16 days of action to eliminate violence against women
Follow us on Twitter for the next 16 days as we focus on key action to eliminate violence against women. The theme this year is “UNITE! To end violence against women and girls by 2030”.
We’ll be focused on calling for the implementation of 16 key recommendations from the recent CKW Inquest. Join us in calling for action by checking out our toolkit, developed for both organizations and individuals.
Day 1
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most common form of violence against women in the world, with nearly 1 in 3 women ages 15 or older experiencing physical or sexual IPV. It occurs in all settings, amongst all socioeconomic, religious and cultural groups. A recent Statistics Canada Report revealed the 5th consecutive year of gradual increase in rates of IPV.
Implementing this recommendation would cost absolutely nothing, but would have a big impact. Declaring IPV to be an epidemic would challenge the notion that it is a private matter and situate it properly in the health and, hopefully, the public health realm. Such a definition would also make the extent of the problem – and the fact that it is not going away – clear and explicit. It would reduce the attitudes that blame the victim for what has been done to her, which could be validating for survivors.
Day Two
The legal systems women are engaged with when they leave an abuser are complicated. Systems often do not communicate or share information with one another, and decisions and orders made in one may conflict with decisions and orders made in the other. Any survivor, but especially those dealing with trauma, can feel overwhelmed by the complexity, lack of clarity and the many decisions they have to make.
A survivor advocate would provide system navigation and could advocate with systems when requested to do so by a survivor, thus reducing her trauma, by making the process smoother. This could lead to better outcomes.
Day Three
Recommendation five calls for the creation of a provincial implementation committee to ensure the recommendations from this inquest are comprehensively considered.
Currently, inquest recommendations are non-binding and there is no external oversight of implementation. An implementation committee consisting of an equal number of senior members of relevant government ministries and community IPV experts, chaired by an independent IPV expert with the freedom to speak publicly about progress made or not made would create much-needed transparency and accountability, which would then encourage comprehensive consideration and potential implementation of recommendations.
Day Four
Recommnedation 7 calls for addressing IPV issues using an all-of-government approach.
There is no quick or simple solution to IPV. The only effective way to address and eradicate it is to use a multi-pronged approach. Within government, this includes ensuring that all relevant ministries are involved and that efforts are coordinated and information shared across those ministries and with federal, provincial and territorial government partners.
Day Five
The Safer Ontario Act 2021 requires municipalities to create plans that address social risks leading to crime and having a negative impact on the well-being of community members. Finding ways to raise awareness about IPV and integrated, coordinated community-based responses to it would reduce risks and create an increased sense of safety and well-being for those victimized by IPV as well as for the entire community.
Day Six
Accurate and current information about the terms of a perpetrator’s probation is essential for survivor safety planning. Survivors and those assisting them need to be able to get answers from the perpetrator’s probation officer quickly when they have questions, information about breaches or other concerns, and probation officers need to reach out to survivors in a timely manner with information about changes to the perpetrator’s situation, such as a change of address, revised terms of probation or breaches.
Day Seven
While Ontario has had a number of public education campaigns about IPV, few have focused on rural communities. It’s time for a campaign to raise public awareness in these parts of the province so people know what common risk factors and warning signs are and where help can be found, as well as what they can do when they become aware of a situation of IPV.
Day Eight
IPV survivors deserve to encounter justice system professionals who are well informed and educated about intimate partner violence. This includes police, lawyers, Crown Attorneys and judges. Existing training should be updated and enhanced, and consideration should be given to mandatory ongoing professional development within the justice system to ensure that there are IPV specialists wherever a survivor might turn for assistance.
Day Nine
Different situations require different risk assessment tools; however, it is important for those working within the justice system and those working in the community to understand and share a common framework within which they use those different tools so that the information gathered can be used across sectors. That framework needs to centre survivor safety and autonomy. The best way to create shared understandings is through a co-training model.
Day Ten
Information is critical for effective safety planning. Often, the initial warning signs of IPV are difficult to detect and, by the time a woman realizes she is in an unsafe situation, it is difficult for her to get out. Intimate partner violence disclosure protocols – already implemented in three other provinces – allow potential victims to ask for and receive information about a partner’s IPV history and permit police to release this information on their own initiative. Ontario should consider the best approach to developing such a protocol.
Day Eleven
Recommendation 54 calls for the development of an IPV-focused support model for survivors in criminal court, similar to the Ontario Family Court Support Worker (FCSW) program. Over the past decade, the FCSW program has provided invaluable assistance to IPV survivors involved with family court by providing safety planning, system navigation support, accompaniment, help with gathering evidence and referrals to other services. Such assistance, coupled with the services already provided by V/WAP, would be of significant value to survivors who are engaged in the criminal process.
Day Twelve
Since the implementation of mandatory charging policies in Canada 40 years ago, we have seen how problematic they can be for women, who may call the police for assistance but with no intention that their partner be charged. It is time for a review of these policies that explores the unintended negative consequences as well as their effectiveness and considers alternate approaches to ensuring that police response to domestic violence calls is appropriate and survivor-centred.
Day Thirteen
Those working in different sectors do not always agree about what information they can share with one another about IPV victims and perpetrators. This is partly because privacy issues are covered under different pieces of legislation that approach the topic from different perspectives and partly because different service providers have different mandates and internal policies. A plain language guide that clearly sets out what information can be shared, when and with whom, would enhance appropriate information sharing and effective safety planning for survivors and the public.
Day Fourteen
Explicitly naming femicide, either as a separate offence or as a form of homicide, would more clearly name the reality of this gender-based form of homicide. It would also facilitate data collection, which would support more effective analysis and system change intended to reduce the rate of femicide. This recommendation could be considered in conjunction with the recommendation to add femicide to the categories of manner of death in inquest verdicts (recommendation 77).
Day Fifteen
Making coercive control a criminal offence would help some women whose partners engage in non-physical forms of IPV. However, it also poses some potential challenges in terms of how it would be defined, what kinds of evidence would be required to support a successful prosecution and possible misuse against women. Careful study is needed before any decisions are made to add coercive control to the Criminal Code.
Day Sixteen
A gathering of the parties, jury and other interested individuals in June 2023 should encourage those with responsibility for implementing the recommendations to take action in a timely and meaningful manner, knowing a public discussion of the progress that has been made (or not made) is planned.
