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When he was practising family law and offering legal aid, Leonard Krog often had low-income people come to him for help as they struggled to leave behind abusive spouses.

“My impression as a lawyer was the majority of victims were women, but there were also men who were victims, and children who witnessed violence perpetrated by female partners in relationships,” says Krog, who was elected last year as mayor of Nanaimo after serving 18 years as an NDP MLA.

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“I have no desire to be involved in a discussion about what the statistics show (about the portion of males who are victims of spousal violence), but it does exist. And, if it exists, then surely government has a responsibility to fund shelters for men and their children who are fleeing domestic violence.”

Despite North American government data consistently showing men are victims in at least one out of four cases of intimate-partner violence, there are no publicly financed shelters for men and their children in B.C.