My dream is for a world where no one ever has to stay in a job or relationship or place that is harming them as a result of the financial barriers to leaving.
I choose to actively work to contribute to the full manifestation of that dream because I know what it is like to not feel like I could leave a relationship that I knew I needed to leave and I know what it cost me to stay.
I didn’t have a name for what I was experiencing while I was experiencing it, but now I do – economic abuse. Once I started to untangle and understand how this looked in my own relationship (and it’s breakdown,) it became impossible for me to ignore the prevalence.
While my work and education background is all business and finance, it was sitting in the middle of the hard emotions that brought the most clarity for me. I turned the story of how I was finally able to start to see the truth of things into an article to give some context to what exactly brought me to this type of advocacy work.
Leaving Shouldn’t be This Hard
I thought that finally having the guts and enough means to leave my ex would mark the end of his control over my financial life. At this point, after six and a half years in family court to address the issue of child support, and an inordinate amount of research on the topic – I’m now much less naive about the systemic element to all this. To say the family justice system is failing women trying to leave economically abusive situations is an understatement.
This article is a statistically-backed look at the specific ways child support is weaponized to enact gender-based violence, using my experience, as the throughline. When I first posted this I got a flood of responses – most sent privately. They all essentially fit three main ideas:
- I had no idea this was happening.
- Thank you for saying it and naming it. This was my experience too.
- This is exactly why I never sought child support when my ex and I split.
I was hesitant to share my story because I didn’t want to become proof of why not to leave or why not to ask for child support – which is law by the way. While my experience with family court was every sort of traumatic, leaving my ex was also the best thing I ever did for myself and I don’t regret it even slightly.
The court process involved with dealing with someone trying to cheat the system just shouldn’t be this damn hard, frankly. This is why I have begun advocating for policy-level changes on the matter. This article also includes some facts about how abusive men like my ex are impacting every Canadian taxpayer’s finances. I believe it’s a matter we all should be aware of and advocating for change around.
Economic Justice
“Economic justice aims to create opportunities for every person to have a dignified, productive, and creative life that extends beyond simple economics.” – Wikipedia
I always imagined sharing my story and my suggestions for how to address economic abuse on a larger scale, but outside of writing about it, I had no idea where to begin.
Shortly after I had to pause my tax business to deal with worsening health issues in the Fall of 2025, a friend sent me a link to an application for the National Survivors Council with the CCFWE.
I actually laughed out loud when I read the link, because it lined up so completely with my own experiences, direction, and expertise that it felt less like an opportunity and more like something I dreamed into reality.
I knew I’d be advocating for change in the family court system specifically. I knew I’d be sharing information to help people who are where I was. I knew I’d be raising awareness about the specific barriers to economic justice that exist during relationship breakdowns. How exactly those things looked was the part that left me scratching my head and regularly overwhelmed, though. I had lots of ideas, but they all required more capacity than I could give.
Knowing what needs to change is one thing. Knowing how to go about actually affecting that desired change and closing gaps in legal policy is entirely another.
The Canadian Centre for Women’s Empowerment (CCFWE) is Canada’s leading organization dedicated to advancing economic safety, financial inclusion, and justice for survivors affected by economic abuse, coerced debt, fraud, and financial exploitation, in Canada and beyond. I really don’t know if there could be an organization that is more in alignment with what I hope to do.
Code of Conduct on the Prevention of Economic Abuse
- Survivor Roundtable Participant
Before the National Survivors Council even began, I was offered another incredible opportunity with CCFWE. One of the things that they do is advocate for survivor’s voices to be included in the development of policies that impact them.
As part of their ongoing work with Federal Government on the development of a new voluntary Code of Conduct on the Prevention of Economic Abuse, CCFWE facilitated a roundtable discussion, where myself and several other economic abuse survivors got to speak directly to those involved in creating this policy. This Code of Conduct will influence how financial institutions in Canada identify, respond to, and help prevent economic abuse.
While there are many people, organizations, and government departments involved in this Code of Conduct, knowing that I got to put my perspectives and suggestions in the pot was absolutely incredible.
My divorce story came with some real moments of hopelessness in the face of economic abuse. Getting to contribute in this way on a policy of this scale felt like the exact opposite of helpless.
National Survivor Council
- Current Member
The work with this council is really only getting started and it is already so much more than I could have hoped for. It’s a community of women who have lived through experiences similar to mine. That sense of understanding alone has been beautiful in a way I didn’t expect.
I also think that the CCFWE is the most trauma-informed organization I’ve ever encountered and I’ve learned so much already about how to do this work in a productive and self-protective manner. Getting to share ideas and space with people who are so committed to a cause that is so dear to me, is truly a gift. I can’t wait to see where this whole advocacy journey goes!
Dawn Evans 