Ontario rejects some recommendations from triple murder inquest jury

The day before the first anniversary of the inquest into the murders of three women in Renfrew County, the Ontario government provided its responses to 30 recommendations made by the jury to prevent similar deaths.

Last summer in Pembroke, a weeks-long inquest examined the 2015 murders of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam.

The jury — three men and two women recruited from Renfrew, Griffith, Petawawa, Chalk River and Pembroke — suggested the provincial and federal governments, and other groups, adopt 86 recommendations, including numerous preventative measures.

Participants in the inquest are meeting in Pembroke Wednesday to discuss efforts made so far.

Some recommendations duplicate existing efforts, province says

Ontario was the subject of most of the inquest jury's 86 recommendations. The province's initial response was filed in February, and the second response was sent to the coroner's office on Tuesday.

Twenty-two of the 30 recommendations outlined in the second update have been accepted or partly accepted, and eight were rejected.

The rejected recommendations include:

• Formally declaring intimate partner violence an epidemic — a step some local governments, including Renfrew County, have taken. The province said the term epidemic is used for the spread of disease, and that IPV "would not be considered an epidemic as it is not an infectious or communicable disease."
• Instituting an implementation committee to ensure the inquest recommendations are comprehensively considered, and any responses are fully reported and published. The province said existing bodies will be leveraged and augmented by targeted consultation with stakeholders to provide input and advice on implementing recommendations.
• Studying judges' decisions in IPV cases and tracking in longitudinal studies for recidivism, violence escalation, and future victims. The province said academics and researchers would be best positioned to undertake this type of study, citing the importance of the independence of the judiciary and non-interference by government. 
• Establishing an independent IPV Commission dedicated to eradicating intimate partner violence and acting as a voice that speaks on behalf of survivors and victims' families, raising public awareness, and ensuring the transparency and accountability of government and other organizations in addressing IPV in all its forms. The province said the committee would duplicate existing offices, programs and services.
• Creating a Survivor Advocate to advocate on behalf of survivors regarding their experience in the justice system. The province said several existing government and community services, such as the Family Court Support Worker Program, Sexual Assault Centres, the Victim Crisis Assistance Ontario program and the Victim/Witness Assistance Program, already support IPV survivors in the justice system.
• Funding safe rooms to be installed in survivors' homes in high-risk cases. The province said safe rooms can pose risks to survivors if misused or used against them by perpetrators, and that existing programs support victim safety.
• Setting up an IPV registry for repeat IPV offenders, similar to the sex offender registry. The province said existing mechanisms track and record information about IPV occurrences in Ontario, and that an IPV registry would likely duplicate and complicate them.

Pamela Cross, the advocacy director at Luke's Place — an Oshawa non-profit that supports women fleeing violence — participated in last year's inquest and expressed disappointment at the rejections Wednesday on social media.

"Reach out to your MPP today to call for implementation of the inquest recommendations. Too many women have already died," she wrote on Twitter.

The province's accepted recommendations include:

• Exploring incorporating restorative justice and community-based approaches in dealing with appropriate IPV cases to ensure safety and best outcomes for survivors.
• Reviewing policies to ensure the timely, reliable, consistent, and accurate dissemination of information, including the use of emergency alerts and media releases, where the police are aware of circumstances that could put the public in danger, and that the focus is on safety when developing policies regarding what information to share with whom and when.
• Developing and implementing a new approach to public education campaigns to promote awareness about IPV.
• Reviewing existing training for justice system personnel who are within the purview of the provincial government or police services.
• Providing services aimed at addressing perpetrators of IPV.
• Addressing barriers and creating opportunities and pathways to services for IPV perpetrators that can be accessed in the community.
• Improving the co-ordination of services addressing substance use, mental health, child protection, and IPV perpetration, and encouraging cross-agency service provision and case management.