Lanark County declares intimate partner violence an epidemic

Lanark County Council has declared intimate partner violence an epidemic, one of the recommendations of the jury at the inquest into the murders of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam.

On Sept. 22, 2015, the three women were murdered by Basil Borutski in neighbouring Renfrew County. The inquest was completed this past summer, with 86 recommendations.

The resolution was passed by the the county council Dec. 14.

"We have to see it, name it, change it. This is the naming part, that's the easy part. The hard part is changing it," Warden Peter McLaren said at that meeting, according to a news release.

"That's what we really have to start focusing on, and that's for everybody."

Erin Lee, director of Lanark County Interval House, which offers emergency and ongoing programs to women and children living in or escaping from domestic violence, highlighted the importance of the council's move.

"We can't understate the fact that Lanark County is the first to make a move on [intimate partner violence] in Ontario," she said in the release.

"We should be incredibly proud of our community for making this happen and, of course, of our Council for listening and taking steps toward change. The county is already doing the work."

At a recent event, Julie Lalonde, an activist and witness at the inquest, said that rural communities are making moves toward tangible change, and "implored" urban centres to get more involved, the release said.

"The best show of support for the victims of violence is for this declaration to me made," Lee said.

"Fifty-two women in 52 weeks were taken by femicide in Ontario. This is, frankly, overdue."

The declaration comes the same week a woman in Deep River, Ont., was the victim in an alleged second-degree murder.

The victim in that case, Sommer Boudreau, was the sister of another woman killed by her partner in 2010.

Read the 86 recommendations from the inquest jury below.