Part 1: A Country That Looks Away

Part 1: A Country That Looks Away

From Residential Schools to the Downtown Eastside – Why Violence Against Women in Canada Was Never an Accident

We tell ourselves Canada is safe. That we are peaceful, equal, polite.

But the truth is: Canada has a long and bloody history of violence against women, girls, and gender-diverse people. And far too often, we simply look away.

🩸 From the Beginning: Colonialism and Control

This didn’t start in our generation. Violence was built into the foundation of this country—from colonization, to the residential school system, to forced sterilizations and child removals. Indigenous women have faced systemic violence for centuries—often at the hands of government, police, and institutions meant to protect.

Thousands of Indigenous women and girls are still missing or murdered in Canada. The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls called it what it is: genocide.

🔪 The Pickton Case – How We Failed Again

We all remember the horror of Robert Pickton—charged with murdering dozens of women, mostly Indigenous, many from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. But what’s often left out of the conversation is this:

Those women were ignored when they went missing. Their families were dismissed. Police failed them. The media barely cared. The public looked away until the horror was undeniable.

Even after Pickton, nothing really changed.

🧱 The System Wasn’t Broken. It Was Designed This Way.

Violence against women in Canada is not an isolated issue. It is connected to:

• 🚨 Poverty and lack of affordable housing
• 👮 Disbelief and dismissal by police
• ⚖️ A justice system that retraumatizes survivors
• 🏥 A healthcare system that ignores trauma or mislabels it as “mental illness”
• 🧒 A child welfare system that replicates colonial harm

Every missing girl, every bruised partner, every woman who doesn’t come home—this is not a mystery. This is a pattern. A design. A silence that we all inherit unless we choose to break it.

❗The Silence Still Echoes

Today, the violence continues. Women are murdered by partners, exes, men they tried to escape. Trans women are targeted. Young girls are stalked online. Single mothers are forced to choose between abuse and homelessness.

And we’re still looking away.

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📣 This Series: Shining a Light on What Hurts

This is Part 1 of my five-part series: “Invisible Wounds”.

Over the next few days, I’ll explore how childhood trauma, digital violence, poverty, and a culture of silence are combining to create a worsening epidemic. But also how we can resist, survive, and heal.

It’s not too late to build something better. But only if we stop pretending this wasn’t by design.

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✍️ With love, rage, and truth,
Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita
🌐 zipolita.com | Facebook | Twitter