EDITOR’S NOTE: Colleen Hill is the new executive director of Mindemoya-based Manitoulin Family Resources, the operator of Haven House women’s shelter. November is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a period designed to unite domestic violence victims. It is essential to remember that domestic violence affects millions of people; moreover, it’s not just women who are impacted by this scourge, although it is most often women who are the victims.
If you or someone you know is living with IPV, please contact the Manitoulin Family Resources’ 24-hour crisis line at 705-377-5160 or
toll-free at 1-800-465-6788. If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
by Colleen Hill
Executive Director, Manitoulin Family Resources
Author’s warning: Femicide and violence against women and children is mentioned in the article.
On October 23, 2023, in Sault Ste. Marie, a woman and three children where murdered by a man they all knew. Their deaths were preventable. Changes are desperately needed if we are to save the lives of women and children. It takes the support of the entire community to end violence against women.
Manitoulin Family Resources’ Violence Against Women Program serves over 500 women and children each year through our safe emergency shelter, outreach counselling and 24-hour support and crisis line. We support individuals and families living on Manitoulin Island, Espanola and the North Shore.
We know that the rates of intimate partner violence (IPV), including femicide, rose dramatically in the early months of the pandemic and have not decreased. To date there have been 50 femicides in Ontario in 2023. Indigenous, Black, 2SLGBTQ+ women, girls, gender diverse individuals and women living with disabilities are at an increased risk of experiencing violence because of systemic barriers and system failures.
In June 2022, the Renfrew County Inquest took place (the inquest into the 2015 murders of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Natalie Warmerdam by a man each had been involved with) and resulted in 86 recommendations for systemic changes. These recommendations are far-reaching and creative. The first one calls for the government of Ontario to declare IPV an epidemic. The Ontario government has yet to implement this recommendation, however over 60 Ontario municipalities have. Implementation of this recommendation would send a clear message that IPV is a serious social and public health issue. It would create a new lens through which policy, program and service decisions could be made. It would validate the realities of tens of thousands of women who have been or are being victimized by an abusive partner.
Our shelter sees firsthand every day the impact of intimate partner violence on woman and children in this community. We believe that declaring intimate partner violence an epidemic could make a positive difference for everyone living in our community.
We need to act now and we need to act together. This must be a wholistic approach including individuals, community partners, municipal, provincial, and federal governments all working together to build safer communities.
November is Women Abuse Prevention Month, please join us in this work.
