A group of women stood in downtown Vancouver on Tuesday (Dec. 27) morning holding signs with names of the women who were killed by intimate partners in B.C. in 2022.
They also held one large banner with the message “No more femicide.”
The vigil honored the lives of 10 women who were killed by their male partners or ex-partners in British Columbia in 2022, including 43-year-old Amber Culley and 49-year-old Mimi Kates, both mothers to young children who were murdered by Eric Shestalo on July 21 in Chilliwack.
READ MORE: IHIT identifies women killed in Chilliwack double-homicide
READ MORE: OPINION: Double homicide in Chilliwack an example of the epidemic of domestic abuse
Mimi Kates (left) and Amber Culley (right) were killed by Eric Shestalo in Chilliwack on July 21, 2022. Shestalo was later found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. (Facebook photos)
The vigil was organized by the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter.
“There are more women who were killed by their male partner in the province this year but it has been impossible to find the information because the police hasn’t published who the victim was or that the man who killed her was her male partner,” according to Hilla Kerner, spokeswoman for the group.
Kerner says that one of her group’s demands is that B.C.’s chief coroner “publish a report any time a woman is murdered by her current or ex-male partner.”
“We are also calling on the criminal justice system to properly monitor and supervise the whereabouts of men who pose risks to women.”
Half of the women who were killed by their male partner in B.C. in 2022 had a protection or no-contact order in place.
Shestalo was due in court facing an assault charge against one of the women he murdered the day of the killings.
“Women do not need meaningless bureaucratic mechanisms that leave them defenseless,” Kerner said. “They need measures that secure their safety and protect their lives.”
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A group of women stood in downtown Vancouver on Dec. 27 holding signs with names of the 10 women who were killed by men in B.C. in 2022. (Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter photo)
