November 11, 2006 by Walter Schneider.

Inter-spousal violence is not a gender issue. Neither sex has a monopoly on violence against the other sex, and the two sexes give and take in about equal proportions when it comes to meting out violence against one another.

Still that fact has not ever yet held back a single government in the world from promoting the myth that only women suffer violence at the hands of men, and that the converse is nothing we need to worry about. Men are made to suffer in silence, without recognition and without government support of any sort. Only women are victims worthy of consideration.

In the year 2004 the Department of Children Services of the Social Service Department of the Government of Alberta engaged itself in a massive intensification of the slander and vilification of men, Alberta men in particular and Canadian men and all men in general. That program for the demonizing of men was undertaken then for the benefit of women. The details of that government-sponsored and -promoted hate-propaganda campaign against men were launched through the Family Violence Roundtable Discussion.

As a result of the Family Violence Roundtable Discussion the annual provincial funding for women’s issues in Alberta was increased to about $13 million and kept there, while not a single dollar was devoted for the alleviation of violence or the consequences of violence against men, least of all spousal violence against men.

Can anyone imagine our astonishment when without fanfare of any sort, without a massive taxpayer-funded government promotion, very quietly and silently, Alberta Children’s Services published in October of 2006 two documents that acknowledge that men can suffer from violence by women?

1. New Information Sheet: Men Abused by Women (2 pages, 557 kB PDF file)
2. New Booklet: Men Abused by Women in Intimate Relationships (10 pages, 1.36 MB PDF file)

Although in its own words “Alberta Children’s Services is proud to lead Alberta’s Strategy for the Prevention of Family Violence and Bullying”, beyond the publishing of the two documents the “strategy” appears to make no provision for assistance to men and their children who became victims of a violent spouse.

As per the last paragraph on page 10 of the more extensive of the two government brochures, men who are being abused by their wives have the following resources at their disposal:

Get help

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 911.

Visit www.familyviolence.gov.ab.ca or call the 24 hour Family Violence Info Line toll free at 310-1818.

Emergency protection orders, restraining orders and peace bonds are some of the legal ways to stop an abuser from contacting someone.

• The Wheatland Emergency Shelter in Strathmore accommodates abused men with or without children, phone 1-877-934-6634

• The National Clearinghouse on Family Violence has a directory of services and programs for abused men in Canada. You can find the directory online at www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ncfv-cnivf/familyviolence/maleabus_e.html

In view of the more than $400 million spent annually in Canada to help out battered women, the help identified by Children’s Services for men is not even a pittance, but it is better and much more than existed two years ago. Mind you, some of that help is of dubious value. The last time that was checked out, the Wheatland Emergency Shelter in Strathmore (just east of Calgary) did have two places for battered men, provided those two places are not required for women in need. Still, even if those two beds were to be available to men at all times, is it practical for a man from Indian Cabins or from Fort McMurray to travel all the way to Strathmore to find emergency accommodation for himself and for his children?

To get a somewhat better appreciation of the enormous and horrendous extent of anti-male bias that a Canadian male victim of female violence is up against, execute a search for “emergency intervention order” +”victim assistance order” and examine the documents that you can access through that search.  What you read in those document is just the tip of the obstacles put in the way of male victims of female violence receiving justice.

Come on Children’s Services, get a life, and give men a bit more room to live!

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