Photo of: Hearts placed in the park to remember those affected by violence
Photo by: Danielle Dufour
By: Danielle Dufour
Jeff Cappo opened the ceremony by welcoming the crowd to the 8th annual Hearts in the Park event in Regina yesterday sponsored by the Circle Project, Family Service Regina and the Regina Police Service (RPS).
“We are gathering here today during the victim and survivors of crime week to honor those who have felt the impacts of domestic violence in our communities,” said Cappo.
The event offered attendees the opportunity to remember those affected by violence and to bring awareness of the topic by placing a heart in the park on their behalf.
Family Service Regina provides support to those impacted by violence.
“We have a domestic violence unit where folks can receive support to navigate the justice system, we support people to attend the police service or to attend court, we do safety planning and resourcing and help people navigate this very challenging concern in their life,” said Kirk Englot, CEO at Family Service Regina.
Photo of: Ann Perry the Executive Director of the Circle Project Photo by: Danielle Dufour
“We’re here because of the power of collaboration in our community to raise the levels of awareness of interpersonal and family violence in Regina,” said Ann Perry, Executive Director of the Circle Project.
In 2025, Saskatchewan RCMP responded to more than 9,800 victims of family and intimate partner violence, continuing a trend of persistently high levels of both types of interpersonal violence.
“The Circle Project works with the offenders, Family Services Regina works with victims and RPS works with both,” said Perry. “That’s a pretty powerful collaboration that we can come together for a common goal and give the public an opportunity to identify someone without a name, just their relationship with the person and hang the heart of the trees in recognition of that individual and the experience they’ve gone through.”
The heart represents love, acceptance and respect.
“We’ve chosen heats because it’s a very strong visual and there’s a lot of people that are affected by violence in our community,” said Perry. “It affects everybody.”
“When the community works together and brings awareness, and we’ve got people working with the offenders, we’ve got people working with the victims, this is when the cycles of violence are broken,” said Perry.
There are many forms of violence, and it can look like a lot of different things.
Coercive control is one of the newly recognized forms of violence.
Photo of: Dr. Crystal Giesbrecht speaking to the audience about the signs of violence Photo by: Danielle Dufour
“Coercive control is a really dangerous and damaging pattern of behaviour but it’s often many little things, very insidious behaviours that as one-offs may not flag the attention of the person who is experiencing them or of the service providers or people around them,” said Dr. Crystal Giesbrecht, the Director of Research at the Provincial Association of Transition Houses and Services of Saskatchewan (PATHS).
When those behaviours are viewed in context, they can seem harmful.
“Looking at their phone, controlling time with friends and family, degradation, psychological abuse, put-downs and really working to isolate the victim is common,” said Dr. Giesbrecht “Coercive control can happen without physical abuse, this will require a shift in police thinking.”
PATHS is the member association for agencies that provide intimate partner violence services across Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan was the first province in Canada to implement Clare’s Law. The Interpersonal Violence Disclosure Protocol (Clare’s Law) Act came into force in the province on June 29, 2020, allows individuals to request information about a partner’s history of domestic violence or abuse to enhance personal safety.
“The goal of Clare’s Law is to provide information and there’s no expectation about what the person who receives that information does next, they may choose to end the relationship or they nay not,” said Dr. Giesbrecht. “That goal is to provide information that someone can use to inform their decision making.”
For more information about PATHS visit: https://pathssk.org/