How safe are women in Oakville?
As we celebrate our town as one of the safest cities in Canada in 2021, the question regarding women's safety in the community is highly relevant. Numbeo, a crowd-sourced global database of quality-of-life information, ranks Oakville, Ontario, as the fourth safest Canadian city in 2021. The University Magazine shared the recent finding. As this town continues to offer a consistently high quality of life and safety standards, it is crucial that we determine how safe this community is for its female residents. A mom to three children, Karem Nielsen, moved to Oakville from Peru as a young adult two decades ago. She works as a dog breeder now and continues to live in Halton Region. When probed about her thoughts, she shared, "Oakville has remained this safe all along. Nothing has changed over the years. I do not feel as safe when (I am) in Toronto, Peel or even Hamilton. I would not walk alone in these regions more for fear of being assaulted than robbed." Another female resident in North Oakville, who chose to speak anonymously, feels when a community is considered safe for living, lack of data is often mistaken for the absence of crime. "Even now, in many cultures, if a woman is targeted for sexual assault, she is blamed by her family. Unless we get rid of such stigmas, we will never know the actual picture," she emphasized. Halton Police also share such sentiment. Early this year, HRPS (Halton Regional Police Service) had shared via one of its media releases, "What is particularly concerning is that we recognize that all forms of family violence are under-reported." The absence of crime mapping data concerning female-targeted violence can be attributed to the HRPS policy that does not allow sharing of any information that may reveal a victim's identity. "Again, we will ALWAYS err on the side of caution when it comes to protecting victims," the Media Relations officer of HRPS, Constable Steve Elms, maintained. Interestingly, SAVIS of Halton (Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Services) continues to receive calls from several women who seek post-trauma healing after being stalked or suffering from an attempted assault outdoors. SAVIS of Halton offers free and utterly confidential crisis counselling services round the clock to the victims of violence. When contacted, Ravleen Kaur, Manager, Anti-human trafficking at SAVIS of Halton, emphasized that a safe place can never exist for a woman as long as gender-gap and patriarchy exist. Ravleen also mentioned that given Oakville has affluent communities, women have access to cars and do not walk alone as much, which reduces the chances of gender-targeted crimes. However, she continued, "Women need to feel safe both outside and inside their homes. Incidentally, the rate of crimes perpetrated by strangers is less than that committed by people known to the survivors." Lack of faith in the criminal justice system, embarrassment, guilt, want of awareness and trauma-induced confusions often lead to an overwhelmed state in which the victim chooses not to report the crime to the police, she added.