Domestic violence bill scrapped, Transition House reps say govt. playing politics

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

welliott@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

The failure of the Nova Scotia government to call Bill 81, the Domestic Violence Elimination Act, has left representatives of the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia (THANS) very disappointed.

“The government is back-peddling,” said Rhonda Fraser of Chrysalis House in Kentville. “They know they have a problem and, yes, they are going to form a committee. But that’s not how this started out.”

Bill 81 would have created a collaborative government/community committee, responsible to the Legislature, to address prevention of intimate partner violence.

On May 26, the Law Amendments Committee had agreed unanimously to send Bill 81 to the Committee of the Whole for Third Reading. The following day Justice Minister Cecil Clarke chose not to call Bill 81 for third and final reading.

Bill 81, a private member’s bill, was first introduced by Liberal Diana Whelan two years ago. It was reintroduced Dec. 6, 2007, the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre and the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

Recently, when the bill was called for Second Reading, it was sent to the Law Amendments Committee on the unanimous vote of the Legislature.

“What happened last month appears to have little to do with the capacity of Bill 81 to address the issue of violence against women and much more to do with a partisan disagreement on another bill,” said Pamela Harrison, provincial transition house coordinator.

Bill 81 was shelved in response to the defeat of a government bill on scrap metal by the Opposition May 25. “We don’t know if this means Bill 81 is essentially dead, or if the bill may be called in the fall session of the legislature.

“We do know, however, that cases of violence against women will not wait until the government begins to judge each bill on its own merit, and not as a vehicle to punish recalcitrant opposition members,” said Fraser, who co-chairs the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia (THANS).

“It is indeed unfortunate that in a year when Justice struck a task force for Safer Streets and Communities, of which THANS was a part, and just recently released their Strategy to Reduce and Prevent Crime, that the Minister of Justice postpones a bill that would provide another tool to address violence against women,” Fraser said.

“We wonder how abused women in Nova Scotia will feel, being equated in importance to the theft of scrap metal. Scrap metal can be replaced. Lives lost to violence cannot.”

Fraser noted that the new government committee announced May 30 by Clarke arose from “public humiliation.” She added that THANS members will not forget in a hurry how the committee came into being.

“It’s frustrating. For every two steps forward, we take one back. That has been a constant. At the end of the day, what concerns me is equating scrap metal with domestic violence. Why would anyone consider that an appropriate trade-off in the first place?”

Fraser said the law in Nova Scotia treats crimes against property more seriously than crimes against people.

“If you steal $50,000 you’d be prosecuted more stringently than if you assaulted your girlfriend on Friday night,” she said.