The B.C. government doesn’t know whether its new system of protection orders is actually helping women and children in abusive relationships, says the province’s child and family watchdog.
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond told a committee of MLAs this week that eight months after bringing into force new domestic violence protection orders, the government can’t say how many are being properly enforced, violated or prosecuted in court.
“They can’t tell me whether or not there’s been any prosecution for breaches of those orders because — this is really crucial — they are not tracking and reporting it,” Turpel-Lafond said in an interview.
“I’m attempting to obtain the information and report out. But I shouldn’t be doing that as the representative. They should have a plan and strategy with the sufficient leadership to do it.”
The government says it is collecting the numbers, but there’s not enough yet to provide a useful analysis.
The new protective orders came into effect in March, as part of changes to the Family Law Act. The move was intended to protect mainly children and women from harassment or violence by replacing old restraining orders with new protection orders. Violation of a protection order is a criminal offence.
Women’s groups say the new orders aren’t useful without police enforcement and prosecutions of those who break them. It’s unclear how often that’s happening, Turpel-Lafond said.
She highlighted the issue to the legislature’s select standing committee of children and youth on Monday, in part, she said, to show MLAs how little they know about whether the orders are improving safety for vulnerable women and children.
The government is providing Turpel-Lafond’s office with a monthly total for protection orders, but it’s too early to know how effective the orders might be, said Children and Family Development Minister Stephanie Cadieux.
“We understand the representative’s concerns and that she would like this analysis to move quickly,” Cadieux said in a statement. “Moving forward, we will be monitoring trends when there is sufficient data.”
Cadieux also promised to report publicly on the effectiveness of protection orders.
There’s an average of 100 protective orders issued for spouses each month, which is remarkably low considering domestic violence cases are the second-most common criminal activity in the province, Turpel-Lafond said.
There have been only 30 anecdotal reports of breached orders between May and August, which is also far too low, Turpel-Lafond said.
“I can’t tell you if there has been a single successful prosecution of one of those breach reports,” she said.
More time is needed, Cadieux said. Turpel-Lafond “may be correct that 30 breaches of protective orders is low, but there is no way to know for sure without a larger sample size and proper statistical analysis,” the minister said.
Women’s groups say clients are complaining that police frequently fail to enforce the protection orders, but they can’t quantify the problem because little data is publicly available.
“It kind of boggles the mind as to why this isn’t being watched and tracked closely,” said Tracy Porteous, executive director of the Ending Violence Association of B.C.
The orders have to be seen to be working by women, and currently there’s no oversight to make sure police are properly responding to breaches, added Angela Marie MacDougall, executive director of the Battered Women’s Support Service.
Boosting protection orders was a key recommendation in two-high profile tragedies — the murder of six-year-old Christian Lee by his father in Oak Bay in 2007, and the 2008 deaths of three children in Merritt by their mentally ill father, Allan Schoenborn.
Turpel-Lafond said the overarching problem is the lack of a provincial domestic violence strategy, which Premier Christy Clark promised more than a year ago. Cadieux said the strategy will be released this fall.
