London's council to declare intimate partner violence and femicide an epidemic

The City of London is one step closer to declaring that intimate partner violence and femicide are an epidemic, a recommendation made by an Ontario coroner's inquest last year and adopted today by Toronto's city council. 

The motion was put forward by Mayor Josh Morgan and was passed unanimously at the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee Wednesday. It's a committee of the whole, and so should be rubber stamped by council at the next meeting. 

"This is not only something that is happening or being considered by our council. There are other councils who are actively moving forward with responding to the recommendations of the the Renfrew inquest," Morgan said.

Lanark County, Ont. was the first municipality to declare that killing women and girls is an epidemic when it passed a motion in December of last year. Toronto mayor Olivia Chow also made it a council priority, which passed with full council approval Thursday. 

London councillors are also calling on Ottawa to add intimate partner violence and femicide to Canada's Criminal Code.

That was another one of the 86 recommendations made by the coroner's jury at the inquest into the 2015 murders of three women — Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam — in and around rural Renfrew County. 

Earlier this month, London's Caitlin Jennings was killed by a man police said was known to her. In 2022, a woman was killed in her home in the city's north end by the father of her children. 

"We are the ones who have to see our citizens face the consequences of intimate partner violence. We are the ones who support agencies and develop strategic plans to try and address these challenges in our community. So it is important for us," Morgan said.

Public awareness

Femicide is the most extreme form of gender based violence and is described as a woman being intentionally killed because she is a woman, said Jennifer Dunn, the Executive Director of the London Abused Women's Centre.

"I think it's very important for femicide to be added to the Criminal Code. It's similar to a hate crime and I think it needs to be thought of differently," said Dunn.

She said public awareness is gained by a motion like this and usually results in a spike of women reporting abuse to different services and seeking help. 

"It's important to always remind the community that they're not alone because what will happen is women and girls might say 'Oh my gosh, that happened to me'," she said.

Dunn, who co-wrote a letter to council in support of the declaration, said it must be named an epidemic because many of the health and financial ramifications faced by victims resemble that of a disease, including long term health effects and death in the case of femicide.

"That ends up taking a huge toll out of a woman's life and leaves her with lifelong physical and mental issues and then, in turn, those women have to access health care for those types of things."

She also urged any woman who believes she is a victim of gender based violence to reach out and seek help.

The motion should pass council and become official on Tuesday.