Family, support groups seek better protection for domestic violence victims after B.C. woman killed

CBC

7 days ago

Social Sharing
The family of a woman killed in Kelowna, B.C., on Friday is calling for more to be done to address domestic violence in the province.
Bailey Plover was killed in what Kelowna RCMP called a "highly visible and tragic event" on Friday at a parking lot on Enterprise Way, in an attack that also saw another woman hospitalized.
Kelowna RCMP say James Edward Plover was arrested after a brief pursuit by officers who responded to reports of a "motor vehicle incident" and an alleged assault with a weapon involving two female victims known to the suspect.
Bailey Plover succumbed to her injuries after the attack, and her uncle, Morey Maslak, said there was a pattern of domestic violence between Bailey and James.
"This is not an uncommon story, [it's] played out countless times, you know?" he told CBC News.
"There's, you know, clearly some shortcomings in the judicial system that we need to try to address as a community."
Online court records show Plover was charged with uttering threats and assault by choking last year, but the charges were stayed, in a case that was identified as concerning intimate partner violence.
He and the victim were involved in family law litigation, and also faced foreclosure proceedings launched by two separate banks.
Maslak said he had known Bailey since she was a young girl, and described her as a loving and devoted mother and a funny and charismatic young lady. She has two children.
"The kids are surrounded by loved ones, and our focus right now is to, you know, provide some stability and have them around family," he said.
Mounties said on Saturday that the second victim in the attack is still in hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Kelowna RCMP say a charge of second-degree murder in relation to the attack was approved by the B.C. Prosecution Service on Saturday. James Plover is due in court on July 10.
Advocate calls for concrete action
The killing of Plover comes a little under two weeks after an independent report commissioned by the province found gender-based violence has been "normalized" in B.C.
Lawyer Kim Stanton's report found that around 48 per cent of women in B.C. over the age of 15 had experienced intimate partner violence.
According to the report, 94 per cent of sexual assaults and 80 per cent of intimate partner violence are not reported to police.
"This isn't a series of isolated tragedies. Definitely not," said Angela Marie MacDougall, the executive director of Battered Women's Support Services, on Monday. "Rather, this is a systemic failure and it is a public safety crisis."
WATCH | Gender-based violence declared an epidemic:
B.C.'s declaration of gender-based violence as an epidemic welcomed
6 months ago
Duration 2:27
B.C. Premier David Eby's mandate letter to the province's finance minister tasks her with working to address a "national epidemic" of gender-based violence. Janella Hamilton spoke to support workers who have pushed for the move, who say violence against women is a public safety crisis.
MacDougall noted that B.C. Premier David Eby had declared gender-based violence an epidemic in January, but said the province had not acted decisively in response to that declaration.
She added that the legal system was effectively "decriminalizing this kind of violence" by not charging perpetrators with crimes.
"This case, the Kelowna case, is really concerning for a bunch of reasons — not only because of how highly visible it was and that there's a woman dead, but the accused allegedly has been charged with serious violence, including choking," MacDougall said.
"Those charges were stayed. And we know, from a risk assessment point of view, that that kind of violence is a precursor to femicide. This is well established."
At an unrelated news conference on Monday, Eby said that his government had received the Stanton report and would work with the author on the report's various recommendations.
"We've been pressing the federal government aggressively to improve our bail system, to make sure that violent offenders are kept behind bars ... to ensure that intimate partner violence, violence against women in relationships specifically, was named as an area for bail reform," he said.
"[This is a] tragic, timely reminder of the importance of that work, and we hope the federal government works very quickly to get that in place."