Ford says he has 'zero tolerance' for intimate partner violence, but not yet declaring it epidemic
CBC
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he has "zero tolerance" for intimate partner violence, but stopped short of saying his government would push through an opposition bill to declare it a provincewide epidemic.
"We're 100 per cent behind making sure there is zero violence against women," Ford told reporters at an unrelated news conference in Burlington, Ont.
"I have four daughters. And if anyone ever touched my daughters, that would be the worst day of their lives. It's unacceptable. I have zero tolerance for any sort of violence against women or anyone in that fact."
NDP MPs once again called on the province to declare intimate partner violence (IPV) an epidemic on Monday, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the government should have passed Bill 173, the Intimate Partner Violence Epidemic Act, in April this year and accused the province of stalling on the issue.
Ford did not say why the province hasn't done so yet.
Stiles calling IPV an epidemic means treating it as a public health crisis and devoting resources to fighting it. Resources mean supporting the courts and ensuring there is space for women at shelters, she said.
Naming IPV an epidemic was the top recommendation of a coroner's inquest two years ago into the deaths of three women in Renfrew County in 2015, she added.
"We have the evidence. We have the reports," she said
Bill 173 passed second reading on April 10, before being referred to the standing committee on justice policy. On the first day of the fall session this year, a motion to pass the bill was struck down, according to the NDP.
Stiles told reporters at Queen's Park that Ford should be thinking of the issue not just in terms of his family, but in terms of the province as a whole.
"He is not just a father, he's the premier of this province. He has a responsibility to everybody in this province," Stiles said.
Stiles said the government has enough information to pass the bill without committee hearings and that it's offensive that the government will not pass the bill quickly. Stiles added the government is stalling because it doesn't want to spend the money.
"It's outrageous that this government will not take this simple, straightforward step... Enough talk. Let's take action."
At a news conference on Monday morning, the Ontario NDP brought in representatives from more than a dozen legal clinics that support the move to declare IPV an epidemic. One representative of a legal clinic said naming partner violence an epidemic would help in court cases, such as in custody battles.
The province is looking to eliminate time limits for victims of intimate partner violence seeking civil justice.
A former Quebec junior hockey player sentenced to prison last year for sexual assault will get a new trial.
People who use the Indigenous-led overnight shelter on the edge of downtown Winnipeg are weighing their next steps after learning the facility is set to shut down, but Manitoba's premier says nobody will get left behind.
An 81-year-old man from Prince County has died after a single-vehicle crash on Route 14 near Christopher Cross, police say.
The B.C. government has raised the ceiling to $75,000 for potential damages over intimate-image abuse.
A man was found dead inside a house on Elm Street in Niagara Falls after it caught fire on Wednesday night, police say.
It’s been eight days since Suncor’s Sarnia refinery reported an oil spill into the St. Clair River, and it remains unclear what caused the pipeline leak, how much got into the water — and where cleanup efforts are at.
A joint operation involving Edmonton police has led to the deportation of two men, over what police say is a wave of extortions targeting the city's South Asian community.
Red Lake is hoping a petition will help it land federal funding for a new arena.
An N.W.T. MLA says the territory needs to fiercely protect treaty rights and territorial waters, amid Alberta’s merger of two major river basins, and the proposed treatment and release of oilsands tailings into the environment.
The Supreme Court of Canada will hear arguments against the Liberal government's deeply controversial decision to outlaw certain firearms.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is rejecting Opposition accusations of entitlement for using a private jet last fall courtesy of the Saudi government.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s department of Transportation and Infrastructure is promising policy changes after a Conception Bay South family spoke out about the expropriation and resale of the land where their home once stood.