How economic hardship increases gender-based violence

0:00Frequency podcast network. Stories that matter, podcast that resonate. The news this summer on the state of the Canadian economy has been pretty great. We learned the economy grew 3.3% in the second quarter of this year, the highest of all G7 nations, and the country added 75,000 jobs in July. That's way more than the 20,000 analysts had predicted. Yet, it only takes a short conversation with neighbors or friends to realize that doesn't reflect the reality of the average Canadian. Across the country, the cost of living is up 3% compared to last year, with gas alone, costing some 25% more than it did a year ago. Your grocery bill is 3% higher than last year, especially things like fresh fruit, which cost 6% more, and it's all adding up. A recent survey found 3 out of 5 Canadians have already spent half their paycheck on bills, debt payments, and regular expenses before it's even deposited in their account.

1:03It's leading to what's called lifestyle shrinkflation, where 35% of us are cutting back on outings, socializing, and other stuff like kids' activities and personal care. And unfortunately, it's probably going to get worse. The tit for tat trade war with the US means we'll all be paying more for things we can't get domestically, and our jobs might be at risk if companies move south or put off expansion plans. It all has major implications for quality of life, mental health, and in some households, the risk of domestic abuse, particularly financial abuse. I'm Caphringer Tay, and today on the big story, we'll be discussing the link between tough economic times and rising rates of abuse in the home. Something experts are beginning to warn about as the cost of living goes up, and Canadians brace for even higher prices and worsening job prospects.

2:03I'm joined today by Anurada Dugal, executive director at Women's Shelters Canada, who's done a lot of work on violence prevention. Anurada, I really appreciate you taking the time to join us today. I think this is a really timely discussion. I wonder if you could start by setting this scene for us a bit, because domestic abuse is often an unseen problem. It happens behind close doors a lot of the time. So how prevalent is this issue in Canada? Thank you for bringing this important issue to the attention of listeners. As I know that this is a very hard subject to talk about, and I also appreciate people who are on the line and listening may actually be experiencing this themselves. So I encourage people also to look for help. If you know somebody, we have a website called sheltersafe.ca. And it's just important to say that everyone deserves safety, they deserve stability and control over their lives, and there are many, many resources to help.

3:08In fact, domestic violence generally is quite common. We say that a woman in her lifetime will experience some form of physical, sexual or psychological abuse. At least 50% of women will experience that. So one in two, some numbers put it at one in three, but it's a slightly different number. We're measuring there for slightly different kinds of abuse. But generally you can expect that if you're in a room with somebody, there's probably somebody there who's experienced domestic violence or sexual violence or some sort of harm of that nature. How have these stats been trending? Have they been on the rise as of late? Have they been stable? What's the story there? So during the particularly the COVID pandemic, there was a point at which we talked about domestic violence, cultural violence, gender-based violence, being a shadow pandemic, and something that was increasing at incredible numbers related to isolation, stress, lack of support, a sense of just having very, very many different complex pressures at the same time.

4:28And I would say that number or that sort of sense of complexity and intensified need has not gone away. The numbers of femurcyde definitely went up and are still trending on the high side. Numbers for domestic violence are kind of where they've always been. So they're not going down, which is what we are always looking to see. And different forms of abuse are emerging. So it's interesting in the context of the COVID pandemic when families had so many stressors. How concerned are you about these numbers rising again? Now that families are dealing with really challenging financial situations. I mean, we have a family law firm in Toronto and Ottawa that's told us that they see all types of abuse increasing whenever there are times of economic uncertainty. Absolutely, that is so true. Whenever there is any sort of upheaval or difficulty that might put additional pressure on somebody who is using control or domination, then their use of those, that behavior or that kind of behavior,

5:45usually intensifies or grows more frequent or might have more ways that it comes out or it affects more people. So it's definitely an amplification and an augmentation of that sort of use of hard words. Sometimes it can be different kinds of controls. So trying to say how much you spend or how much you don't spend getting angry with somebody because they're spending too much. And some of that we call it like relationship tension. And I think there's a point at which you can accept that, yeah, if you've spent money from a savings account that you hadn't agreed with your partner that you should spend. Yes, people can be frustrated about that. But what we're looking at in abuse is a constant regular concerted effort that constantly has an impact on the other person.

6:49So the abuser is deliberately perhaps restricting access to information about money or they are deliberately monitoring spending and then trying to make people say things about why they spend in a certain way or like it's it's it's blaming it's shaming it's psychological harm. And those all increase when the external stresses increase one of the stats that I've seen out of the US also talks about the impact of job loss and how in couples where male partner has had repeated instances of unemployment. So when we see employment, we see cases of domestic abuse really surge compared to people with steady employment. So that must be something that experts are thinking about as the economy gets tough. And when the when any kind of threat happens to like a family's well-being, then very often somebody who is used to using power or control will consider that they need to increase that to further control and and make a family, I guess, work the way they need the family to work.

8:13So yes, when they lose control in other areas of their lives, so maybe they're laid off, maybe somebody is laid off because there's no more work for them or somebody experiences a lot of shifts because there's not enough work for them or someone is finds sometimes to be honest that their aggressive behavior can come out in the workplace and they maybe let go at work because of that aggressive behavior. Then that can all be excuses, reasons in their mind, but excuses and pressures or points of tension that they then turn their disappointment, their anger, their frustration and their sense of powerlessness onto something they can control, which is often a partner that they abuse. It's a pattern of behavior and it's a behavior that is, it needs to be noted that it's not, it's not the behavior of somebody who can manage their emotions well, it's not the behavior of somebody who understands where their difficulties lie, it's the behavior of someone who is trying to make other people responsible for what's going wrong in their life.

