Investment to add as many as three family court support workers in further locations
The Ministry of Attorney General of British Columbia has announced it will receive funding of over $3 million for 2026–27 for initiatives addressing recommendations to improve how the province’s legal system responds to intimate partner violence and sexual violence.
“This funding will help expand critical supports, strengthen prevention efforts and ensure people can access the services they need when they need them,” said Niki Sharma, British Columbia’s attorney general, in a news release.
The recommendations come from a June 2025 report, released by lawyer Kim Stanton following an independent review commissioned by the attorney general.
“No one who has experienced intimate-partner or sexual violence should have to navigate the justice system alone,” Sharma said. “The Stanton Review made it clear that survivors need better support, more co-ordinated services and safer experiences throughout the legal process.”
New and expanded supports
According to the BC ministry’s news release, the recently announced funding via the federal National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence (NAP) forms part of a broader provincial response. Specifically, the funding seeks to:
- Expand the Safe Supports Project to help those impacted by intimate partner violence navigate family law processes in the province’s rural, remote, and northern communities
- Add a maximum of three family court support workers in further, undetermined locations
- Design a public awareness strategy on intimate partner violence and the available supports
- Review behaviour change programs for men and boys to find service gaps, spotlight promising practices, and improve intervention and prevention efforts
- Promote the BC First Nations justice strategy, including training for justice sector professionals on intimate partner violence and gender-based violence
- Grow the Indigenous Justice Centres’ Aunties Program, which aims to offer culturally grounded, wraparound supports for Indigenous victims and survivors
“Ensuring victims and survivors of gender-based violence and their families can access a justice system that responds to their experiences with care and understanding is an integral part of the National Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence,” said Rechie Valdez, federal minister of women and gender equality and secretary of state (small business and tourism).
“Ending gender-based violence requires sustained action, strong partnerships and long-term investments in prevention, intervention and survivor supports,” said Jennifer Blatherwick, parliamentary secretary for gender equity in BC.
“Ending gender-based violence means engaging men not only as bystanders, but as partners in prevention,” said Ravi Kahlon, BC health minister. “As we advance our efforts to respond to the Stanton Report, we need to identify ways we can engage men – especially young men – as intervenors, allies and agents of change.”
“The Aunties Program demonstrates what is possible when you meet clients where they are and empower Indigenous women to lead with culture and compassion,” added Hemas Kla-Lee-Lee-Kla, Kory Wilson, chair of the BC First Nations Justice Council.
Goals of investments
The BC ministry’s news release explained that the investments aim to help:
- Add support for victims and survivors of intimate partner and sexual violence
- Improve justice sector capacity and community safety
- Coordinate a trauma-informed and survivor-focused approach to intimate partner and sexual violence in the province
- Decrease long-term pressures and costs across the health, social, child welfare, and justice systems
- Tackle the root causes of violence and prevent it before it happens
- Break the cycle of harm
More family law news from BC
Here are some other recent news stories from BC involving family law.
On Aug. 10, Sharma highlighted that the province’s Francophone parents and families undergoing a separation or divorce could take the free online course “Parenting After Separation” in French.
On Mar. 18, the Supreme Court of British Columbia upheld an associate judge’s refusal to consolidate family law and civil proceedings arising from a family violence incident in which a man sliced his wife’s throat with a knife before falling onto the weapon himself.
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