October is Purple Lights Nights month in Nanaimo, designed to raise awareness about intimate partner violence. Purple lights will be strung up on trees outside the Nanaimo RCMP detachment during the month. (NanaimoNewsNOW file photo)

By Ian Holmes

Purple Light Nights

‘Shame is what keeps bad things hidden:’ intimate partner violence campaign launched in Nanaimo

Oct 2, 2021 | 5:24 AM

NANAIMO — An intimate partner violence investigator with Nanaimo RCMP hopes people recognize signs of abuse and realize help is available.

An inaugural Purple Light Nights program in Nanaimo, aimed at illuminating the impacts of intimate partner violence, takes place during the month of October.

Cst. Sherri Wade told NanaimoNewsNOW home-based intimate partner violence is viewed by most people as a private issue.

“If you feel shame, then you don’t talk to people about it,” Wade said. “With the campaign we’re just trying to say ‘let’s bust out of the shame, let’s shine a light on that,’ because shame is what keeps bad things hidden.”

Wade said key factors in stopping intimate partner violence include recognizing when it’s happening, which she said isn’t always obvious, even to victims.

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While verbal abuse and various forms of non-physical control don’t have the same legal ramifications as physical violence, Wade said they can’t be ignored.

“It just wears you down really slowly and you may have forgotten that you were a different kind of person because now you don’t know any other way of being, it’s so much more than physical violence.”

She said victims often feel they don’t have options, citing a partner financially dependant on their abuser as a scenario where some people are willing to suffer in silence.

Between Feb. 1, 2020 and Feb. 1, 2021 Nanaimo RCMP responded to 785 domestic conflicts or violence calls in homes, resulting in 288 arrests for domestic assault, according to the detachment.

On average, Nanaimo RCMP estimates it receives four calls per service daily regarding reports of conflicts or violence within an intimate partnership.

“Families are really important and and we have to try to prevent the continuation of that behaviour,” Wade said.

Nanaimo “is really lucky” to have several quality community resources to help, Wade said

She cited Nanaimo Family Life Association, Haven Society, the Nanaimo Justice Access Centre and Nanaimo RCMP Victim Services among numerous service providers that can help.

People in Nanaimo are encouraged to outfit their homes or businesses with purple lights or purple decorations, a colour symbolic of intimate partner violence, representing courage, dignity and peace.

Purple Lights Nights was launched in Washington State in 2016 and has since expanded to 24 states, three Canadian provinces and 12 communities across B.C.

More information on the campaign and how to get involved are available at the Nanaimo RCMP Community Police Website.

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