I'll start with the funding challenge. There are two rape crisis centres in Vancouver, WAVAW and Vancouver Rape Relief, and Battered Women's Support Services offer, in spirit, similar services. None of us receive core funding at all for the rape crisis centres. WAVAW and BWSS receive some money for individual workers, but definitely not to the overall operation of women's services, and Rape Relief receives nothing.
So the political leadership of British Columbia does not think that rape crisis centres are worth existing for women victims of male violence and aboriginal victims of male violence. The only funding—and it's a political decision—comes for individual victims service workers, which completely dismantles the understanding of violence against women in relation to equality and the importance of women's services in changing the world and making it a better place for women.
Thank you.