(Toronto) Toronto City Council said on Thursday that gender-based violence and intimate partner violence were an epidemic in the city, while calling on Ontario and the federal government to do the same.
The declaration, resulting from a motion by incoming Mayor Olivia Chow, comes just weeks after the province refused to do the same.
Mme Chow, who was elected in a by-election last month, has spoken publicly about the abuse her mother suffered at the hands of her father and how her mother was able to rebuild her life with help that is not always available, including for safe and affordable housing.
“Because I had a basement apartment, even though there was just a mattress and a bed, we were able to share the mattress, she was able to live with me, which started her new life. Many women and their children are trapped because they cannot afford to move,” said Mr.me Chow at a board meeting on Thursday.
We need to give hope to women and children who are currently experiencing violence, and one way to give hope is to say that you can recover,” she added.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow
The motion of M.me Chow, which passed without opposition, also urged other levels of government to adopt recommendations from an inquest into the deaths of three Ontario women at the hands of their former partners.
The jury at a coroner’s inquest into the 2015 deaths of Nathalie Warmerdam, Carol Culleton and Anastasia Kuzyk in Renfrew County, Ont., made 86 recommendations more than a year ago aimed at preventing similar tragedies.
Most of the inquest’s recommendations — including that intimate partner violence be officially declared an epidemic — were aimed at the provincial government.
Ontario said in late June it would not make such a statement because intimate partner violence is not an infectious or communicable disease. The provincial government has also refused to establish a commission on intimate partner violence and create the role of survivor advocates, as recommended by the inquest jury, because it would duplicate existing systems.
But he said he was working on or had agreed to many other recommendations, including one to explore ways to let people know if their partner has a history of domestic violence.
Shedding light on a phenomenon
Proponents have pointed out that an outbreak declaration, while largely symbolic, uses a public health framework to help survivors and draw attention to the problem as a sociological phenomenon.
Toronto joins 30 other Ontario municipalities that have made their own declarations of domestic violence as an epidemic, including Ottawa, Peel Region, Halton Region and Renfrew County.
According to Statistics Canada, 90 homicide victims were killed in 2021 by an intimate partner – three-quarters of whom were women and girls – compared to 84 victims in 2020 and 77 victims in 2019.
Toronto’s statement on Thursday also advocates adding the term femicide to the Criminal Code, reflecting one of the inquiry’s recommendations to the federal government.
Femicide is defined as “the killing of one or more women, primarily by men, because they are women,” according to the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability.
Ottawa had not responded to the coroner’s office by the end of June.
The Toronto motion also calls on the provincial and federal governments to provide the support needed to effectively address intimate partner violence.
In addition, the City will seek advice from Toronto’s Chief Medical Officer, Indigenous Affairs Office, police and community organizations on the best ways to act on the declaration and invest in related programs and services.