Mandatory inquests needed for women killed despite protection orders, support group says

People working with female victims of violence are calling for mandatory coroner's inquests into the deaths of women who were killed by abusive partners despite filing protection orders against them.

It comes after more than 20 B.C. women died due to gender-based violence in 2023, according to the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability, with advocates saying the province is on track for similar numbers this year.

A report from Battered Women's Support Services (BWSS), a B.C.-based charity for victims of intimate partner violence (IPV), calls for police to treat breaches of protection orders more seriously.

Survivors of domestic violence are quoted in the report saying that abusers rarely faced consequences for falling afoul of the court orders which are meant to protect victims.

Angela Marie MacDougall, BWSS executive director, said the impetus for the report was the 2022 killing of Stephanie Forster, the Coquitlam, B.C., woman who died despite a protection order against her ex-husband.

Investigators believe Forster's ex-husband, Gianluigi Derossi, was responsible for her murder, but he died of self-inflicted injuries two days later in Surrey.

"We are wanting to have a coroner's inquest for every death, we want to have an investigation every time a woman is killed where a protection order, peace bond was sought or granted," MacDougall told Stephen Quinn, host of CBC's The Early Edition.

"Because we definitely want to uncover systemic failures and to drive those reforms."

LISTEN | Angela Marie MacDougall, BWSS executive director, speaks about the report: 

The Early Edition6:56New report shows significant barriers exist to getting protection orders to work for domestic violence victims

A new report says B.C.’s rules for protecting people from abusive partners contain serious flaws. We talk about that report, and what's needed to better protect survivors of gender-based violence. 

MacDougall said an automatic coroner's inquest is always called when a civilian is killed by police, and said that police needed to be held accountable for the policies "that they often choose not to enforce" when it comes to IPV victims.

Survivors of domestic abuse and support workers who help them with the justice system were consulted for the BWSS report.

It also called for mandatory arrests for abusers who violate protection orders and peace bonds, as well as extending the duration of protection orders to two years for IPV cases.

Summer Rain, who manages BWSS's justice centre, told CBC News that the justice system should prioritize child safety in family law proceedings.

"I think the family law system ... could choose to prioritize the intimate partner violence and the susceptibility of children to increased risk when protection orders are issued, instead of maximizing parenting time and ensuring that both parents have equal parenting time," she said.

Call to declare IPV an epidemic

The B.C. government announced earlier this year that it would commit $29 million over three years to expand legal aid for victims of family violence.

MacDougall said she felt hopeful and positive about what returning Attorney General Niki Sharma could do for IPV victims, adding that her organization would continue to push the government to change systems and take victims seriously.

Katrina Chen, a former B.C. NDP MLA who is a survivor of gender-based violence, is pushing for the province to declare such violence as an epidemic and implement systemic reforms of the justice system.

"It is important to call gender-based violence an epidemic because it is the most persistent, widespread human rights violation," she told CBC News.

"Not just here in B.C., not just in Canada, but across the world throughout human history."