VCST asks the Greater Victoria Police Diversity Advisory Committee: What is torture?
The following post includes traumatizing words and ideas associated with torture. The “Quick Exit” button is available to quickly leave this page, in the bottom right corner of the screen.
On Wednesday, April 9, 2025, Álvaro Moreno and I attended the Greater Victoria Police Diversity Advisory Committee monthly meeting. This was a great opportunity to share about the Interconnectedness Initiative and all the great work that our stakeholders are doing with survivors of torture in Victoria, Vancouver Island, and the Lower Mainland.
Álvaro started us out with a heavy question: “When you think of the word ‘torture’, what comes to your mind?” Committee members attending in person and online called out the words: pain, whipping, suffering, jail cell, abuse, trauma, and despot. As the conversation went on, we also added fear, anger, anxiety, and PTSD.
Álvaro shared some UNHCR statistics about the world’s 43.4 million refugees. In 2019, the UNHCR estimated that 30% of all refugees in Canada are survivors of torture. The 2021 Canadian census estimated that there were 6,295 refugees living on Vancouver Island. Together, we calculated that Vancouver Island is home to more than 1,800 survivors of torture.
We talked about the work VCST is doing to bring together a variety of stakeholders in the service community – from settlement agencies, to counselling agencies, to community organizations – to build awareness and capacity to work with survivors.
Our conversation sparked a lot of interest among the committee to learn more about the reprecussions of torture and the ways trauma effects how people interact with authority figures, such as the police or RCMP. There was discussion about the need to bring awareness of the issue among the police as well as among restorative justice practitioners and the broader community.
What started as a small 20 minute presentation quickly became an engaging hour-long group discussion about the intersections of trauma, migration, policing, and community building.
It was an honour to speak to the GVPDAC and share the good work that VCST is doing. We left feeling energized to keep building connections with the police and the Diversity Advisory Committee. Thank you to Staff Sergeant Jennifer Ames and May Shihadeh for bringing us together!