9:32And that's what they do and they harm those people who are close to them in fact. You touched earlier on financial abuse, this idea that one partner might be very controlling of the other partners spending or use finances to gain a tighter control over them. Do you think most people are aware that this is a form of abuse? I think anyone who's experienced domestic violence knows that this is one part, one form of it because 96% of survivors have said they've experienced it. In fact, it's in many cases much more prevalent than physical abuse and it can also be very tightly tied to tech facilitated violence of violence that happens online because people can use online apps and online financial tools to continue to perpetrate that abuse.

10:38And in fact, financial abuse like many other forms of abuse and people I think don't understand this very well often continues and is an incredible use of control post separation. So after you've split up with somebody, if you have any kind of financial responsibilities that you perhaps shared, whether it was for a family or for a pet or for a home, then this is a source that way that an abuser can continue their abuse through these shared responsibilities. And very often post separation because the abuser has information about the person that they were previously in a relationship with, they can use that information to carry out forms of financial abuse like fraudulent credit card charges. Or taking their savings accounts or anything that they may have had information, even even going on your let's say, you know, you may have once opened your Amazon account on somebody else's phone and you didn't log out completely of it.

11:51Sometimes those apps leave your login information in them thinking they're being helpful. That person could potentially go in back into your account, log in as if they were you spend however much money on that account and put you in debt for things that you never bought and never wanted. It seems really like, oh, how come I didn't think of that? Many, many people don't think of just how financial abuse could affect their relationships. I imagine it also would really hamper anyone's efforts to get out of a difficult relationship or an abusive relationship if someone else is holding all the money and all the resources. How are you even going to start the process of building a new life? Absolutely. The numbers of cases we hear about survivors who make the decision not to leave because they worry about their financial well-being but also that of their children because if they leave they might deprive their family members, not just children but family other extended family members of a home or they might deprive them of opportunities because they can't imagine.

13:17Perhaps having an income level that is similar that you have perhaps when you're two people or in fact your experiencing financial abuse so you have no access to any of your own resources at all, even if you're earning money and bringing it into the home. It absolutely is an additional barrier and a very, very serious one. If you're in a room with people, there are chances that someone there has been a victim of an abusive relationship but it does appear that there are some groups that are at higher risk than others. Which communities are we most concerned about as economic times get tougher? According to some of the data that we have, definitely women living with disabilities have much higher levels of financial abuse in their lifetime and very often women living with disabilities describe how they're forced to give their partner money or possessions to justify the care that they might need.

14:30They are very often associated with needing perhaps more care because they might be dependent on that person for making the meals or for helping them around the house. So financial abuse is often a part of those relationships. Women who are at risk of perhaps being outed so women in different like to SLG BTQ IA plus women are also much more likely to experience financial abuse because they may, there may be controls over them related to their particularly their access to a job. They may not be out in the workplace and they may and so an abusive partner may threaten to out them in that circumstance. And so they have definitely experienced that form of abuse and then it's much more common in indigenous women mostly around not being able to have access to a job or financial resources.

15:39So what's being done right now to help people in invulnerable family situations we see the signs things are going to get tougher for a lot of Canadians. What's being done right now to help so I'll some examples financial institutions right now in Canada there is a voluntary code of conduct that was introduced by the federal government that find the find at the Baja banks. And credit card companies the financial institutions can choose to adopt which include being able to offer somebody who declares that they are experiencing financial abuse or that they are in a post separation situation with an abuser can have additional supports and can ask for help and can have their for example they can stop receiving texts from that person through a shared financial app. There are tools tech safety dot c a is a website that women's shelters Canada runs and on that website we offer many tool kits for survivors and for the people who are helping them to sort of give tips and advice on how they keep themselves safe even while they're going through this.

17:00We also have a really important project at women's shelters Canada where we are trying to invite employers to learn more about how domestic violence affects the workplace and therefore put in place more supports and really educate people who might be working around those survivors as to what some of the safety needs might be and what some of their supports that could be done. So that survivors in the workplace receive the most support that they can get and don't feel that they have to give up a job because they're experiencing this kind of abuse. And those are a few things that people can do. I think really everybody who has, I mean we should do this anyway, I mean this is this is good behavior for everyone but changing your bank account passwords regularly logging out of even devices that you can consider secure setting up to factor and three factor identification all of those things are important I think for everyone.

18:13And for survivors even more important well thank you and Rada for joining us today you're doing very important work and I'm really glad you could shed some light on this for us. Thank you so much and I again I encourage people to use sheltersafe.ca if they're looking for information on a shelter or a help line and visit our website techsafety.ca. Really appreciate your time. Thank you so much. And that was the big story we'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode get in touch at hello at the big story podcast dot c a around blue sky at the big story and let us know and please if you're experiencing abuse call the domestic violence crisis line at 1 8 7 7 9 7 7 0 0 0 7 it's toll free open 24 hours a day 7 days a week new episodes of the big story publish every morning Monday through Friday and don't miss our weekend listens.

19:15The big story is produced by Maria Castan Diana K is the head of strategy and content desi nair is the manager of podcast operations dillie McGuire is our associate producer. I'm Catherine Jete. Thanks for listening. you