So, I've been calling feminist groups in Canada about my effort to open more men's shelters, and have been pleasantly surprised.

So 2 days ago, I made a post about how I decided to start an effort to increase the number of shelters and available support for male domestic violence victims in Canada, which you were nice enough to send to the front page (of r/self ). This was that post: http://www.reddit.com/r/self/comments/236j49/ive_spent_my_time_on_reddit_trolling_and_wasting/

Canada has a serious lack of available shelters and support for men. It's quite shocking in a highly developed and liberal country like canada, a

So, that's exactly what I did. I called numerous women's groups to ask them on their opinions of an effort to build more men's shelters.

In all honesty, I wasn't expecting a very good reception. In fact, I was expecting hostility. Afterall, these were feminists, and I was talking about MALE victims of domestic violence- there's no way there gonna like this one, right?

Part of this negative expectation of how canadian feminists would react was due in part to this article:

http://www.fims.uwo.ca/olr/apr809/Higgins%20feature.html

In this article, a male victim of domestic violence reveals how difficult it was for him to get help as a man. What did the president of a major feminist group say? That domestic violence against men isn't real, and when a women punches her boyfriend, it's just "poor conflict resolution." Really? So if a woman punches her boyfriend in the nose whenever he doesn't do something quickly enough, that's not REALLY abuse, just "poor conflict management"...yeah, I don't think so.

So, feeling angry, I googled "Canadian feminist groups", and started making phone calls.

Much to my surprise, I had more positive responses then negative responses. I did have a few questionable responses, although no one outright denied the existence of domestic violence against men.

1. The National Women's council of Canada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KULm6BZFifo

This was a very good call. I spoke to the president of the company, a very nice woman who was very supportive. She even said "I would definitely support that!"

2. The federated women's institute of Canada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em38kyekRmI

Something very annoying kept happening when I tried recording these directly to youtube, and videos would suddenly disconnect mid recording. Unfortunately, since I was doing phone calls in real time, I couldn't just go back. So, I'm afraid the miss the best part of my conversation with the federated women's institute of Canada. The video you see was my first call, and at the end of the video, the woman I speak to says she busy but will call back. She DID call back, and I started recording, but then the video connection died, so I'm afraid I don't have the 2nd conversation. However, it was also generally positive. The woman I spoke to that what I was doing was a "good idea", and that male victims deserved shelters and support. Another encouraging call.

3. Edmonton non-emergency police line: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDgN5McD52k

I called the police non-emergency line to see what legal options a man experiencing domestic violence might have. The call was generally positive, he took the call seriously, and said it was possible for the hypothetical female abuser to be charged- this is important, because for a long time in many US states, the law required that men automatically be arrested in any domestic violence call...even if he was the one calling. Even today, men often have a hard time getting police to take them seriously.

4. Calgary women's shelter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hn99UkNqJY

I was told that I might have better luck calling a shelter, so that's what I did. Of course, there are no specific men's shelters, so I called the Calgary women's shelter. The woman on the phone was helpful, and was able to direct to a source to help men.

5. The strathmore/wheatland mens shelter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSDKfk9-dvg

This is one of the very few shelters that accepts men. It was very difficult to find any information on them, but when I called, it was a very interesting and quite depressing call.They had to fight to receive funding, and are now 1 of only 2 shelters in all of alberta, which means that some men would have to walk hundreds of miles just to get to a shelter.

6. So this was the group whose president made the comment that male domestic violence doesn't exist, and that when a woman is violent towards a man, it's really just "poor conflict management." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuVTwOINvMo They DO identify as feminist on their website http://www.learningtoendabuse.ca/

I found the call rather...strange. I was reporting a hypotheical friend being abused by his girlfriend, and they had a very difficult time accepting it.

Notice at 1:50, she asks "who has the bruises", despite me saying several times that it was him.

At 2:35, she asks "well how did he get the bruises", as if to doubt it was really abuse.

She then asked to have me call her, so she could determine "whether or not he was the abused or the abuser"...why would he be the abuser if I just explained how I saw his girlfriend hitting him and bruising him? I have serious doubts that they're "equality" is something I'd be interested in. This was a negative call for sure.

Anyway, I need to get some sleep now or I'm going to start getting brain damage, ive gone 72 hours without proper sleep. this list is by no means finished, I have a few womens groups that I'm going to call back, or that i left messages with.

i just wanted to have something up for now.

im going to make a closing review video after im finished to give my thoughts, and write up a report.

on my first video description, i have a link to my tumblr, blog and facebook. i covdr these kinds of issues on all of them.