Editorial

Violence against women

The figures are appalling enough. Five hundred Canadian women killed by their intimate partners in the past seven years.
In contrast, 44 Canadian soldiers have been killed in a war zone in Afghanistan in the same period.
You could say this is not a useful comparison, since the numbers in each group are so vastly different. Soldiers in Afghanistan – a few thousand; women in Canada – 15 million.
But the point is that it shouldn’t be happening. It’s a tragedy, however one chooses to illustrate or compare it.
What to do about it is the question. We have laws, of course, which work in their blunt way in some cases. As a deterrent, though, laws against spousal abuse don’t seem to have much impact when certain passions are involved. Perhaps especially in those all-too-common family situations that set children out on paths that lead to high-risk lifestyles.
Some of the girls that start out in such dysfunction end up addicted to drugs and selling their bodies to maintain their drug supply. That is the typical situation of prostitutes in Edmonton, we hear.
Talk about women at risk; they are if anybody is.
These issues are all in mind right now because this Saturday is International Women’s Day. Slave Lake isn’t immune to family violence in general and violence against women in particular. A local group is working – has been for years – on providing support for women at risk. They’re trying to raise awareness of the need for such support, and also financial support for an emergency women’s shelter here in town.
Things are looking hopeful now, more so than perhaps at any time in the past 10 years that this can actually be accomplished. A good turnout at Saturday’s Women’s Day event at Northern Lakes College would help to keep the momentum rolling. Let’s do what we can to improve the situation.
Alternatives
Just a cursory glance around the alternative energy fair at the college on the weekend was enough to convince the visitor of one thing: there are better ways of doing things in the home energy line.
Our traditional methods of building, insulating, powering and heating homes are evidently quite inefficient. Some smart people have been figuring out how to gain more and lose less. All it takes is some investment.
The investment could turn out to be the problem for many home owners. When maintaining what you have is all you can manage, how to you find the cash to retrofit your home?
Some countries, (provinces?) answer this by providing incentives. Alberta, apparently, does not, or at least not yet.
Why wait until the oil runs out?