The Persistent Lack of Action to Prevent Femicide in Canada is Appalling

On October 30, 2023, Hollie Marie Boland and one other Nova Scotian woman were each murdered by men they knew. Femicide is an epidemic that demands real changes to the Criminal Code of Canada.

On the morning of October 30, 2023, John Douglas Cress (61 years old) attacked an 88-year-old woman with an axe. Cress knew his femicide victim.

Cress has been charged with second degree murder of the Thorburn, Nova Scotia (NS) resident.

Later that day, 30-year-old Hollie Marie Boland of Dartmouth, NS was killed by Aaron Daniel Crawley (33 years old) in what was clearly a case of ongoing intimate partner violence (IPV) turned lethal.

Boland’s femicide was originally thought to be a hit-and-run. Misidentifying femicides is extremely common. However, the history of their relationship made it clear that this was a targeted attack planned by Crawley who has since been charged with first degree murder.

On May 24, 2023, Crawley was accused of uttering threats and allegedly tried to use a vehicle to assault Boland. He was ordered not to have contact with Boland.

June 8, 2023, Crawley was charged with two counts of assault and choking, suffocating or strangling Boland.

Initially, Justice Brad Sarson agreed with the Crown prosecutor to revoke Crawley’s bail, but then decided to release him on stricter bail conditions.

Those conditions included house arrest and $6,200 posted by Crawley and his surety. Crawley was once again prohibited from having contact with Boland, prohibited from possessing weapons and prohibited from sitting in the driver’s seat of any motor vehicle.

Crawley’s history of escalating violence begs the question, how he was able to get such a sweet deal? Add to that Crawley’s previous convictions including assault, resisting a peace officer and theft and it is incomprehensible that Justice Sarson thought this man would adhere to such flimsy bail conditions.

On October 30, Crawley held Boland captive inside a vehicle outside a home on Shrewsbury Road, in Cole Harbour, NS. Crawley’s home address is listed as being on Shrewsbury Road.

A woman who tried to help Boland get out of the car and reach safety was also hit by the vehicle and taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

According to Linda MacDonald, feminist activist with Persons Against non-State Torture, “considering the lethality of the alleged crimes committed against Hollie Marie Boland – choking, suffocation, strangulation, assault, held against her will, hit by a car – how could house arrest ever be considered a reasoned decision to keep her safe? What does a woman have to endure to have the court see that her life is at risk?”

“Men who inflict such brutal crimes that are strong indicators for non-State torture and femicide are much less likely to have any respect for house arrest conditions,” added MacDonald via email.

One in four women will experience IPV in their lifetime. Of the women considered at high risk, between 68 to 80 per cent will experience near-fatal strangulation by their partner.

Strangulation is amongst the most lethal forms of IPV. Loss of consciousness can occur within five to ten seconds with death taking only minutes. However, in 50 per cent of cases there are no external signs of injury and death may occur days or weeks after the attack due to complications.

Strangulation is considered a high-risk predictor of lethality and femicide. Considered by many in the gendered violence field to be a red flare, it is often overlooked by police, responders, medical professionals and the criminal justice system.

Femicide is the intentional killing of women, children, trans women, 2-Spirited Peoples and non-conforming individuals by men. It is a crime that has yet to be included in the Criminal Code of Canada.

“Canadian women need non-State torture and femicide in the Criminal Code of Canada to start raising very loud alarm bells about the risk of extreme harm and murder that women are subjected to across this country. These crimes can be prevented,” MacDonald maintains.

Part of that prevention is acknowledging and naming the lethality signs around gender-based violence including non-State torture (NST).

NST is acts of torture perpetrated by individuals rather than the State. NST mainly targets women and children. It can happen within families, relationships, human trafficking, prostitution, pornographic exploitation, and by groups and gangs.

Non-State torturers employ the same dehumanizing acts as those used by State torturers like police, military, and governmental staff. Yet, unlike State torture, NST is not deemed a torture crime or criminalized in Canada. Instead, NST is characterized as aggravated assault and sexual assault with charges almost never being laid.

MacDonald and Jeanne Sarson are retired public health nurses from Truro, NS. For the past 30 years the pair have been researching NST, creating NST literacy, and helping women and girls living with, leaving and healing from it.

They created Persons Against non-State torture to increase awareness and have been called as expert witnesses to speak before the United Nations, Parliamentary committees and the NS Mass Casualty Commission (NSMCC).

Sarson and MacDonald say Canada lacks the political will to include NST in the criminal code because of the patriarchal divide which privileges and benefits men. Being male gives men more status, power and resources than women – even when it comes to their criminality.

MacDonald observes, “In the over 30 years of supporting women who were subjected to non-State torture, Jeanne Sarson and I have come to know that it is unrealistic to expect to rehabilitate men who inflict such brutality. Many men can change behaviour, but not these men.”

The final report from the NSMCC released in March 2023, was the culmination of an independent public inquiry created in response to the April 18 and 19, 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia that killed 22 people.

The report connected the mass casualty to IPV and coercive control. However, it failed to recognize the specific role that gender, race, and class bias played in the tragedy. Nor does it recognize the importance of NST in framing the perpetrator’s pattern of violence.

The report made 17 recommendations intended to bring about change and put an end to the epidemic of gender-based violence.

However, MacDonald maintains the final report has huge gaps because it did not recommend criminalizing femicide, NST or strangulation. Until these forms of gendered violence are included in the criminal code the epidemic remains invisibilized and no progress will be made.

MacDonald and Sarson wrote a very lengthy and detailed statement to the NSMCC commissioners explaining their disappointment with the final report. To date, they have not received a response from the commissioners.

Among their recommendations, Sarson and MacDonald called on the commission to ensure that patriarchy and misogyny be integrated into educational programs including the school system.

That systemic misogynistic violence be eliminated within the RCMP.

They called for expanded sexualized human trafficking education programs to include NST.

MacDonald and Sarson also want to ensure the Judges Act is adopted as Nova Scotia’s professional standard.

Amendments in the Criminal Code to the Judges Act came into Royal Assent on May 6, 2021, and is described by the Department of Justice Canada (2021) that:

In order to be eligible for appointment to a provincial superior court, candidates must agree to participate in continuing education on matters related to sexual assault law and social context, which includes systemic racism and systemic discrimination. Social context is influenced by such societal factors as gender, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, sexual orientation, differing mental or physical abilities, age, and socio-economic background, and familiarity with issues related to family violence and violence against children.

The amendments to the Criminal Code mean that judges are required to provide written reasons, or enter reasons into the record, when deciding sexual assault matters. This will increase transparency in these cases.

The Criminal Code prohibits all non-consensual sexual activity, provides a clear definition of consent, identifies when consent cannot be obtained, and sets out rules for the admissibility of certain types of evidence to deter the introduction of discriminatory myths and stereotypes about how survivors of sexual assault are expected to behave.

Sarson and MacDonald also recommended that it become common knowledge that animal cruelty and bestiality can be red flag warnings linked to men’s acts of gender-based, family, and intimate partner violence.

Research indicates that people who abuse animals are five times more likely to commit violent crimes against humans. School mass shooting killers often have histories of torturing and killing animals.

In fact, the mass casualty perpetrator killed and maimed pet dogs during his brutal rampage of femicides and homicides.

The NST activists would like to see promotion of human rights education at all structural and institutional levels to achieve and uphold the human rights equality of women and girls.

They also want Canada to champion interventions aimed at preventing and ending all forms of gender-based violence against women and girls.

MacDonald wants to know what value we as a society really place on the lives of women and girls, because while Boland’s abuser was under house arrest Boland was living a life of terror anticipating the fate that finally befell her.