Billboard about male victims of domestic violence draws attention

A billboard at Davenport and Avenue roads that reads “Half of domestic violence victims are men,” and “No domestic violence shelters are dedicated to us #LetsTalkMen,” is getting lots of attention.

The advertisement, created by the Canadian Association for Equality, comes on the heels of Premier Kathleen Wynne announcing a three-year, $41 million plan to combat sexual violence. The following video was released last week by the Ontario government with the hash tag #WhoWillYouHelp.

Warning video contains images that may be too graphic for some

But not everyone is convinced the billboard is presenting the whole truth.

“Men do experience both domestic and sexual violence but not nearly at the same levels, fatalities, frequencies severity as women experience it,” Todd Minerson of White Ribbon Campaign explained. “To compare the two, to say one is ignoring the other because you are focusing on the plight of women’s violence is exactly where it gets it wrong.”

He said Statistic Canada’s 2013 statistical profile of family violence in Canada contained facts that the billboard ignores.

“It’s really at a false logic to say that this comes at the expense of the other” says Minerson.

The statistical profile states that women were the victims of nearly 80 per cent of cases of intimate partner violence reported to police in 2013 and that women between the age of 20 and 24 were six times more likely to be victims of intimate partner violence than men at the same age.

It also showed that the rate of intimate partner homicide was 4.5 times higher for female victims than for male victims. Police-reported rates of family violence were highest for women aged 30 to 34 and men rates were highest among those between the ages of 15 and 19.

“If you have to use misleading statistics to make your point, then maybe you don’t have a great point,” says Minerson.

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