Who We Are
METRAC (The Metropolitan Toronto Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children) is a community-based organization that seeks to decrease and finally eliminate all forms of violence against women and children. METRAC is committed to the right of women and children to live their lives free of violence and the threat of violence.
Our goal is to prevent violence. We accomplish this by working to achieve supportive and constructive responses to victims of violence from institutions like the courts, police, schools and hospitals, by educating the public, and by promoting the rights of women and children. Although we do not provide counselling or legal advice, we offer a listing of emergency phone numbers for such services in Toronto.
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METRAC is a catalyst for change. We challenge society’s acceptance of violence and strive for positive changes to our support services and advocacy systems by working with all levels of government -- municipal, provincial and federal -- to recommend and generate changes in policy and legislation.
Through our Justice for Women and Children and Women’s Safety Programs, we use an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach. We work with other community-based organizations that focus on domestic violence, urban planning and policing, including health and legal professionals.
METRAC is an educator. Through our Information Services Program, we are committed to the development of research grounded in the experiences of women and children. We use a variety of methods to disseminate information - websites, workshops, pamphlets, CD-ROMs and handbooks.
We aim to educate the public, professionals and public officials on the root causes of violence against women and children in Toronto and suggest appropriate solutions to this social problem.
How We Got Started
METRAC’s beginnings date back to the summer of 1982 when there were a number of brutal sexual assaults and murders of women in Toronto. A group of Toronto women organized themselves as "The Toronto Pink Ribbon Committee" to demand that something be done to stop the violence. This Committee approached then-Metro Toronto Chair, Paul Godfrey, who, acting on their suggestions and in collaboration with the Metropolitan Toronto Board of Commissioners of Police, established a task force to examine issues related to public violence against women and children.
The Task Force worked with the cooperation of Metro Toronto staff and council members, more than 80 individual community volunteers, local experts and community and service agencies. The Final Report released in March 1984 listed recommendations including one that the Metropolitan Toronto Council appoint a body to act as an implementation committee for the Task Force to ensure that its recommendations would be acted upon.
Out of this collaborative process with police, government bodies, community agencies, support services and individuals the Metro Action Committee on Public Violence Against Women and Children (METRAC) was established to address violence against women and children in Toronto. A ten-member Board of Directors was appointed, headed by Toronto lawyer and then-Police Commissioner Jane Pepino, who still continues as a member of METRAC’s Advisory Board more than 16 years later, just as METRAC continues in its work as a catalyst for change
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