Prairies/Alberta have the highest rates of family abuse in Canada

mentalfloss

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True enough, I did get off topic there.

However, seeing how resource dependent suburbs are on a per-capita basis compared to country and city, imagine how many economic resources we could save if we scrapped suburbs that could then go towards family education and such.

How do you scrap a suburb?
 

Machjo

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How do you scrap a suburb?

By being melodramatic.

Seriously though, I' say two options:

1. Put an end to low-density developments, and

2. Allow for reconversion of suburbs to farmland.

Essentially the two go together because if you raise population density in parts of the subburbs, then you're emptying out the rest of the suburbs, which we could allow to go back to farmland. This would be a long-term process of course, done mainly through rezoning via attrition over a generation or more. But it can be done.

They might know in Detroit.

I forgot about that.

Indeed.

Also, progressive desuburbanization might avoid the problems Detroit now faces in the long term.
 

karrie

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Aside from police reports, Statistics Canada said in 2008 Alberta women have the highest rates of self-reported spousal violence across the 10 provinces.


All this study tells me conclusively is that Albertan women aren't putting up with crap.

From my experience with spousal abuse, the community pulls together hard and makes sure a woman is on her feet and away from the man. The call goes out, and she's set up with furniture, dishes, supported with finding employment, and given every ounce of help that can be given. It's not tolerated, it's not excused. The reaction is decisive and not at all the way some would like to paint Alberta of 'the prairies'.

When problems really start to arise, it's not due to ignorance, it's not due to poverty. Any woman who's ever seen the cycle of abuse can tell you right away what it is that keeps women in an abusive situation, why there's a big diff between rural and urban... isolation and/or segregation. Abusers LOVE women who have no one to lean on, no one to witness what's happening, and nowhere else to go. Women who know nothing but the reserve and are too scared to leave. Women who have few friends way out there on the farm, who no one thinks it amiss if they don't see for a week while a bruise heals.

Just as pedophiles will seek positions of power, abusers will seek to isolate and control, and to do that, they seek settings conducive to it.
 

mentalfloss

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Jun 28, 2010
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1. Put an end to low-density developments, and

2. Allow for reconversion of suburbs to farmland.

Essentially the two go together because if you raise population density in parts of the subburbs, then you're emptying out the rest of the suburbs, which we could allow to go back to farmland. This would be a long-term process of course, done mainly through rezoning via attrition over a generation or more. But it can be done.

Maybe it's just my understanding of the "suburbs", I thought it was simply people living in smaller cities around a large city. With enough development, those smaller cities eventually become their own economic conduits - much like Mississauga. The second thing is that urban development naturally displaces people into more municipalities based on population growth alone.

Regardless of what we think, there will always be new cities as the population grows.
 

Colpy

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Alberta No. 3 in domestic violence
Women living in rural areas at greater risk


Albertans continue to report an alarming number of domestic violence incidents to police, but a new study indicates the territories - alongside Saskatchewan and Manitoba - have the highest rates in the country.

The Statistics Canada family violence report published Tuesday also reveals a divide between rural and urban areas. Canadians - more often than not women - living outside of the country's major cities are more likely to experience violence in their romantic relationships or at the hands of family members, according to police reports filed in 2010.

Among the provinces, Alberta ranks third after Saskatchewan and Manitoba, while Ontario has the lowest rates of police-reported family violence in the country.

The study notes that between 2000 and 2010, 245 Alberta deaths were classified as a family homicide - compared with 236 in more populous British Columbia.

Trailing only Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Alberta had the highest rate of family homicides (calculated per one million people).

This isn't the first time Alberta's high levels of domestic violence have commanded attention.

Aside from police reports, Statistics Canada said in 2008 Alberta women have the highest rates of self-reported spousal violence across the 10 provinces.

Calgary has lower rates of police-reported domestic violence than Edmonton, the only other Alberta city that was analyzed.

Alberta Justice Minister Jonathan Denis said the province's Safe Communities crime reduction programs, along with a number of private initiatives, are helping to prevent and stop domestic abuse.

Denis said his department doesn't know why the province continually sees higher domestic violence numbers, but it may be because Alberta has better reporting on incidents.

Still, the minister said it's an issue everyone needs to take seriously.

"If this is disproportionately a problem in rural Alberta, that's something we'll have to look at," Denis said in an interview Tuesday.

Jan Reimer, executive direc-tor of the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters, said it's difficult to say why the numbers are higher outside of the major cities.

She said Edmonton and Calgary shelters are more often full. "Women's shelters in Edmonton and Calgary just don't have the capacity to meet the need," Reimer said.

Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman said Alberta's economic policies set many victims up for returning to a violent partner. She said the Tory government doesn't put enough emphasis on boosting minimum wages or supporting unions that help women hold onto stable employment.

