How Safe Are Women in Vancouver? Your Guide to Women’s Safety

It’s a familiar unease for many women in Vancouver: the late-night SkyTrain ride, the phone held tight, the quiet scan of who else is in the car. Violence in this city does not follow one pattern. It happens on crowded platforms and behind closed doors, at workplaces and in relationships once considered safe. Despite new laws, police campaigns, and public awareness efforts, many women still find themselves calculating risk every day.

Understanding how and why this happens is part of staying safe and helping others do the same. The following sections explore what women’s safety in Vancouver looks like today, what protections are in place, and where the system continues to fall short for those who need it most.

The Reality of Women’s Safety in Vancouver

Reports of gender-based violence in Vancouver have remained consistently high, even as the city expands its prevention programs. According to the Vancouver Police Department, more than 3,000 incidents of domestic or sexual violence were reported in 2024, accounting for roughly one in eight violent offences. Across British Columbia, Statistics Canada data show that women are five times more likely than men to experience intimate-partner violence and three times more likely to be sexually assaulted.

Front-line advocates say those numbers only scratch the surface. The Battered Women’s Support Services hotline in Vancouver received over 19,000 calls last year, many from women who never contacted police. Legal Aid BC reports that applications for family protection orders rose by nearly 10 percent over the same period. These figures suggest that awareness has increased, but prevention and safety outcomes have not.

Our earlier report on whether women in BC are safer today found that many survivors now face different risks rather than fewer. Some describe better access to restraining orders or legal support, while others see growing gaps between what governments promise and what happens in courtrooms and shelters.

Even with these numbers, advocates say the most telling measure of safety is what happens after help is sought. Whether through police, lawyers, or community services, that next step often determines how secure a woman truly is and what kind of protection she can expect.

Public Safety – Harassment on Vancouver’s SkyTrain and City Spaces

Every day, thousands of women ride Vancouver’s SkyTrain knowing the risk is not abstract. The Metro Vancouver Transit Police recorded more than 300 incidents of sexual harassment or assault on transit in 2024, but surveys suggest the real number is much higher. Nearly half of women who use the system regularly say they have been touched, followed, or cornered by strangers.

One commuter told StaySafeVancouver she started timing her rides to avoid the last train of the night after being followed from Stadium–Chinatown Station. Another said she pressed the emergency strip once, but no officer appeared before her stop. In our feature on harassment across the SkyTrain network, women described the same pattern: silence from other passengers and little visible action after they reported the incident.

Transit Police encourage riders to text 87-77-77 to report harassment in real time, yet a 2024 safety audit found that fewer than one in ten women who experienced harassment had ever used the service. Posters remind riders to “report it,” but stations in Burnaby, Surrey, and East Vancouver still draw complaints about lighting and camera coverage.

Our guide for riders facing harassment on the SkyTrain outlines what steps to take during or after an incident, from gathering details discreetly to filing a report later. Advocates say those individual responses matter, but real prevention requires design and accountability: more staff, visible patrols, and consequences for those who treat the commute as cover for abuse.

For many women, that fear on the SkyTrain mirrors a deeper frustration: knowing help exists but rarely seeing it arrive when it’s needed.

Access to Justice – Legal Aid and the Cost of Leaving Violence

For most women trying to leave an abusive relationship, the question is not when to go, but how. In Vancouver, the cost of that choice can be crippling. Hiring a lawyer, finding housing, and protecting children all come at once, often with no safety net in place.

Legal Aid BC processed more than 15,000 family-law applications last year, but advocates say hundreds more never made it past the intake call. Lawyers who take legal-aid files describe being paid so little that many stop accepting them altogether. “You can’t fix a life in a three-hour retainer,” one family-law specialist told StaySafeVancouver. In our report on legal aid for violence survivors, she explained that most cases run out of funding before they run out of danger.

The paperwork itself can take weeks. Applications for protection orders are supposed to move quickly, yet survivors still wait an average of four weeks for a first appearance in Vancouver’s Provincial Court. During that time, many women stay where the violence started, hoping the next hearing date comes before the next threat.

