Mayor Josh Morgan is leading the charge to have intimate partner violence and femicide formally recognized in the City of London as an epidemic.
In a letter going to the strategic priorities and policy committee next week, Morgan cited the results of a nearly month-long inquest last summer into the deaths of three women in Renfrew County that resulted in 86 recommendations being issued. The number one recommendation made was for Ontario to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic - something the province has yet to do.
Morgan goes on to outline seven reasons why the declaration is warranted. They are as follows:
A woman is killed by her intimate partner every six days in Canada.
This past year 52 women in Ontario, or one every week, were victims of femicide.
London police received 6,537 calls related to intimate partner violence last year, with 1,558 criminal charges laid.
The London Abused Women’s Centre provided a total of 11,717 service interactions in 2022.
Anova had to turn women away 2,166 times due to a lack of beds.
93 per cent of Children's Aid Society domestic violence-related intake cases involve a girl/woman as the primary victim.
On any given night in Canada, over 6,000 women and children sleep in shelters because their home is not safe.
"It is well understood and conclusively established that violence against women costs the national justice system, health care systems, social service agencies, and municipalities billions of dollars per year," Morgan states in his letter. "We also know that municipalities are on the front lines in addressing gender-based violence."
London was the first municipality in Canada to make the safety of women and girls part of its Strategic Plan and Morgan wants council to take it a step further by declaring intimate partner violence and femicide and epidemic and petition the province to do the same.
"The reason why we need to have intimate partner violence and femicide named as an epidemic is because it would then come with funding," said Megan Walker, women's advocate and vice-chair of the London Police Service Board. "We need to make sure that every single woman and girl that requires service has immediate access to service."
Walker noted that every woman or girl who doesn't have access to a bed or services is a potential victim of femicide.
Through his letter, Morgan is also calling on council to request that the term "femicide" be added to the criminal code.
"Femicide is a result of hatred towards women because they are women," Walker said. Homicide is a gender neutral term, which doesn't recognize the hate and discrimination involved in the case of femicide.
"I feel really strongly that recognizing femicide in the criminal code opens up opportunities to prevent the killing of women," Walker added.
If femicide is recognized as a distinct crime, specific data can be gathered and used to help prevent it in the future.
"Everybody needs to feel hope," Walker concluded. "I am hopeful that Josh Morgan's initiative combined with all of the other similar initiatives that have happened so far in Ontario, will start to shift [the] culture."
Morgan's letter will be discussed at next Wednesday's committee meeting.
