Significant moment in fight against domestic violence after inquest recommendations: advocate

One week after a jury called on the province to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic, service providers are reinforcing calls to action, hoping the dozens of critical recommendations put forward will be implemented by governments and ultimately save lives.

The 86 inquest recommendations released by the jury in Renfrew County include declaring intimate partner violence an epidemic and establishing an independent commission to eradicate it.

Nathalie Warmerdam, Carol Culleton and Anastasia Kuzyk were killed on their properties on September 22, 2015, by Basil Borutski – a man they were in previous relationships with and who had a known history of violence against women.

The Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services says it is now “taking the time to review and properly consider these important recommendations.”

“We’ve seen a bit of this downward-upward number of femicides occurring as changes occur with the COVID-19 openings, closings, changes to restrictions,” said Marlene Ham, the Executive Director of Ontario Association of Interval & Transition Houses (OAITH).

“So it is something that we’re monitoring closely and trying to pay attention to because we also know that when women are leaving, making plans to leave this, this is where some high-risk factors kind of come into play.”

Ham said a recent trend had shown many victims of femicide, those who have been charged, are former partners of the victim, highlighting how dangerous it is to leave.

“Connecting women with experts in violence against women shelters, who can work with survivors making plans to leave,” explained Ham. “Because when that doesn’t happen, when survivors aren’t connected to services, it can put them in grave danger.”

Of the six femicides that occurred in June of 2022, OAITH says three of the suspects charged had a history of violence against women, and two were former partners.

There were 58 femicides from November 2020 to November 2021 in Ontario, compared to 37 between November 2019 and November 2020. So far in 2022 there have been 23 as of June 30.

Dr. Tina Meisami, a local oral and maxillofacial surgeon who works with domestic violence victims, said that anytime there are external stressors, they see an increase in incidences of intimate partner violence.

“This was a situation that worldwide put, particularly women, in isolation with their aggressors and abusers with an inability to reach out to people who could support them, or shelters or help lines that could tend to their needs and rescue them,” said Dr. Meisami.

She said they refer to it as the “shadow pandemic.”

“We dealt with this worldwide phenomenon of dealing with a disease that was so new to all of us [but] we also saw the mirroring effect of that inside the homes where many individuals were stuck without rescue.”

“Domestic violence does not recognize any bias in race or religion, cultural background, or even socioeconomic status. So it crosses all those boundaries,” added Dr. Meisami.

“We have a very diverse group of women that come to us for care. What’s consistent amongst our patients is that they all come from the shelter systems, and initially in the GTA, but now more recently across Ontario,” explained Dr. Meisami, highlighting the need for social services like domestic violence shelters.

The Ontario government said between 2021 and 2022, around 14,000 women and dependents accessed family and intimate partner violence supports and services in Toronto alone. They expect that number to increase as the final reports for 2021 and 2022 have not all been received.

Ham said not only will the implementation of the jury recommendations be crucial but making sure they are correctly implemented.

“There have been many great recommendations over the past 30 years that have come forward, but the issue, of course, is setting up the processes and the structures to ensure that those get implemented, they’re evaluated, they’re monitored, you know, we assess how are they working, how are they not working? How can we do better?”

Dr. Meisami said what is critical in fighting gender-based violence is eliminating the stigma.

“The more we discuss it, the more we normalize that these conversations and eliminate the shame and the guilt that’s associated with it, the more we can draw attention to it and hopefully come up with more ways to help these women and to contribute to their healing and recovery process.”

“We know what those solutions are. We need to come together to make those happen and move forward with them. Because we can’t continue on this trajectory, it’s a very dangerous one,” said Ham.

Ham added it’s a significant moment to be addressing intimate partner violence.

“We must understand the significance of the moment that we’re in right now, as a province, not only through the completion of the inquest and all of the recommendations that have come forth but with the number of homicides that have occurred and all of the different range of services that are working towards ending gender-based violence.”