Vigil held to remember B.C. women killed in intimate partner violence in 2023

A group of people gathered at Robson Square Wednesday holding signs to honour 14 women killed in the province this year in suspected acts of intimate partner violence.

Each sign had the name of one of the women killed as the people holding them stood in stoic silence.

"We don't even have the full number,” said Hilla Kerner, a spokesperson for Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter. “It's very hard to get clear information from the police."

Stephanie Patterson, 44, was one of the women remembered.

The elected councillor from the Kwikwetlem First Nation was reported missing in August along with her estranged husband David Hall.

A passerby discovered Patterson’s body in a remote part of Mission a few days later and police eventually located Hall and placed him under arrest.

He now faces murder charges in connection with Patterson’s death.

The women honoured at Wednesday’s vigil range in age from 22 to 57 – and they come from all corners of the province and all walks of life.

"They're white women, South Asian women, Indigenous women,” said Kerner. “Male violence against women is hurting all women."

Mourners hold a vigil in downtown Vancouver for 14 women who died in suspected acts of intimate partner violence across B.C. in 2024.

That includes women like 46-year-old Kulwant Kaur who was stabbed to death in her New Westminster home in October.

"I hope she's remembered for who she really was which was an amazing mom and an amazing person. And someone that tried so hard to give her kid a better life,” family friend Gulpreet Rai-Sangha told CTV News in an interview at the time.

Police charged Kaur’s husband Balvir Singh with second-degree murder.

He had previously been found guilty of uttering threats against Kaur and breaching a release order that he have no contact with her.

"If there are men that are known to be violent you have to find a way to monitor them, to supervise them because otherwise they will harm women,” said Kerner.

Dawson Creek’s Kiara Agnew travelled to Mexico to celebrate her 24th birthday in March.

"She was charismatic and confident and just everything that you would want in a person,” Katlyn Levesque, Agnew’s aunt, told CTV News.

A day after arriving at the resort with her boyfriend Ryan Friesen, also from Dawson Creek, staff found Agnew beaten and lifeless.

Friesen, 26, remains in custody in Mexico as the police investigation continues.

It is for women like Agnew, Kaur and Patterson that the group returns to Robson Square with their signs each year, hoping to catch people’s attention by using their silence to give a voice to the women who’ve been killed.