In Canada, intimate partner violence (IPV) is an epidemic. Approximately 44 per cent of women who have been in an intimate relationship – or about 6.2 million women aged 15 and older – have reported experiencing some form of psychological, physical or sexual abuse in a relationship at some point in their lives.
IPV victimization has severe ramifications, including negative effects on health, economic consequences for the victim as well as on societal institutions such as the health-care and legal systems. It also has an impact on children who are exposed to the violence.
The explicit understanding that IPV must be deemed an epidemic follows in part from a 2022 inquest into a triple femicide near Ottawa in 2015 that left Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam dead at the hands of a man with a long history of intimate partner violence.
One of the inquest’s 86 recommendations called for “all levels of government in Canada declare gender-based, intimate partner and family violence to be an epidemic that warrants a meaningful and sustained society-wide response.”
The situation in Ontario
In some municipalities in Ontario, this recommendation is being taken seriously. To date, 95 municipalities in the province have recognized intimate partner violence as an epidemic. Other provinces in Canada are taking similar steps – Nova Scotia, in fact, recently adopted a bill to declare IPV an epidemic.
Yet the Ontario government seems resistant to officially do so.
In October 2024, Conservative members of Ontario’s legislature opposed a proposal to fast-track Bill 173 – the Intimate Partner Violence Epidemic Act, 2024 – to the third-reading stage.
Bill 173 seeks to recognize IPV as an epidemic, increase public awareness about IPV, boost prevention efforts and provide support to survivors. The decision not to fast-track the bill has been described by Lisa Gretzky, Bill 173 co-sponsor and an NDP member of the provincial legislature, as “shameful.”
Why it matters
There are serious potential consequences stemming from the Ontario government’s refusal to to declare IPV an epidemic. Here are three:
1. Femicide – Gender-based murders of women and girls often represent a lethal culmination of gender-based violence, usually following prior experiences of physical, sexual or emotional IPV. According to the Canadian Observatory for Justice and Accountability, 155 girls and women have been killed so far in 2024, four more than at this point in 2023. If IPV is not declared an epidemic in Ontario, the factors sustaining IPV and femicide – including a lack of urgency in addressing IPV and underfunded, fragmented responses among social services – will persist, likely leading to continued or increased rates of femicide.
2. Stigma and misconceptions about IPV survivors – IPV survivors may feel isolated in their experiences and encounter judgment and blame from others who might hold them responsible for “choosing” to remain in abusive relationships, or be asked why they don’t “just leave,” resulting in feelings of shame and self-blame. If IPV is not framed as an epidemic in Ontario, it could perpetuate perceptions of IPV as a “private matter” occurring between individuals, resulting in a lack of public awareness about the reality and complexities of the issue. That could dissuade IPV survivors from speaking out about the violence they are experiencing and seeking help.
3. Funding for social services and supports – If IPV is designated as an epidemic and the need to address IPV urgently is acknowledged, it could result in more funding and resources being directed towards multi-agency services to support IPV survivors. Without this designation, however, existing, insufficient funding – currently directed towards social supports such as women’s shelters, crisis intervention, legal services and counselling services – will persist, ultimately failing to adequately support survivors. Women’s shelters in Canada are already severely underfunded and often over capacity. They often cannot accommodate the number of women who require their services or support, and women and children are being turned away.
Lives at stake
If IPV is not officially recognized as an epidemic in Ontario, it will be more difficult to break the barriers that prevent IPV from being effectively and comprehensively addressed.
Ultimately, failing to deem IPV an epidemic will permit the conditions that sustain IPV and femicide to persist – and likely worsen.
Ontario must follow Nova Scotia’s lead in declaring IPV an epidemic and pass Bill 173 as soon as possible. The health, safety and lives of women and children are at stake.
Eden Hoffer, PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies & Faculty of Health Sciences, Western University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
