Groups call on Thunder Bay City Council to declare gender-based violence an epidemic
CBC
Anti-violence groups in Thunder Bay are calling on city council to declare gender-based violence an epidemic in the city.
If it does so, the city would join a growing number of municipalities, including Toronto, that have made the declaration in recent months.
"It's a symbolic measure," said Gwen O'Reilly, executive director of the Northwestern Ontario Women's Centre and board member with the Thunder Bay and District Coordinating Committee to End Woman Abuse (TBDCCEWA).
"It doesn't cost anybody any money," she said. "But we also know that the World Health Organization, during COVID, declared violence against women as [a] shadow pandemic because it was occurring in such large numbers."
A media release issued by the Women's Centre, Beendigen, and TBDCCEWA states that in 2022, Thunder Bay police reported 2,300 incidents of intimate partner violence, with 703 charges against 267 individuals.
"We as an organization, the Women's Centre, have been doing court watch work for a number of years," O'Reilly said. "We've also sat at the coordinating committee table for many years."
"In all of these observations and discussions we have seen this growing trend of not only increasing incidents of violence against women, including intimate partner violence and sexual assault, but also insufficient response."
"There isn't a lot of accountability for perpetrators. There are few options for women to escape. And the violence doesn't end when women leave, it often gets worse."
The problem is very pronounced in Thunder Bay, with StatsCan numbers showing the city has one of the highest rates of intimate partner violence per capita in the country.
Thunder Bay declaring the issue a pandemic would help send a message to the province that more action is needed.
O'Reilly said an inquest following the 2015 murders of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk, and Nathalie Warmerdam — all of whom were killed by a man they each had a past relationship with — led to 86 recommendations to help stop intimate partner violence.
They include things like education for judges and police, and funding to help survivors escape abusive relationships.
"Especially what we see in our work is this need for a universal information system and a high level of acknowledgement and systemic advocacy and collaboration and communication among agencies who respond to this," O'Reilly said.
"Because there are so many rules about privacy, confidentiality and disclosure that prevent us from sharing information, especially when there's a criminal case happening. And sometimes that's information we need to provide safety for a woman, and often that is information that should not be shared with that perpetrator."