Photo by Whitehorse Star
Aja Mason
Partnership provides phones to vulnerable women
Vulnerable Yukon women will receive free cell phones, complete with voice and data plans, as a safety measure in response to COVID-19.
Vulnerable Yukon women will receive free cell phones, complete with voice and data plans, as a safety measure in response to COVID-19.
“We are very aware of the potential disproportionate impact the lack of cell phone or Internet access will have on women,” Aja Mason, the director of the Yukon Status of Women Council, told the Star Monday.
Mason is working with the council, Northwestel Inc. and the Yukon government to distribute 325 cell phones to women in need.
Northwestel has donated the phones, and the territorial Women’s Directorate will subsidize the data plans.
“(Staying home) may cause unsafe situations for people who are experiencing violence, are at risk or who need support,” said Jeanie Dendys, the minister responsible for the directorate.
“This program provides a way for women to access supports, connect with their loved ones and apply for emergency funding programs.
“I am so grateful for this partnership to make this program available to those in need,” Dendys said.
The women’s council will distribute the phones to individuals and to the women’s shelters in Whitehorse, Dawson City and Watson Lake. Local staff at those organizations will provide the phones to their clients.
Women eligible for a free phone are those experiencing homelessness, fleeing violence or otherwise facing a precarious situation due to unstable income, housing or food security.
The phones provided will be equipped with a four-month prepaid plan with unlimited calling and data.
After the four months, it will be up to the recipient to pay for her own phone bill at $40 per month.
Mason said the council is encouraging women to put money aside from emergency relief benefits to pay for the continuation of the plans, and the council is working to secure extra funding.
The cell phones will help Yukon women access basic services, resources and emergency support during COVID-19, when the usual mechanisms for accessing the Internet are not available, such as at cafés and libraries.
This is particularly important at a time where many offices are closed and normal support services only reachable via the Internet or phone.
Mason said that the territory’s women’s organizations should expect an influx of domestic violence reports during and after the pandemic.
“Rates of violence are already significantly high in the Yukon; there’s a massive housing crisis so people are already in situations where it’s not easy for them to leave their abuser because housing is so inaccessible,” Mason said.
“Then you add, on top of that, a pandemic that is forcing people into lockdown. It’s a perfect storm.”
Women’s advocates in China are reporting “huge spikes” in domestic violence rates after the first wave of COVID-19 swept the country, Mason said.
According to Yukon statistics, rates of violence against women in the territory are already three times higher than that national average.
“We have a very primed situation for that in the Yukon, so we anticipate that domestic violence rates will increase.”
Yukoners can donate cell phones to this campaign at the women’s council offices at 308 Hanson St.
“It is imperative that Yukon women have access to the Internet – especially those living in precarious situations,” Mason said.
“As the COVID-19 situation evolves, more stringent lockdown measures will have a disproportionate impact on marginalized women.”
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Comments (6)
Up 0 Down 1
Wilhem D. on Apr 16, 2020 at 5:34 am
Start giving the abusers (male or female) some community work to do and expose them publicly for the protection of all. Giving one group cell phones just means they will be better able to report the abuse but does little to stop it. Out them.
Up 9 Down 4
Earl Gray T on Apr 14, 2020 at 7:01 pm
Dear Rose T:
End the “matriarchy”!
Your comment is unwarranted. The language in the article is blatantly misandrogynystic (Seriously). There should be equal airtime - One article about domestic violence against women and one article about domestic violence against men.
Note the subtle feminizing of the idea of discrimination against men by the insertion of the prefix mis, the shortened form of miss, to suggest that a man is somehow less of a man by virtue of his discrimination. Unreal. Next thing you know we will be referring to womyn as either women or woman... (Humourously).
However, humour aside, violence against men is a serious issue and it is one that is not taken seriously, often misrepresented, denied or self censured because of the stigma. Women overwhelmingly benefit from the stereotypes associated with gendered violence. In addition to women’s propensity for physical violence is their tendency to accompany it with psychological violence - This is the double-edge sword - He pays physically and psychologically by the abuser and he pays again due to the resulting stigma associated with having been physically or psychologically abused by a woman through self censure - How could I be so weak!?!?
All this while society demonizes maleness and celebrates the all powerful woman through MMA to Hockey to Hollywood as women are predominantly showcased kicking men’s asses.
It’s a sick world we live on...
“Interestingly, a growing body of international research indicates that men and women experience IPV in similar proportions. For example, a recent survey from Canada’s national statistical agency concluded that “equal proportions of men and women reported being victims of spousal violence during the preceding 5 years (4% respectively).”
Up 12 Down 15
RoseT on Apr 14, 2020 at 10:36 am
@JC, @KC @Expat
"Oh, someone is doing something good for others? I better go take a dump on that."
Or maybe, start your own initiative to help those who need it instead of b*tching about it. Your right, gender violence happens on all sides, but tearing down one to prop up another doesn't help either.
Up 30 Down 17
Expat on Apr 10, 2020 at 4:37 pm
But we’ve been led to believe that all members of the female sex are strong, powerful women. The press and media do their best to shovel that load down our throats every day, as a matter of fact it’s hard to hear the word woman spoken without it being preceded by the adjectives strong and powerful. So which is it strong and powerful or in need of free cell phones for protection from all those terrible males?
Up 28 Down 15
KC and the Sunshine Band on Apr 10, 2020 at 9:45 am
Dear JC - We live in a world in which we prefer the delusions of false narratives. It is well understood that in the context of domestic violence women have the same tendencies to violence. It is also understood that, very well, that women’s violence has a psychological element to it as well. For example, women will tend to provoke through gossip, rumour and reputation destruction. Society recognizes this. However, through the legal machinery women’s violence is transformed through an interpretative press as a response to male violence... Past, present and future. Context is eschewed often with placations of counselling and the like. The whole affair becomes a form of psychological warfare.
And of course, as is common knowledge, one of the first objectives in war is to take over the communications infrastructure. Thus, the first to the phone gets the victim card...
Up 47 Down 20
JC on Apr 9, 2020 at 3:53 pm
What about vulnerable men? Oh well, so much for gender equality. Sometimes it sucks to be a man.