Gender-based violence spikes five years after Nova Scotia mass shooting

The worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history began almost five years ago, shortly after a Nova Scotia man brutally assaulted his common-law wife.

The worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history began almost five years ago, shortly after a Nova Scotia man brutally assaulted his common-law wife.

Lisa Banfield was kicked, punched and choked by her partner of 19 years on the night of April 18, 2020. She was left with fractured ribs and vertebrae but managed to escape. Over the next 13 hours, Gabriel Wortman fatally shot 22 people in rural Nova Scotia before two Mounties shot him dead at a gas station north of Halifax.

In March 2023, an inquiry into the murders issued 130 recommendations aimed at preventing a similar tragedy, including more than a dozen that called on governments to do more to end “an epidemic” of gender-based violence. But as the anniversary of the killings approaches, people working in the field say not enough is being done to implement those recommendations.

“There is still a lot of work to do,” said Kristina Fifield, a trauma therapist who works with survivors of intimate-partner violence and is a member of the committee monitoring how governments and the RCMP are responding to the inquiry’s recommendations.

Since the inquiry published its report, there has been more discussion of gender-based violence and governments have committed more money, she said. “But day-to-day, in our work with survivors, we’re continuing to hear about the violence, the injustices, the failures and the betrayals of the system … I would say not much has changed.”

In the past six months, police in Nova Scotia have reported a disturbing spike in the number of deaths resulting from intimate partner violence. Since Oct. 18, seven women in Nova Scotia have been murdered by their intimate partners, and the father of one victim was also killed.

Data from Nova Scotia RCMP, Halifax Regional Police and Cape Breton Regional Police show that the number of intimate-partner violence homicides in the province last year was three times the average in the nine preceding years.

“I am highly concerned about this spike, but not surprised,” Fifield said, adding that as a trauma therapist she’s seeing an increase in gender-based violence, including more instances of coercive control and injuries from strangulation and suffocation.