August 1 , 2002

Tolerating Spousal Assault

BC's Attorney General has released a "Crown Counsel Spousal Assault Discussion Paper". Crown Counsel were instructed on the new policy in May. Two months after its implementation began, government is pretending to consult. The poorly written paper asserts "When every case is treated the same way, even though their circumstances differ widely, the result is less, not more, safety for victims and greater inefficiency in the justice process." Observers of the New Era are likely to suspect that the drive for relaxing the mandatory charge policy is really rooted in budget cuts.

The full text of the new policy is not available on the Ministry's website or in the discussion paper even though the discussion paper makes references to both the old and new policies as if the reader had a copy of both at hand.

Attorney General Geoff Plant has given the public until October 28, 2002, to respond to his discussion paper. The paper admits that "Over the last 20 years, the new vigorous prosecution approach has sent a strong message that domestic violence is a serious crime and will not be tolerated, a vast improvement over the past. Clearly the principle of characterizing spousal assault as a serious crime must be preserved."

The Campbell government has made it more difficult for abused women to escape their situation. Cuts to welfare, cuts to women's centres and cuts to programs that counsel victims of abuse have characterized the New Era. Plant's new policy should measure the incidence of abuse, not the number of convictions. The discussion paper fails to set out a performance measure yet it claims "The objective is to continue to prosecute vigorously appropriate cases where the charge approval test is met and there is a victim willing to testify, and, in cases where these factors are not met, where possible, to leave victims with some degree of protection where they currently have none."

An essential component of Plant's new policy is to increase the use of "Alternative Measures" by screening those charged based on factors such as history of breach of court orders and use or threatened use of weapons. Nothing is said in the discussion paper on how much funding will be made available for "Alternative Measures" or what those programs might look like.

In a display of incredible jargon, Plant's discussion paper ducks responsibility for victims. According to the paper "Victim's issues are covered extensively in a separate policy. Throughout the policy, where issues are covered in separate policies, they are not repeated in this policy." Victim's services are discussed in a news release on the website for the Minister of the Solicitor General. Without acknowledging that the Campbell government has cut victims services throughout the province, Minister Coleman's release speaks about new police based services. The fact that this all means cuts is hinted at in Plant's discussion paper when it says "the goal of the Criminal Justice Branch is to avoid unnecessary duplication and repetition." Wouldn't it be wonderful if the Campbell government focused on stopping the repetition of spousal abuse rather than on eliminating any possible duplication of services for victims?

Plant's discussion paper appears to be focused at Crown Counsel. For Crown Counsel or any other person who wants to respond before October 28th, comments and submission can be mailed to:

Spousal Assault Policy Discussion Paper
Criminal Justice Branch Headquarters
PO Box 9276 Stn. Prov. Govt
Victoria, British Columbia
V8W 9J7

You can also click on the feedback form at
http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/legislation/spousal-assault/feedback.htm