Overview
- Victim Services Toronto unveiled a broader rollout of its code‑phrase program to support people facing gender‑based and intimate‑partner violence as the city prepares for more than 300,000 World Cup visitors this summer.
- The expansion adds partners across hospitality, health care, transit, and emergency response, with named sites including the CN Tower, Sunnybrook, major downtown hotels, and Toronto Paramedic Services, and it will train 8,000 more frontline staff.
- The outreach now includes posters that look like regular product ads but carry QR codes linking to a dedicated website and a mobile map so people can find participating locations in busy public spaces.
- At any partner site, a person can ask “Is Angela here?” to signal for help, prompting staff to move them to a private spot and connect them to Victim Services or police based on what they want.
- Officials cite studies showing violence often rises during major sporting events, and VST reports a recent case at a Shoppers Drug Mart where the phrase led to on‑scene support and a shelter bed for a woman without a phone.