3 London women among 62 femicides in Ontario over last year: report

Three London, Ont. women were among 62 victims of femicide in Ontario over the past year, something a local abused women's shelter said is further evidence that gender-based violence needs to be treated as the epidemic that it is.

The list, released by the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH) and the University of Guelph, includes women, children, and gender-diverse individuals who were the victims of a gender-related killing by a man.

The victims ranged in age from six to 90. Nineteen were the victim of intimate partner femicides, 15 femicides were perpetrated by family, and 12 by men known to the victim, according to OAITH.

Most of the victims were from the Greater Toronto Area. Three of the victims were from London, their deaths all at the hands of men in their lives:

• Carolyn Carter, 69, was found unresponsive with serious injuries at a home on Redoak Avenue on April 20 and was pronounced dead shortly after. Carter's 37-year-old son has been charged with second-degree murder in the case and will appear in court on Dec. 19. 

• Caitlin Jennings, 22, was found dead at a home on Kingsway Avenue in the city's Oakridge neighbourhood on July 5. Jennings' boyfriend, David Yates, 50, is charged with second-degree murder. He's scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 8. A Superior Court justice denied him bail during a recent court appearance.

• Tiffany Gates, 30, was found shot to death in the Proudfoot Lane apartment of her boyfriend, who was also found dead. Linda Davidson, Gates' mother, told CBC News at the time that her daughter had been shot in the head by her boyfriend who then shot himself, and that there were signs Gates had tried to defend herself. Davidson said she had worried about her daughter's safety, texting her in June that she was scared something would happen to her.

One London victim was recorded in OAITH's 2021-22 femicide list, and five in 2020-21, including three members of the Afzaal family. OAITH says it's aware of more than 1,020 femicide victims since 1990.

The deaths are devastating, tragic, and preventable, said Jessie Rodger, the executive director of Anova, which provides shelter and supports to abused women and their children.

"It's 100 per cent getting worse. And it's not a secret… It just feels like there's been a lot of talk, but there hasn't been a whole lot of action," Rodger said.

"How many women is it going to take for us to take this seriously and to put our money where our mouth is?"

Anova provided figures to CBC News showing it helped 342 people obtain shelter and safe spaces between April 1 2022 and March 31, 2023, but had to turn away people nearly 2,400 times because of a lack of beds. Anova's 24/7 crisis and support line also saw nearly 8,200 calls.

"We have been perpetually full at both of our emergency shelters for five years," Rodger said.

"Every shelter in the province is full… We need more space, we need more resources. We need to be addressing what's going on. We also need to be able to address what's going on in terms of prevention."

Jennifer Dunn, the executive director of the London Abused Women's Centre (LAWC), described the situation around femicide and gender-based violence as "worse than we've ever seen it before in previous years, since the pandemic," when victims were stuck at home with abusive partners.

"Some of the trauma and the impacts of violence coming out of the pandemic are very, very significant, and the issue with that is that we're not seeing that go away," Dunn said.

Calls to declare intimate-partner violence an epidemic

London city councillors declared intimate-partner violence and femicide an epidemic this past summer.

The move came in the wake of Jennings' death, and in response to one of 86 recommendations made by an inquest examining the murders of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk, and Nathalie Warmerdam near Ottawa in 2015.

There have been calls for the province and federal government to follow suit.

In July, the Ford government rejected several recommendations from the inquest, including that intimate-partner violence be declared an epidemic, arguing "epidemic" was a term used for the spread of disease and therefore did not apply to intimate partner violence.

Responding to the inquest, Ottawa said it remained open to criminalizing coercive control, the controlling behaviour an abuser exerts over someone to cause fear and isolation.

The federal Liberals and Conservatives have expressed their support for a private member's bill tabled earlier this year by a B.C. NDP MP that seeks to amend the Criminal Code to make coercive control an offence.

Doing so was vital for police and judges to do their job and help protect women and girls, Dunn said.

Mother of Windsor, Ont., woman killed arranges intimate partner violence conference at UWindsor

1 year ago

Duration 2:41

Fartumo Kusow’s daughter, Sahra Bulle, was found dead in a Windsor, Ont., field earlier this year. Kusow is holding a speakers conference in her daughter’s name at the University of Windsor Dec. 1. It's part of the annual United Nations 16 days of activism against gender-based violence hosted by the university.

She added that other key priorities included funding for agencies like LAWC and Anova, and increased education about femicide and gender-based violence, including among men and boys.

"This is not just a woman's issue. This is not just an issue that the London Abused Women's Center or organizations like ours should be talking about," Dunn said.

"This needs to be talked about across all levels of government and everybody in our communities... in order for there to be a shift in what's going on."

If you are experiencing domestic violence or abuse, you can contact Anova's 24-hour crisis and support line at 519-642-3000 or 1-800-265-1576.