Battle against violence gets cynical
Politicians ‘reannounce’ things often, but in this case it’s not fair to victims
As part of the Ontario government’s plan to cut at the roots of sexual aggression in this province, Community Safety Minister Yasir Naqvi is not, repeat not, killing a program that helps assault victims who speak neither English nor French.
That’s not the way he bills it. Last Friday, he invited us all to attend an announcement on “increased support for survivors of sexual violence.”
Last fall, Premier Kathleen Wynne gave many of her ministers, including Naqvi, orders to see what policies need updating, what laws need strengthening, what cultures need modernizing, what programs need expanding, as we try to end sexual violence. There’s an action plan and everything.
Earlier this spring, at a meeting in Ottawa Naqvi attended as Ottawa Centre’s MPP, a special legislative committee on the sexual-violence problem heard repeatedly about the extra burdens of social and cultural isolation. All the MPPs nodded gravely.
Put it all together and you’d get the impression the government thinks we aren’t doing enough.
“Ontario is delivering on its plan to provide better support for survivors of sexual violence and harassment in Ottawa,” began the proud news release Naqvi’s people distributed. The province is “investing $1.3 million” in Immigrant Women Services of Ottawa, one of eight such organizations across Ontario that are to share $9.3 million over the next three years.
“The money is going to be used toward providing services for women in crisis, especially those who may be victims of sexual violence or harassment,” Naqvi himself said. “The money will be put toward providing 24-hour-aday, seven-day-a-week interpretation services in 70 languages so that those women who are not proficient in English or French, not comfortable discussing their concerns or plight ... will be able to access the service and seek assistance.”
Actually, this is money we’re already spending and we’re just not going to stop spending it. There is nothing new being done here whatsoever.
The program Naqvi is not killing is immensely valuable. A language-interpretation service run by Immigrant Women Services Ottawa on Argyle Street helps women with limited English or French deal with social services, counsellors, lawyers, police — anyone they need to talk to if they’ve been victimized and need help.
Last year the interpreters worked with 2,100 women, executive director Lucya Spencer says, people who are among the most vulnerable to abuse because of language and cultural barriers. The interpreters have been through a training course and they’re paid for their work as both language interpreters and culturally sensitive navigators of systems that, as we’ve heard a lot, can be hard enough to deal with even if you speak English and have lived here all your life.
“I am an immigrant myself, my parents are immigrants, and I know how hard it can be to adapt yourself to a new country, a new culture,” says interpreter Alice Akineza, who works in French, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi (similar languages spoken in Rwanda and Burundi), and “a bit of Swahili.”
The women she works with “have been living for months and months in isolation. They are basically scared of even coming forward because of their past experience with authorities. But by having that service, that someone that shares the common culture and a shared language, helps them come through and take the step out of the environment.”
Ending the interpretation service, which is one of eight in Ontario, would be monstrous. So at least we’re not doing that. But nor are we expanding it, adding to it, or in any other way improving it. Naqvi’s ministry has granted Immigrant Women Services about $400,000 a year and will continue to do so.
Politicians “reannounce” things all the time, trying to squeeze the same decision or funding allocation for all the good press it can give them. Jim Watson has opened Lansdowne Park three or four times now. Every rivet in the new light-rail system gets its own photo-op.
But they are not rape victims, whose struggles we’re supposedly taking with new seriousness. Using a reannouncement to pretend you’re doing something new to help them is pretty gross, even for professional politicians.