Shelter staff say the barriers are not just legal but emotional. Many of the women they meet have already left once and gone back, sometimes because of fear, but more often because they simply ran out of options. One counsellor described watching a client return to her partner after learning her legal-aid coverage had expired. “She said she couldn’t risk being homeless with two kids,” the counsellor recalled.

Access to justice is supposed to be a right, not a privilege. But in Vancouver, it often depends on who can keep paying or who can keep waiting.

Protection Orders and Enforcement Challenges

At Vancouver’s Robson Square courthouse, the family-law counter opens at 9 a.m. Women start lining up before then, forms in hand, hoping to get a hearing date before the week ends. Each file represents a decision made under pressure: leave, stay, or wait for the court to decide who must move out.

Across British Columbia, more than 11,000 protection orders were granted last year under the Family Law Act. About one in five was later breached. In Vancouver alone, police recorded 287 violations in 2024. Officers can arrest someone for breaking an order, but BWSS advocates told StaySafeVancouver that many of those arrests never lead to convictions. “The risk doesn’t go away,” one advocate said. “It just pauses until the next time.”

Lawyers say the delays start long before enforcement. Even urgent “without notice” applications can take days if a judge is unavailable. In our practical guide on obtaining a protection order, family-law specialists described a process that expects survivors to navigate crisis with paperwork and patience.

A Justice Ministry spokesperson said the province is reviewing protection-order procedures to speed up applications and strengthen follow-up. Yet for many women, the gap between policy and protection remains wide. “It’s just a piece of paper,” said one survivor. “He knows that too.”

Bail Reform and Intimate Partner Violence

When police arrest someone for assaulting a partner, what happens next often decides whether the violence stops or continues. Across Canada, bail hearings are held within 24 hours, yet victims often learn of release only after it happens.

Bill C-48, in force since January 2024, expanded “reverse-onus” provisions so that repeat violent offenders and those accused of intimate-partner violence must show why they should be released. The federal government said the change was meant to “improve the safety of people and communities across Canada.”

In our report on bail reform and intimate partner violence, lawyers and police officers described uneven application across provinces. In BC, internal figures reviewed by the BC Prosecution Service show the reverse-onus rule has been applied in about 40 percent of eligible cases. Many hearings still rely on incomplete police summaries or limited witness information, leaving judges hesitant to detain.

One Vancouver survivor said her former partner, arrested twice in six months for breaching a protection order, was released both times with a condition to stay 200 metres away. “That’s two blocks,” she said. “I saw him at the corner store the next morning.” There were more than 800 bail breaches involving intimate-partner offences in BC in 2024.

Inside Vancouver’s bail court at 222 Main Street, hearings often take place by video link. Lawyers appear from offices across the region; victims are almost never present. Cases move quickly, sometimes in minutes, and decisions hinge on risk assessments that vary from one Crown office to another.

A Ministry of Public Safety spokesperson said a review of bail practices for repeat violent offenders is underway. Advocates say that until those measures take effect, survivors continue to carry the risk alone. “We see women calling their lawyers at 2 a.m. after learning their abuser is out,” said a BWSS legal support worker.

Workplace Protection – Paid Domestic Violence Leave

For many survivors, leaving home does not end the danger. It follows them to work, through missed shifts for court hearings, and into the awkward silence after a sudden absence. In a city where service jobs often mean public-facing shifts and unpredictable hours, holding steady employment can be the difference between safety and returning to harm.

British Columbia was among the first provinces to legislate paid leave for people escaping domestic or sexual violence. Since 2020, employees have been entitled to five paid days, five unpaid days, and up to fifteen weeks of unpaid leave each year. A public consultation found that 93 percent of respondents supported mandatory paid leave.

Yet few workers appear to use it. Advocacy groups estimate that fewer than one in ten eligible employees have accessed the leave. In our feature on paid domestic violence leave, survivors described fear of disclosure and inconsistent employer responses. A hotel worker in downtown Vancouver said her manager asked for a police file number before approving time off. Another, at a Burnaby restaurant, used vacation days instead. “You don’t want your boss to see you as a problem,” she said.

