The Hard Facts: Violence Against Aboriginal Women in Canada
(Source: Canadian Women's Foundation: www.cdnwomen.org)

• Women experience more severe forms of violence; are three times more likely than men to be injured by spousal violence, and five times more likely to require medical attention.
• 1 in 6 pregnant women is abused during pregnancy.
• More than 100,000 women and children take refuge in one of Canada's 425 shelters for abused women and children each year.
• 1 in 12 children in Cacnada have witnessed violence in the home... it is even more disturbing to think that children learn what they live.
• Sexual and physical abuse costs Ccanada $4.2 billion dollars each year.
• The annual costs of abuse include $408 million dollars in direct health cocsts. Violence against women is not only a serious social issue; it is a major health issue as well.
• Violence against women is not only wrong and against the law.. it has no boundaries. It occurs across all ethnic, cultural, age, religious, social and economic lines.

More Statistics:

• Leaving an abusive situation can be difficult for victims of abuse in Aboriginal communities because they must often abandon their kinship ties, support network, cultural, community and sense of identity. This can also cause feelings of isolation and distress. (Source: Fact Sheet 10 - Family Violence in Aboriginal Communities. http://www.gov.ns.ca/coms/files/facts10.asp)

• Aboriginal children who experience family violence and who witness violence against their mothers suffer long-term emotional and behavioral problems. As well, children may group up normalizaing abusive behavior and replicating this behavior in their own relationships. The cycle of violence is therefore perpetuated, making it difficult for victims to break free from the violence. (Source: The Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women (1993). Changing the Landscape: Ending Violence - Achieving Equality. Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services)

• In a report, Assessing Violence Against Women: A Statistical Profile, release by the Status of Women, notes that, "Aboriginal women are also particularly vulnerable to violence, spousal homicide rates of Aboriginal w omen were more than eight times the rate for non-Aboriginal women."