What is abuse?
Terms like “family violence”, “domestic violence”, “intimate partner violence”, and “violence against women”, are often used to describe abuse.
There are different types of abuse.
Physical abuse happens when your partner, for example:
- hurts you, your children, or your pet
- threatens or tries to hurt you, your children, or your pet
- forces you to do things you do not want to do, such as using drugs or alcohol
- breaks or does not let you use your assistive device such as your wheelchair or hearing aids, or does not give you your medicine
Financial abuse happens when your partner, for example:
- controls the family finances and refuses to give you money
- does not allow you to work
- threatens to call Ontario Works and tell them you are getting income assistance illegally
Sexual abuse happens when your partner, for example:
- forces you to do things you do not want to do sexually
- involves other people in sexual acts without your consent
Emotional or psychological abuse happens when your partner, for example:
- insults, bullies, humiliates, threatens, blames, shames, or puts you down
- does not let you contact your friends or family
- controls your activities
- invades your privacy by reading your emails or texts or listening to your phone conversations
- takes away your identification or other important documents
They may also threaten to:
- have you deported from Canada
- take your children away from you
- hurt themself if you do not do what they want
- call the Children’s Aid Society and report you as a child abuser
Cyber abuse is when your partner uses technology to harm or harass you. For example, by sharing private, intimate or sexual photos or videos of you without your permission.
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