Killing of B.C. academic spurs calls for government action against gender violence

Laura Gover was found dead in her Saanich home on Jan. 5.

The killing of a Vancouver Island academic is spurring calls for action against gender-based violence.

Saanich police said earlier this month that Muhammed Basar had been charged with murder in the killing of a person found dead at a home on Jan. 5, later identified by an online fundraiser as 41-year-old Laura Gover, an instructor at Vancouver Island University and Camosun College.

The fundraiser said Gover had two daughters and was a “beloved mother, daughter, sister, friend and teacher.”

It said her ex-husband had been charged with her murder.

Basar’s case has been designated as a “K file” in the provincial court system, a classification the BC Prosecution Service uses to indicate alleged cases of intimate partner violence.

Bahar Dehnadi, executive director of the Victoria Women’s Transition House, told a news conference Wednesday that Gover’s death was the result of an ongoing public crisis of intimate partner violence, and women’s advocacy groups were demanding “accountability for the gaps” that persist “despite years of collective advocacy.”

The coalition gathered outside the Victoria courthouse to demand mandatory risk assessments in domestic violence cases.

They were also seeking gender-based violence task forces from B.C. municipal governments, a 15 per cent bump in funding for front-line services, and coroners’ inquests in cases where protection orders were in effect at the time of the killing.

Basar appeared in Provincial Court in Victoria on Wednesday, charged with second-degree murder charge. A spokeswoman for the B.C. Prosecution Service said the matter was adjourned to Feb. 4.

Angela Marie MacDougall, executive director of Battered Women’s Support Services in Vancouver, said the bump in emergency funding was needed to meet the “current crisis.”

“(It is needed) so victims and survivors can access a crisis response, legal advocacy, housing support, counselling and we can work toward addressing wait lists,” she told the news conference.

Premier David Eby was asked about the groups’ calls to action at an unrelated news conference Wednesday and said the province was working to reform the system to better protect women.

“I know there’s more we can do and definitely we will continue to look for opportunities and we will work with these advocates to deliver safety for women in every part of British Columbia,” Eby said.

B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma announced last month that the government would be “exploring how to implement timely, appropriate and standardized risk assessments, screening and safety planning, both in criminal and family court processes.”

MacDougall said it was “great” the province had identified risk assessments as a priority, but she was concerned no timeline, benchmarks or implementation deadlines had been announced.

“Without timelines, governments can sit on intentions indefinitely,” she said.

“Risk assessment, in theory, without obligation becomes performative. Commitments without deadlines become delay and women die in that space.”

This report by Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press, was first published Jan. 21, 2026.