Hamilton declares intimate partner violence an epidemic, joining other Ontario municipalities

There's an epidemic of intimate partner and domestic partner violence in Hamilton, city council has unanimously declared.

At a council meeting Friday, Hamilton joined the growing list of at least 30 other Ontario municipalities in declaring an intimate partner violence (IPV) and domestic violence (DV) epidemic.

The declaration comes after the province rejected a similar move in late June, despite it being recommended after an inquest into the 2015 murders of three women in and around Renfrew County near Ottawa.

The motion for Hamilton to do so was raised at the Aug. 14 general issues committee meeting, where members of the Woman Abuse Working Group (WAWG) presented statistics on IPV and DV in Hamilton and said they hoped a declaration would prompt further action.

Hamilton police received 12,514 domestic violence or intimate partner violence calls in 2022, while non-police violence against women (VAW) crisis support lines in the city received 7,660 calls, according to WAWG project coordinator Thea Symonds.

"Thousands of our neighbours across the city, including in rural areas, are experiencing gender-based and intimate partner violence on a monthly basis in Hamilton," Coun. Nrinder Nann said last week.

WAWG is made up of 22 community organizations that support survivors of gender-based violence, including Inasmuch House and the Sexual Assault Centre of Hamilton and Area (SACHA). 

Erin Griver, director of Inasmuch House, and Jessica Bonilla-Damptey, executive director of SACHA, both spoke at the committee meeting, along with Symonds. 

Symonds told council that Hamilton's VAW shelters turned away 4,498 women in 2022. This number does not account for the amount of children who were also turned away, Griver said. 

"Where do you go when a shelter is full?" Bonilla-Damptey asked the committee.

No increase in funding in 15 years: Inasmuch House director

The answer, Griver told the committee, is that most women will stay with their abusers if there is no shelter space. 

And women trying to access counselling supports through SACHA are put on a six month waitlist. 

Lisa Colbert, a domestic violence survivor and member of WAWG, told the committee VAW service workers are faced with "moral injury" when they are forced to turn women away, deny them service or "pick and choose whose trauma is most important." 

Ward 9 Coun. Brad Clark asked Griver if statistics about Hamilton's overburdened shelters had been shared with Queen's Park.

Griver answered that all VAW shelters are provincially funded and are mandated to report their statistics to the province. 

"I've been working for a VAW, provincially funded organization for 30 years and we have not received an increase [in funding] in over 15 years," she said. 

Rural women face isolation, lack of transportation 

Liza Ritchie, community program manager for women's domestic violence shelter Interval House in Hamilton, said at a July press conference that women living in rural areas experience intimate partner violence at a 75 per cent higher rate than those in urban settings.

She said rural women face unique gaps in service that make them more vulnerable to violence. 

At the Aug. 14 committee meeting, Ward 15 Coun. Ted McMeekin asked members of WAWG what he can do as a councillor of a rural area to help the women in his ward. 

Bonilla-Damptey said funding is the biggest hurdle, but isolation is a distinct concern for rural women. 

"Rural communities might lack public transportation and our taxi services," Bonilla-Damptey said, adding that expanding public transit into rural those areas is an important step forward. 

Violence on the rise since the pandemic

Hamilton isn't the only municipality dealing with an intimate partner and domestic violence epidemic, Symonds said. 

WAWG is part of a provincial network of VAW groups, and Symonds told council there are calls to declare an epidemic across Ontario. 

In Ontario, 30 women were killed in a 30-week window between 2022 and 2023, including the death of Jackie Buckle in Hamilton. 

Nationally, Griver said, femicide — the intentional killing of women or girls based on gender — has been escalating since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability, in 2019, there were 148 women and girls killed in Canada. In 2020, 172 were killed. In 2021, 177 women and girls were killed nationwide. In 2022, there were 184.

In Hamilton, Nann said there is also non-fatal violence happening on a daily basis. 

"Thousands of our neighbours are going through this every month, hundreds are going through it every week. Dozens upon dozens are going through it every day," Nann said.