Femicide in Ontario is an epidemic, yet Ford only commits to exploring investments and opportunities

There have been 30 femicides in Ontario over the past 30 weeks. A total of 29 men have either been charged or deemed responsible.

“Movements with ideological views of sex and gender, gender-roles, class and race are building momentum, creating a groundswell of hatred against the most marginalized and vulnerable people in our society. The spread of hatred and hate-motivated crimes is on the rise, including hate-motivated harassment and violence, gender-based violence and femicide. We must address this immediately and compel actionable change,” - Marlene Ham, Executive Director, Ontario Association of Interval & Transition Houses.

On July 5, 2023, the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH) reported there have been 30 femicides in Ontario over the past 30 weeks.

In total, 29 men have either been charged or deemed responsible for these femicides.

The communities experiencing this lethal violence include Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Chute-à-Blondeau, Deep River, Eganville, Hamilton, London, Markham, Mississauga, New Tecumseth, Oshawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, The Blue Mountains, Toronto, Vaughan, Waterford and Windsor.

OAITH is calling on the provincial government to take urgent, immediate action to prevent femicides. This comes after the Ford government refused to call intimate partner violence (IPV) an epidemic despite that being the first recommendation from the  Culleton, Kuzyk & Warmerdam (CKW) inquest.

Already, more than 30 municipalities have declared IPV and gender-based violence an epidemic in response to the CKW recommendations. Yet, the province refuses.

Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk, and Nathalie Warmerdam were murdered in Renfrew County on September 22, 2015 by a man known to each of the women.

In June 2022, the CKW inquest into the triple femicide resulted in 86 recommendations with fully 68 of those directed at the provincial government including oversight and accountability; funding; education and training; measures addressing perpetrators of IPV; intervention and safety.

The Federal government was given five recommendations that focused on changes to the Criminal Code of Canada; the timely implementation of the National Action Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Violence Against Women; and the establishment of a royal commission to make the criminal system more victim-centric.

Unfortunately, inquest recommendations are non-biding so there is no legal obligation to implement them. The five-person jury recommended that the inquest parties reconvene in a year to discuss progress made on implementing the recommendations.

None of the 68 recommendations for the province have been implemented by the Conservative government. The Ford government only issued a response to the inquiry recommendations on July 1, 2023.

In part, the provincial government is committed to exploring investments and opportunities to improve current systems; enhance training; and stabilize funding to IPV service providers across sectors.

Further, ministries will also explore opportunities to enhance perpetrator programming to improve outcomes and protect survivors; increase workforce training and development for IPV service providers; expand and increase capacity of Indigenous-specific IPV prevention programs.

According to OAITH, since the triple femicide in 2015 at least an additional 273 women have been murdered.

The Domestic Violence Death Review Committee (DVDRC) is an interdisciplinary array of experts who assist the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario in the investigation and review of domestic violence and to make recommendations to help prevent these deaths.

The Ontario DVDRC has not produced an annual report since 2018.

Historically, the DVDRC has made it clear that the overwhelming majority of domestic homicides are predictable and preventable. That’s why it imperative that the 86 recommendations from the inquest be implemented.

For 32 years, OAITH has published its own yearly Annual Femicide List each November. For 2021-2022 there were 52 femicides across Ontario.

OAITHs definition of femicide has evolved over the past decade and now includes the gender-based killing of a woman, child, trans woman, 2-Spirited Person, or gender non-conforming individual where a man has been charged in relation to the death.

Most femicides continue to be perpetrated by a current or former intimate partner although sons, nephews, coworkers, friends and acquaintances may be responsible.

OAITH also tracks demographics relating to victim race, culture, age, relationship, cause of death, geography, and prior history of violence as reported by media.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC, 2022) cited the societal root causes of femicide deaths as including stereotyped gender roles; discrimination towards women and girls; inequality and unequal power relations between women and men in society.

OAITH uses local, regional and national media reports to track, analyze, and compile the annual femicide list. That means the list is incomplete because it’s based on information released to the media and those details may not be complete due to pending investigations, ongoing court proceedings, publication bans, or requests from the victim’s family to withhold information.

The service OAITH provides is invaluable because femicide data is not collected by the criminal justice system. That lack of data collection is due to the fact that femicide is not defined as a unique and distinct criminal charge within the Criminal Code of Canada.

In June 2022, Anne-Marie Ready and her 15-year-old daughter Jasmine were stabbed to death. Catherine Ready, 19, survived the attack. The 21-year-old man responsible for the femicides had recently been charged with stalking another woman and it’s believed he was interested in one of the sisters.

Since then, advocates have been calling on the federal government to include femicide in the Criminal Code.

In light of the recent University of Waterloo attack in which two women and one man in a gender studies class were stabbed by a 24-year-old man, and the general rise in hate against women, girls, and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, Ford should be acting on the CKW inquest recommendations and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, David Lametti, should be moving to include femicide in the Criminal Code.

Then, the various levels of government need to adequately fund all violence against women, girls, and 2SLGBTQIA+ services instead of pitting one service against another.

For more information click here.

To find Gender Based Violence Services in Canada click here.