Responses to Renfrew County murder inquest due this week

The Ontario and federal governments were asked last summer to begin mulling 86 recommendations forhow to prevent the deaths of victims of intimate partner violence (IPV).

This week, advocates are hopeful they'll learn which ideas the governments will act upon and which they'll opt not to.

The recommendations stemfrom acoroner's inquest that wrapped in Pembroke, Ont., last June.

The nearly month-long inquest examined the 2015 murders of three women in and around Renfrew County Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam using the tragedy as aspringboard to combatIPVin that region and beyond.

Culleton, Kuzyk and Warmerdam were murdered on the same day by the same man,despite red flags about his potential to inflict further harm.

Over 14 days of evidence, jurors heard abouteverything from underfundedsurvivor servicesto missed opportunities by Ontario's probation and parole servicefollowing the man's prior IPV convictions involving two of the women he eventually murdered.

In response, the jurors suggested the provincial and federal governments adopt a wide range of preventative measuresincluding:

• Tighter monitoring of high-risk perpetrators of IPV,including prioritizingregular contact with offenders'previous victims.
• Asking the province to explore the idea of making people charged or convicted of IPV wear electronic bracelets.
• Improved collaboration between corrections and probationstaff when planning an abuser's rehabilitation upon release.
• Bettertreatment for abusers before they'reever charged or enter the criminal justice system.
• Education programs for students in primary school and above about the signs of gender-based violence, including subtler non-physical forms of abuse known as coercive control.
• Increased funding for shelters, sexual assault centres and other organizations that help survivors.
• DeclaringIPV an epidemic, which neighbouring Lanark County has already done. Renfrew County is preparing to do the same this spring.

The full list can be read here or at the bottom of thisstory.The recommendations are not binding.

Informal deadline this Friday

Ontario the group to whichthe vast majority of the Renfrew County inquest recommendations were directed alongsidethe federal government, theInformation and Privacy Commissioner of Ontarioand theChief Firearms Officer of Ontario are not legally required to respond to the inquest jury's recommendations.

But the Office of the Chief Coroner, which hosts inquests,does ask groups to share within six months which recommendations they're acting uponand to provide a rationale for any recommendations they don't adopt.

The Renfrew County inquest jury read out its recommendations on June 28, but the recommendations were not formally delivered to all groups until August. That meansthe six-month informal deadline to respond is this Friday.

"We're optimistic and preparing to have something to look at sometime this week," said lawyer Kirsten Mercer, who represented End Violence Against Women Renfrew County during the inquest.

As of Monday afternoon, no group had provided a response to the coroner's office.

Committee needed 'immediately'

The inquest jury also called on the provincial government to "immediately" launch arecommendation implementation committee that would apply some pressure on the governments.

Advocateschampioned that ideaat the outset of the inquest. As of Monday, however, there were no signs the province had acted on that recommendation a disappointment to Mercer.

"Every day that goes by concerns me," she said. "In Renfrew County there hasbeen more than one femicide in the time since [the inquest]."

Memorials for two women killed in the county since last June were held on Saturday.

The jury wanted the provincial implementation committee to be composed of senior government officials with ministries central to IPV, plus a matching number of "community IPVexperts."

Peter Emon, the warden for Renfrew County, said he hasn't seen any signs of movement on the implementation committee either.

He said the county council might resort to a local resolution this spring to spark action by the province.

"We'd also want to ensure that kind of an oversight body has local representation because we really think the uniqueness of rural Ontario should be reflected," he said.

CBChas reached out to the province for comment but has not received a response.