The Ford government has again struck down a call to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic in Ontario on the same day it restarted a committee studying the topic, saying it is still serious about addressing gender-based violence.
Last year, the government backed an opposition bill that would have declared intimate partner violence an epidemic, but instead of passing it into law, it sent it to a committee tasked with hearing from survivors and advocates in the space.
Those committee hearings ran through last summer and saw almost 90 experts and witnesses.
Its findings were set to be reported back to the legislature in February before an early election call ended its work and stopped it in its tracks.
Before rising for the summer on Thursday, Progressive Conservative House Leader Steve Clark moved a motion to restart the committee where it had left off. The move was agreed.
Immediately after, the Ontario NDP repeated its call for unanimous consent to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic. Some shouts of “No” came from the government side of the house, blocking it from passing.
“This government has heard loud and clear from survivors and their families, law enforcement and 100 municipalities that they must immediately declare intimate partner violence an epidemic,” Ontario NDP MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam said in a statement Thursday.
“Today’s refusal again ignores those calls and puts survivors at risk. The house will rise for the summer, and today the Ford government chose to deny survivors the immediate resources they need to escape or recover from violence.”
Global News requested an interview with Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity Charmaine Williams on the subject. Her office responded to the request but did not agree to set one up.
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She has previously said she did not want to “rush” the declaration of an epidemic.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services listed a number of gender-based violence initiatives Ontario has either launched or signed up for.
“Ontario is addressing gender-based violence by enhancing cross-sector collaboration, increasing safety for women and children, and improving supports for survivors, their families, and perpetrators of gender-based violence,” they said.
“That is why we are investing more than $1.4 billion over the course of Ontario’s four-year action plan to end gender-based violence.”
In addition to the programs and funding initiatives they listed off, they said the committee would “continue its work” studying the issue.
“We look forward to working with all levels of government as well as sector stakeholders and Indigenous partners as we continue to build an Ontario that is free of gender-based violence and full of opportunity for all,” the spokesperson concluded
On the same day that the Ford government rejected a unanimous consent motion to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic, the New Brunswick government allowed one to pass. The Atlantic province passed the motion after discussions with labour leaders, among others.
The union Unifor said, in a statement, that the move was a welcome step.
“The accepted motion signals the government’s growing understanding, shared by the labour movement, community partners and frontline service providers, of the overwhelming need for funding, education and supports for those experiencing, fleeing and recovering from violence,” Unifor wrote.
The government in Nova Scotia has taken the same step.
New Brunswick recognizes gender-based violence as an epidemic
Back in Ontario, the province has been resisting the same call for some time.
In 2023, the province rejected calls from an inquest into the deaths of three women at the hands of their former partner to formally declare intimate partner violence an epidemic.
The jury at a coroner’s inquest into the 2015 deaths of Nathalie Warmerdam, Carol Culleton and Anastasia Kuzyk in Renfrew County recommended declaring the epidemic.
The province said at the time it would not declare intimate partner violence an epidemic because it was not an infectious or communicable disease.
–with files from The Canadian Press
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