Victim Impact Statement Community

My name is Natasha Dobler and Im the Chair of the Hamilton

Woman Abuse Working Group and the local Violence Against Women
Coordinating Committee. Im here today, representing a coalition of over 20
agencies in the city of Hamilton working to end violence against women. We
support efforts through advocacy, education, and leadership to engage the
community to end violence against women, and their children, by working
to remove systemic barriers that perpetuate this violence.
We are shocked, outraged, and distraught that yet another woman in
our community has been killed at the hands of intimate partner violence.
Tania Cowell was ripped from the fabric of our community, from her family
and friends, and from her 5 month old son, Bailun. The horror and fear and
helplessness she must have felt in her last few breaths, must never happen
again, to any other woman. The devastating impact of this death, and the
resulting manslaughter verdict will have a harmful ripple effect across our
country and throughout our society. It is our sincere hope that the court will
take the magnitude and significance of this influence into consideration.
No woman ever deserves to be abused or killed. The long held belief
that victims of domestic violence somehow caused or provoked the violence
perpetrated upon them, is false, misleading, unjust, and outdated. This court,
and your Honour, have the opportunity to reaffirm that victims are not to be
blamed!
We are terrified that the message this verdict sends to women living in
abusive relationships, will increase the fear of reaching out for help, or
reporting to police in our community. Women are already afraid of leaving
abusive relationships for many reasons, the fear of not being believed, the
difficulties of navigating family court, the difficulties of enforcing
restraining orders, the lack of affordable and secure housing, the fear for the
safety of their children, and the fear of being killed. The criminal justice
system was not able to save Tanias life, but it does have the ability to send a
strong, clear message today. The message that womens lives and their
safety matter.
We are horrified and infuriated that the message being sent to abusers
is that they could literally get away with murder. The court has the ability,
and the moral duty, to change this message by holding Tania Cowells
perpetrator fully responsible and accountable for his actions.
We are concerned about the impact on the children in our community,
as well as the fear and sense of not feeling safe for those children whose
mothers are in harms way. We have an overall sense of outrage on the part

of community members who value children and are working to make

Hamilton the best place to raise a child.
We implore this court to send a strong, clear message to our
Community that victims are never to be blamed for abuse, that their safety is
paramount, that the criminal justice system will hold abusers accountable for
the crimes that they commit, that Hamilton is a safe place to raise a child,
and that violence against women and their children, in all its forms, will not
be tolerated by our community.
Thank you for allowing our community to have a voice.