Report warns number of young femicide victims in Ontario rising

An advocacy group is warning that a growing number of children and youth are being killed in femicides in Ontario, with nearly one in five victims reported to be under 18 the past eight months.

Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH), which obtains its data using police and media reports, defines femicide as the gender-based killing of a woman, child, trans woman, two-spirit person or gender non-conforming individual where a man has been charged.

Although minors who lose their lives to femicide are often young girls, OAITH's data also includes boys killed through intimate partner violence. 

"It's a shift from what we have seen in prior years," said OAITH's executive director Marlene Ham.

The organization recorded 42 confirmed femicides in Ontario from the end of November until the end of July, with 21 per cent of victims being minors. That's up from 38 femicides recorded within the same timeframe last year, with five of the victims under 18.

One of the cases mentioned in OAITH's most recent report was that of Breanna Broadfoot, a 17-year-old from London. Police say was Broadfoot was fatally stabbed by an 18-year-old man who had a court order not to contact her after past reports of abuse. He was shot and killed by police after they say he confronted them with a knife.

In another case that shocked the community of Holmesville, Ont., about 212 kilometres from Toronto, a 13-old-boy was charged in the death of a girl.

OAITH's recent report notes that femicide deaths happen most often at the hands of a victim's intimate partner (in 35.7 per cent of cases), someone who is known to them (28.6 per cent) or a family member (19 per cent). In 16.7 per cent of cases, the nature of the relationship hasn't been disclosed.

The report adds that on average, more than five femicides happen in the province each month. Seven women and girls were killed in July alone, it says.

'It's happening constantly' 

The report notes that femicide cases across all ages have been steadily rising since the pandemic, with more than 50 victims recorded each year from the end of November 2020 to the same time in 2023.

With 42 deaths already recorded since this past November, advocates such as Nneka MacGregor from the Women Centre for Social Justice say the numbers should serve as a dire warning.

"People are operating under a very misguided belief that it won't happen to them or anyone they know, but the increase in numbers means that it's happening constantly," she says. 

Although she's glad the issue is getting attention, she says she struggles with people wondering what can be done each time new data is released. 

"There's so much we can do. There are so many recommendations that have come out over decades. And to me, it's about a lack of implementation and a lack of attention."

Pamela Cross is a part of Ontario's Domestic Violence Death Review Committee, which studies femicides in the province and issues recommendations. She says they've had to make the same points multiple times "because those recommendations are often not acted on."

Their recommendations have included increased education, policies relating to violence in the workplace, bullying and stalking, as well as better policies around child custody battles. 

Deepa Mattoo, the executive director of the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic, is also part of the committee. She says that "if all of [the recommendation] were held, if they were all acted upon by now, so many of these problems would already be resolved."

The committee operates under the authority of Ontario's chief coroner, which falls under the Ministry of the Solicitor General. Asked about the lack of implementation of recommendations made by the committee, the ministry did not comment.

CBC News also reached out to Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, asking how it is addressing the rise of children and youth who become victims of femicide. A spokesperson for the ministry said that among other measures, the government is investing $1.4 billion as part of the province's Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence, along with launching a call for proposals for community based programs that will be funded with roughly $100 million over the next three years. 

'We need to know what that plan is'

Just last year, Ontario rejected numerous recommendations made in the coroner's inquest into the 2015 murder of three women, including one that calls on the province to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic. 

At the time, the province argued that "epidemic" is a term used for the spread of disease, although multiple municipalities have declared intimate partner violence an epidemic locally.

Now, a bill called the "Intimate Partner Violence Epidemic Act," could require the government to recognize intimate partner violence as an epidemic in the province. The bill passed its second reading, with Ontario's Progressive Conservative government saying in April it will support it, reversing its earlier position.

"But again, is it another report? Is it another finding? It's the actionable items that they already know about that need to be actioned, right?" said Mattoo.

Ham says even though declaring the issue an epidemic will validate how important it is, she agrees the new bill needs to be more than a symbolic statement. 

"It can be really meaningful, but we need to know what that plan is."