Scott Young, the mayor of Port Coquitlam, will announce today that he is stepping aside but not stepping down, according to his lawyer Richard Peck. Young spent the Easter weekend in jail after being arrested for allegedly breaking into his former girlfriend's home and allegedly assaulting her and a male visitor.

Young has also been charged with criminal harassment and breaching a no-contact order. He's now out on bail.

Speaking on CKNW Radio's morning show, Peck told host Philip Till that Young has at times had a problem with alcohol, and that this problem had been in his family as well. Peck suggested that Young would "step aside", but not resign today, and would re-evaluate the situation in about a month.

The federal Justice Department Web site states that in 2002 [the most current year for which Statistics Canada has data], 9,080 criminal-harassment incidents were reported to a sample of 123 police forces. Three out of four victims were female, and 84 percent of the accused were male.

Almost one in three of the female victims were harassed by a former partner or acquaintance. Two-thirds of the incidents occurred at the victim's home.