronto. This was an opportunity for the public, the media, and our community to learn more on the reality of femicide in Canada, sign our petition, connect with fellow affected and concerned community members – and see the body bag, for her, in person. Check out our recap video of our launch event here

MEDIA WAS BUZZING. Check out the following articles on our “For Her” campaign: CTV NewsNewsWireCP24 ArticleCP24 InterviewNowTorontoThe MessageBNN Breaking Network, and more.

Watch our Executive Director's interview on CTV's The Social

Marissa sat down with the hosts of CTV's The Social to talk about why femicide needs to be declared an emergency and why we need to #CallItFemicide.

We’re thankful for our fellow gender-based violence advocates, community partners, and Councillor Lily Cheng for coming and showing support for the For Her campaign.

All our gratitude goes to Forsman & Bodenfors CanadaFolktale FilmsVeritas Communications and Cactus Sewing Studio for all their creative brilliance that is the For Her campaign. This campaign was created by a genius all-woman creative team, from the writers and graphic designers, to the film director and the project managers, and even the makers of the body bag itself. These women are all heart and every time we put our heads together during this process, it was nothing but joy. Thank you ALL for your sisterhood and siblinghood.

Women in our communities are DYING.
We’re not waiting anymore.