Get to work, women's advocates urge after partner violence bill passes 2nd reading

As the Ontario government promised earlier in the day, an NDP private member'sbill to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic passed second reading at the legislature Wednesday evening without a fight.

Some might ask why the bill is important, givennearly 100 municipalities have declared this form of violenceto be an epidemicon their ownin the past 10 months.

There are some days wheneven Erin Lee, the executive director of a rural eastern Ontario shelter for abused women and children, wonders about it.

ThenLee remembers that it was the first of 86 recommendationsin a recent inquest into this form of violence,made by a jury of regular citizens who heard weeks of evidence. The Progressive Conservatives and their majority at Queen's Park had resisted the declaration until this week.

For people still dealing with abuse, the message that the government is seeing, hearing and validating them is meaningful, Lee said.

"If we don't see itand we don't name it, it's very hard for us to change it. And if we don't start doing something to change it, we will continue to see the numbers of femicides in Ontario [go up]," Lee said in an interview outside Queen's Park yesterday.

Kirsten Mercer, a Toronto lawyer and feminist advocate who took part in the 2022 inquest, calls it a move worth celebrating.

"The diagnosis [of the problem] is not going to get us where we need to go, but it is a necessary step on the journey to eliminate intimate partner violenceand gender-based violence in this province," she said.

Pamela Cross, another advocate who also took part in the inquest, wrote in an email that Premier Doug Ford and his government are to be commendedand that work is needed to ensure the province's pivothas teeth.

Charmaine Williams, Ontario'sassociate minister ofwomen's social and economic opportunities, wrote in a statement that the Ford government is "focused on actions that deliver concrete and tangible results to prevent violence before it happens" and that "perpetrators responsible for these horrible crimes are held accountablethrough the justice system."

The bill will now go tocommittee.

When makingthe announcement Wednesday, House LeaderPaul Calandra saidFord asked for advice from the standing committee on justice about doing an "in-depth study" on intimate partner violence, one that would examineroot causes, programs that are currently availableand potential improvements.

Neither Lee nor Kristyn Wong-Tam, the Toronto Centre NDP MPP who put forward the bill,believe that's necessary, sincethe inquest's recommendations are on top of those made by the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee and other inquests over many years.

"It could really go into a black hole that will take months if not years for it to ever come back," Wong-Tamsaid.

Still, if the committee processwill allow civilians, experts and professionals to explain on-the-ground realities to government, "we'll take that opportunity gladly,"Lee said.

'We know a lot of the answers already'

Mercer said she'salso ready to support the justice committee's work.

Committees can sometimes get bogged down in partisanship and leave communityexperts in the lurch, she added. She'shoping the provincecan start implementing changes at the same time as the work unfolds.

"I think what we'regoing to hear is that we know a lot of the answers already," Mercer said,"and so let's not spend a lot of time rehashing things that we've already learned. Let's put that into practice right away."

Lee and Mercer agreethe wayto start is by implementing the rest of the inquest's top five recommendations.

Those include establishingan ombudsman-likecommissioner on intimate partner violence, engaging in meaningful consultation with experts and stakeholders, and creating animplementation committee andadvocate for survivors.

Ottawa Morning8:24Bill declaring intimate partner violence epidemic in Ontario moving through Queen's Park

It comes more than a year after a coroners inquest into the 2015 triple homicide in Renfrew County, which listed the declaration as its first recommendation.