Calgary puts spotlight on domestic violence
Posted Nov 1, 2013 3:37 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A large crowd gathered at Bankers Hall Friday, for the launch of family violence prevention month in Alberta.
The speeches from police, representatives of the community and the Calgary domestic violence collective, had a common theme of calling on the bystanders to step up.
Calgary police Chief Rick Hanson said when someone confides their abuse story to a friend the correct advice is not to urge that person to work it out.
“We’ve got to get over that,” said Hanson.
“It takes so much courage to come forward and say it’s not working. I need help. When that happens you’ve got to be ready to offer that assistance right then right now.”
Hanson said, of the 16,500 domestic abuse calls a year to police, there are even more cases where victims are too scared to call.
A recent family violence case was brought to the police chief’s attention at the family violence prevention month launch.
James Christians was in court briefly Friday for the murder of his wife Carmel Leah Christians.
It was just recently reported that Christians was involved in another domestic violence attack more than 20 years ago.
Hanson said he can’t comment on why that wasn’t uncovered in the recent risk assessment search.
He did say the files which come in to police are given resources based on the information they have at the time.
