B.C. police failing to enforce 'restraining orders' too often, report finds

Even though it mainly happens behind closed doors, advocates in B.C. say domestic violence is a significant public safety issue. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Inconsistent policework is leaving too many B.C. women vulnerable as they attempt to flee from intimate-partner violence, according to a new report highlighting a range of issues plaguing the province’s system of protection orders and peace bonds.

The report from Battered Women’s Support Services, entitled “Justice or ‘Just’ a Piece of Paper?” was partly prompted by the case of Stephanie Forster, a Coquitlam woman who was killed by her ex-husband two years ago this month.

Forster had obtained a court-issued protection order – what’s sometimes colloquially referred to as a “restraining order” – but struggled to convince police to enforce it, according to BWSS.

“She reported breaches several times to the Coquitlam RCMP, they did not follow through,” said Angela Marie MacDougall, BWSS executive director. “She was ultimately killed by her ex, who then killed himself.”

Included in the organization’s report is a survey of 41 domestic violence survivors, including 17 who sought a protection order or peace bond against an ex.

Among those survivors, more than one-in-three said they had reported a breach to police, but that their abuser faced no legal repercussions.

That’s why one of the BWSS’s recommendations is for B.C. to create a standardized response to breaches that could be used by law enforcement agencies across the province, MacDougall said.

“Inconsistent responses determined by individual police officers’ discretion is not working,” said MacDougall. “Universal enforcement of protection orders matters … it quite frankly could be a matter of life and death.”

While some of the women interviewed for the report had positive interactions with law enforcement – including a Vancouver Island woman who was given a police escort to the mainland with her children after coming forward – others said they faced skepticism and indifference.

“I did not appreciate the police telling my small boy that it’s a ‘big deal’ to press charges against your dad, and that he would have to go into a courtroom in front of a judge and point to his father and tell the judge that he had abused him,” one survivor wrote, in a testimonial included in the report. “My son was petrified of his dad and the repercussions, and embarrassed by the situation.”

BWSS is also calling for mandatory coroner’s inquests every time a woman is killed by a former partner who is subject to a protection order or peace bond, and for B.C. to increase the minimum length of the orders from one year to two.

Past research has found the most dangerous time for women fleeing from abusive relationships is the first 18 months after their escape, MacDougall noted.

“So why are we doing one-year terms?” she said. “They should absolutely be two years, as a minimum.”

Asked about the report, B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma promised the government will consider the BWSS recommendations – as well as those that come from an ongoing, independent review of the legal system’s approach to sexual violence and intimate-partner violence, led by Dr. Kim Stanton, former legal director of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund.

“Gender-based violence is a devastating and pervasive problem that leaves too many in B.C. unsafe in their own communities,” Sharma told CTV News, in a statement. “We need to do better.”

Stanton’s final report is expected to be released in May 2025.

The full report from the BWSS, including explanations for the differences in protection orders and peace bonds, and how to obtain each, is available online.