An open letter from 150 organizations urging for the passing of Bill 173

Led by the YWCA Toronto, Luke’s Place has joined 148 other organizations urging the Ontario government to Pass 173, The Intimate Partner Violence Epidemic Act, 2024: Dear Premier Ford and Members of the Ontario Legislature, Today marks the 35th anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique Massacre which saw a man deliberately kill 14 women. Not much…

Read more

Voices of Change: Our current priorities 

Our team advocates for women and their children leaving violence every single day. It is central to our work that we:  For our frontline staff, this often involves direct advocacy within specific systems. Some examples of this include helping a woman getting a certificate with Legal Aid Ontario (LAO), supporting a woman to effectively communicate…

Read more

Pamela Cross confronts the epidemic of intimate partner violence

Pamela Cross recently launched her book And Sometimes They Kill You, on November 26th. In the two weeks since then, Pam has completed 14 events in 14 communities across the province. The Walrus recently published an article about Pam and her book And Sometimes They Kill You. What makes this particularly notable is that the…

Read more

Standing Against Violence Together: What YOU can do

Every year, from November 25 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) to December 10 (Human Rights Day), the world observes the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (GBV). This global campaign, first led by the United Nations, aims to raise awareness and take action toward eliminating all forms of gender-based violence.…

Read more

Tighter bail restrictions are not the solution we are looking for

On Monday, October 28th, the provincial government issued a press release urgently calling on the federal government to amend the Criminal Code to tighten bail provisions for public safety and to close what they deem the “revolving door of justice”. Among their calls for change is the complete removal of bail availability in situations where the…

Read more

Legislation as a Result of Survivor Advocacy

Survivors have the power to create legal change – but should we have to? As September unfolds, and many of us and/or our children have returned to school, we want to remind judges that they, too, need to continue their education. Judicial education is often thought of in tandem with Keira’s Law. Next week, we…

Read more

Back to school for judges!

As students across the province return to the classroom this week, we cannot help but think about how important it is for judges to do the same when it comes to learning about intimate partner violence (IPV). It’s been over a year since Keira’s Law was enacted and we do not seem to be any…

Read more

It’s time to address intimate partner violence in Ontario

We are deeply concerned by the number of femicides and acts of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women this year. Recent acts of violence include the femicides of: Ontario is on track for more femicides this year than last. Here are some more facts: What more do we need to know before IPV is declared…

Read more