"Domestic-abuse industry will lie low, wait for bad publicity to pass"

By Dave Brown

The Ottawa Citizen

Wednesday, January 15, 2003

The domestic-abuse industry came under attack on the weekend when a national
newspaper called domestic courts unjust, and referred to their supporters as
"vitriolic."

For a moment I felt less alone. Since those courts were created in 1997 I've
focused on the way they add to domestic problems, rather than help solve
them. The cry from those who claim to be ending violence against women is
that those courts are there to help.

Watch now while the campaign to stop violence against women goes into
defensive mode. It will simply lie low and wait for the brief squall of
publicity to blow over. The campaigners are demanding domestic courts be
expanded.

Any resistance to the movement that focuses on violence against women makes
the reporter vulnerable. He or she will be accused of being in favour of
partner abuse. Hate mail and ugly phone calls are a byproduct of the craft I
practice and this is a hot-button topic for that kind of abuse.

The cry from many plaintiffs/victims of the domestic court system using this
column as a megaphone has been: Where's the help? The system will certainly
help break up a marriage, but if a woman wants help getting through a
domestic crisis she finds the problems worsened by intrusion and legal
bills. She won't find financial help, or help with babysitting or the
housework. Many women have gone public with their experiences in the hope of
warning others of its pitfalls.

Those points were repeated in a weekend feature in the Globe and Mail, but
the most surprising development to me was the involvement of London, Ont.,
psychologist Peter Jaffe. The violence against women campaign has become
something of an evangelical movement and as such, its Billy Graham is Mr.
Jaffe.

In December 2001, I was in a Toronto courtroom and watched Mr. Jaffe give a
slick presentation to a coroner's jury. He said he had just completed a tour
of North America, educating judges about the realities of domestic violence.
With slides and charts, he said the jury was getting the same presentation.

In it he claimed 29 per cent of Canadian women in relationships were being
abused and needed help getting out. By the time one of them asks for help,
she has likely been assaulted as many as 35 times. The source for his
statistics, like most numbers in the campaign, come from front-line
(shelter) workers and can't be checked by outsiders.

Mr. Jaffe was quoted in the Globe article as saying those numbers are now
"dated," but he didn't give new ones. And he said: "Judges have become like
neurosurgeons operating with a hammer and chisel. I think we have a lot of
work to do. The system needs retooling and retraining."

A degree in psychology, it seems, is like a two-headed coin and if you've
got one you can't lose.

In Ottawa, the force that created the domestic violence court calls itself
the Criminal Justice Round Table Against Violence Against Women. In February
2001, I dropped into a meeting at City Hall but was told by the chair,
former councillor Wendy Byrne, that I would have to leave. She said the
committee was a "lobby group" and as such had a right to in-camera meetings.

She also said they would discuss "information not yet available to the
general public." I wondered how just-a-lobby-group got such information, and
reported that Staff Sgt. Sterling Hartley, head of the Ottawa police
12-member domestic-assault team, was at the table. Chief Vince Bevan wasn't
there but was listed on the committee's letterhead as a member.

Police are invited to the tables of many interest groups as advisors. Should
they be members?

I've been criticized for warning couples to think twice before dialing 911.
Once the call is made, both caller and accused lose rights. Somebody is
going to jail with little or no investigation and the caller loses the right
to change her, or sometimes his, mind. If there are weapons in the house the
caller can expect a full-scale SWAT team response. A bow and arrow counts.

A Toronto lawyer said dialling 911 was like pushing the nuclear button. Once
it's done the missile can't be called back.

It's called zero tolerance. No mistakes. It's appearing more and more in
many facets of our lives. British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell is
getting a taste of it. He was arrested for drunk driving while vacationing
and the righteous demanding his resignation have forgotten a line:

"Let he who is without sin ..."

 

 

*Dave Brown is the Citizen's senior editor. Send e-mail to dbrown@thecitizen.southam.ca Read previous columns at www.ottawacitizen.com

 

© Copyright 2003 The Ottawa Citizen