Employers also face uncertainty. Small businesses rarely have HR departments, and many owners are unaware the policy exists. A Ministry of Labour spokesperson said uptake and compliance are under review. Ontario provides ten paid days; federal employees receive the same. Advocates want BC to match that standard and protect confidentiality for all requests.

For those who take the leave, the impact can be profound. One advocate described a woman who used the time to change locks and register her children at a new school. “Five days doesn’t solve everything,” she said, “but it gives you a window to start again.”

Finding Help – Where Women in Vancouver Can Turn

When violence reaches a breaking point, finding the right help can decide what happens next. In Vancouver, survivors can reach support workers 24 hours a day through VictimLink BC at 1-800-563-0808. The service operates in more than 150 languages and connects callers to shelters, legal aid, and counselling.

Battered Women’s Support Services received over 19,000 calls last year, up nearly 20 percent since before the pandemic. The YWCA’s Munroe House in Mount Pleasant offers 18 months of transitional housing, and MOSAIC provides multilingual support for newcomers.

These agencies coordinate quietly. “If one shelter is full, we start calling the next,” a BWSS coordinator said. In our local feature on finding support, survivors described how staff arranged transport, child care, and even phone replacements to keep them safe.

Vancouver’s West End still has no dedicated women’s shelter, forcing many to travel across the city. Rising rents make permanent housing harder to find. BC has pledged 100 new supportive units, but completion is years away.

Community legal clinics such as Rise Women’s Legal Centre offer free representation for protection orders. BWSS’s tech-safety team teaches digital privacy to women being tracked online. “Safety now means more than locks and alarms,” a counsellor said. “It’s knowing how to control who sees you.”

Canada’s Ongoing Protection Gap

For every policy meant to prevent violence, Canada still struggles to close the distance between law and safety. Provinces fund shelters and legal aid; Ottawa sets bail rules and Criminal Code definitions. Between them sits a patchwork of services that depend on where a woman lives and how quickly she can reach help.

Nearly 109,000 women and girls reported being victims of intimate-partner violence in 2023, yet only a fraction accessed shelter or legal support. The Canadian Femicide Observatory recorded 184 women and girls killed that year, 87 percent by current or former partners — a rate virtually unchanged since 2019.

In our national analysis of Canada’s enforcement failures, analysts pointed to inconsistent enforcement of protection orders and bail conditions. Provinces with dedicated monitoring programs report fewer repeat offences, while others rely on survivors to self-report violations.

The National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence pledged $600 million over five years. By 2025, only a third had been distributed. “It’s not that nothing is being done,” one researcher said. “It’s that it’s being done unevenly, and unevenness costs lives.”

What Vancouver Still Needs to Get Right

Every night, women still wait on SkyTrain platforms and glance down the track before boarding. For some, the trip home feels no safer than the place they left. Behind the city’s reforms, the gaps remain visible: protection orders breached, shelters full, cases delayed until memory fades.

Vancouver Police recorded 287 breaches of protection orders last year. BWSS says more than four out of five callers seeking a bed were told none were available. BC Housing lists 200 new units under construction, yet advocates say the need is three times that. Legal Aid BC handled 15,000 family-law files, but hundreds of qualified applicants were turned away.

Policy continues to move faster than delivery. The Justice Ministry’s 2026 enforcement review is still pending. BC Housing’s expansion is years from completion. “It’s always next year,” one outreach worker said. “But women are trying to survive this year.”

There are gains: new investigators in the VPD’s domestic-violence unit, 32 transitional-housing units opened by the YWCA, and growing volunteer networks at legal clinics like Rise. Still, consistency remains elusive. “Vancouver has the tools,” one legal researcher said. “What it needs is the will to apply them every time.”

At Commercial–Broadway Station, trains slide in under fluorescent light while women stand with keys ready between their fingers. For now, vigilance remains the unspoken rule — the habit that keeps safety personal while the system struggles to catch up.