"She just can't make it, so she goes back."

Blakeman added domestic violence rates might be higher in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta due to the "Western mentality" and the high number of First Nations communities.

"Violence on First Nations is absolutely through the roof," Blakeman said.

Overall the 107-page Statistics Canada study, which looks at police data collected in 2010, found women are more than twice as likely to be beaten as men, and are more likely than men to be killed because of their partner's jealousy.

The report also found the Western provinces consistently recorded the highest rates of family violence against seniors, "without exception."


Well DUH!

High levels of First Nations people, and a growing economy that attracts young roughnecks to a disproportionate degree.....with their families and their problems.

It has NOTHING to do with "western culture".
 

L Gilbert

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Then we wonder why food is so expensive in the city. Well, if the burbs are pushing farmland ever farther away, it means more work and travel for farmers or truckers and more overhead costs passed on to urbanites..
Yeah, Like Kelowna and area? The entire patch of land from McCulloch to the lake and from north of Knox Mtn. south to where Bertram Cr. empties into the lake WAS all some of the best land in the Okanagan for agriculture.
And out here in the boonies, the population has tripled because people want to retire (or have summer homes) somewhere peaceful and quiet. So even out here in the boonies people want the aerable land to live on instead of allowing farmers to produce food on it.
It doesn't matter where you go, population expands and demands the best land to live on, which pushes agriculture out to the hills. Why? Because most people want to live near cities where they get work for money instead of working on their own stuff to support themselves.
So don't go blaming the burbs for everything. Blame the dumbass idea of cities in the first place.

And, BTW, there's an extremely low amount of domestic violence reports (low crime rate of just about any kind) around here.
 
Last edited:

L Gilbert

Winterized
Nov 30, 2006
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All this study tells me conclusively is that Albertan women aren't putting up with crap.

From my experience with spousal abuse, the community pulls together hard and makes sure a woman is on her feet and away from the man. The call goes out, and she's set up with furniture, dishes, supported with finding employment, and given every ounce of help that can be given. It's not tolerated, it's not excused. The reaction is decisive and not at all the way some would like to paint Alberta of 'the prairies'.

When problems really start to arise, it's not due to ignorance, it's not due to poverty. Any woman who's ever seen the cycle of abuse can tell you right away what it is that keeps women in an abusive situation, why there's a big diff between rural and urban... isolation and/or segregation. Abusers LOVE women who have no one to lean on, no one to witness what's happening, and nowhere else to go. Women who know nothing but the reserve and are too scared to leave. Women who have few friends way out there on the farm, who no one thinks it amiss if they don't see for a week while a bruise heals.

Just as pedophiles will seek positions of power, abusers will seek to isolate and control, and to do that, they seek settings conducive to it.
Yep.
 

karrie

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Jan 6, 2007
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Is there a point that you're eventually going to come to?


Simply that the notion that 'roughneck' is a western thing is ridiculous when the patch is made up of all manner of Canadians. I didn't think it needed to be spelled out so plainly, sorry.
 

mentalfloss

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Jun 28, 2010
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Simply that the notion that 'roughneck' is a western thing is ridiculous when the patch is made up of all manner of Canadians. I didn't think it needed to be spelled out so plainly, sorry.

My comment was a follow up joke to what Colpy said. I even included a tonguey.
 

Machjo

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Oct 19, 2004
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Yeah, Like Kelowna and area? The entire patch of land from McCulloch to the lake and from north of Knox Mtn. south to where Bertram Cr. empties into the lake WAS all some of the best land in the Okanagan for agriculture.
And out here in the boonies, the population has tripled because people want to retire (or have summer homes) somewhere peaceful and quiet. So even out here in the boonies people want the aerable land to live on instead of allowing farmers to produce food on it.
It doesn't matter where you go, population expands and demands the best land to live on, which pushes agriculture out to the hills. Why? Because most people want to live near cities where they get work for money instead of working on their own stuff to support themselves.
So don't go blaming the burbs for everything. Blame the dumbass idea of cities in the first place.

And, BTW, there's an extremely low amount of domestic violence reports (low crime rate of just about any kind) around here.

cities have existed since the advent of trade, and it is a good thing and a necessity in a trading economy.

The problem though is that we urbanites (and yes I said 'we' and not' them' since I'm an urbanite myself) cannot satisfy ourselves with moderation. We all need the biggest houses, the biggest cars, live as far away from work as possible in a "quiet neighbourhood", etc. The result: uncontrollable suburban sprawl.

So it's not cities themselves that are the problem, but the materialism. Never satisfied with what we have.

considering that we urbanites already have it comfortable as it is compared to country folk, maybe we could just try to use our city space and resources a little more efficiently.