KAGAWONG—Billings and Northeast Town councils are the first Island municipalities to call on the province to declare intimate partner violence (IPV) an epidemic, especially considering some startling statistics from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) for the Northeast Town.
Both municipalities heard correspondence from the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM), encouraging Northern Ontario municipalities to pass a motion of support in declaring IPV an epidemic.
Northeast Town Councillor Michael Erskine called for a recorded vote “so it’s clear just how universal our support for this is.”
Before the vote, Councillor Al Boyd, who is also chair of the Island’s Community Policing Advisory Committee, told council he is in full support of the motion and shared with council some statistics from the OPP’s recent report on billable hours to the municipality.
Year-to-date, as of October 2022, police were called to 30 calls for service for violent crimes, including assaults. In September 2023, by context, those year-to-date numbers were 60—a doubling. Councillor Boyd noted that 90 percent of those calls were domestic in nature.
In fact, the numbers were so troubling, he noted, that the OPP inspector brought it to his attention specifically.
In the recorded vote, all members of council voted in favour of supporting recommendation No. 1 of the Renfrew County Inquest—for the province of Ontario to formally declare IPV an epidemic.
In the Renfrew County Inquest, “the jury heard the Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam Inquest and issued 86 recommendations to prevent future deaths and delivered those recommendations to the province of Ontario on IPV. Recommendation No. 1 of the inquest was for Ontario to formally declare IPV an epidemic.”
The inquest noted that every six days in Canada a woman is killed by her intimate partner and this past year in Ontario, 62 women, or more than one every week, were victims of femicide. Gender-and-sexually-diverse Indigenous individuals are particularly at risk, being five times more likely than non-Indigenous gender-and-sexually-diverse individuals to experience intimate partner violence in their lifetimes. According to Statistics Canada, 80 percent of intimate partner violence goes unreported.
The motion further states that violence against women costs the national justice system, health care systems, social service agencies and municipalities nearly $10 billion per year and municipalities are on the front lines in addressing gender-based violence.
“In light of what happened recently in Sault Ste. Marie (the tragic murder of three young children and a 41-year-old woman along with the shooting of a 45-year-old woman), this declaration should have been made years ago,” stated Billings councillor Vince Grogan at a council meeting last week. “We need to put out a very strong stance as a township that this type of action is not tolerated behaviour here and that this needs to be declared an epidemic.”
“I fully support Councillor Grogan’s comments,” said Councillor Dave Hillyard. “There is a lot of talk about the need to provide mental health support and that a lot of these violent situations involve those who have mental health issues. Domestic violence affects everyone, not just the two in a partnership.”
Billings council passed a motion, “that the township of Billings hereby receives for information all items listed in section 9 and supports recommendation No. 1 of the Renfrew Country Inquest for the Province of Ontario to formally declare intimate partner violence an epidemic. And further directs staff to circulate as appropriate.”
Over 60 municipalities and regions across Ontario have declared a gender-based violence and/or intimate partner violence epidemic.
