Shelters Prepare for IPV Spike During World Cup
A staff member at a Toronto women’s shelter prepares a room. Shelters across Canada are bracing for a potential increase in intimate partner violence survivors during the World Cup. (The Canadian Press/Chris Young)
The World Cup kicked off on June 11 across North America, and while festivities abound, shelters in the host countries of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico have banded together for a more serious reason: to raise awareness about the link between high-stakes sporting events and a rise in intimate partner violence (IPV) calls to police.
Together, Women’s Shelters Canada—a network for shelters serving women, children and gender-diverse people fleeing violence across Canada—Red Nacional de Refugios (Mexico) and the National Network to End Domestic Violence (U.S.) have collaborated to create a trilingual campaign to ensure that people are aware of the supports around them.
“We know that domestic violence increases around the world when sporting events like the World Cup are happening,” says Kaitlin Geiger-Bardswich, communications and advocacy director for Women’s Shelters Canada.
Why are sporting events associated with higher rates of intimate partner violence?
Gender inequality may be the primary engine of the epidemic of violence against women, but research shows that holidays, long weekends and some sporting events are associated with an increased risk of IPV.
“We're not saying that the sporting events are causing this,” says Geiger-Bardswich. “But certain factors during these events make it more likely that violence will spill over. There’s a lot of alcohol at a lot of these events. There are crowds. There’s the whole nationalism aspect that mean emotions can be quite high.”
A 2017 study of domestic violence calls to police and support lines for survivors in Alberta from researchers at the University of Calgary found events like the Calgary Stampede and the Grey Cup were linked to an increase in calls. CFL games that saw hometown favourites the Calgary Stampeders take on longtime antagonists the Edmonton Eskimos were also associated with spikes in violence. That study, which spanned four years of calls, echoes U.K. research that found soccer games in which emotions were high—such as games in which England either won or lost—were positively associated with more incidences of intimate partner violence.
A World Cup campaign
Make a Game Plan is the Canadian campaign to support IPV survivors during the World Cup. The campaign encourages people to consider how to prepare themselves if they ever experience IPV—like putting together a go-bag with essentials. The site also allows people to see where services are available in their community.
Support beyond shelters
Despite this, shelter services in Canada say they are operating under impossible conditions, with demand outpacing funding support by 20 percent. Meanwhile, a CBC report found IPV calls to police in Ontario had risen nearly 20 percent in 2025.
But Geiger-Bardwich wants those dealing with violence to understand that seeking support doesn’t mean you have to leave and move into a shelter anymore. Instead, there are resources available that meet you where you are at.
“You can call and get support on how to make a safety plan. You can access counselling, get information on housing, even secure legal advice by reaching out to a shelter,” she says. “There are all kinds of services from parenting classes to employment supports.”
In fact, this kind of relationship with the broad supports available is more common than people imagine, says Geiger-Bardwich. “For every two women who are in a shelter, the shelter is supporting five women externally.”
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Flannery Dean is a writer based in Hamilton, Ont. She’s written for The Narwhal, the Globe and Mail and The Guardian.
