Peel Region declares intimate partner violence an epidemic, asks Ontario to do the same

Peel Region has declared gender and intimate-partner violence an epidemic and is calling on Ontario to do the same in the hope of legislation that targets family violence.

At a meeting Thursday, the region unanimously voted in favour of the term in an attempt to raise awareness on the issue and more funding to address it.

"What we really need in this declaration of this epidemic is funding for these agencies so that they can be there for the women that need it the most," said Peel regional and Brampton councillor Rowena Santos.

In 2021 alone, Peel police responded to more than 17,000 incidents of family and intimate partner violence, averaging to nearly 45 incidents every day or about two every hour.  Of the cases where charges that were laid, police say 78 per cent of the victims were women.

And advocates say that's just what gets reported. 

While local declarations are a big step forward in recognizing the problem, community victim service providers says they'll need more funding to keep up with current and future demand.

The region is the latest to label the problem an epidemic. Twenty-five other local governments in Ontario have already done so, including Durham Region, the Town of Oakville and Halton Region.  According to a motion by the City of Brampton, Toronto has not made the move, though Ottawa has.

Declaring gender-based and intimate partner violence was the first recommendation made by a coroner's jury at last year's Renfrew County inquest that looked into the 2015 murders of three women: Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam. All three women were murdered on the same day by the same man, despite red flags about his potential to inflict further harm.

Recent deaths sparked move

The region's move comes a day after the municipality of Brampton declared such violence an epidemic within that city. Brampton also asked for provincial and federal funding to support organizations providing victim resources, asked the federal government to coin the term "femicide" in the Criminal Code of Canada and asked it to declare it an epidemic countrywide.

Santos says it was 11-year-old Riya Rajkumar, who died in February 2019, that sparked Brampton council's focus on the issue. Her father was charged with first-degree murder in connection with her death.

More recently in May, 43-year-old mother Davinder Kaur was killed after meeting her estranged husband in a park.  Santos says these cases were top of mind for her and regional councillor Navjit Kaur Brar, who are also the only two women on Brampton city council, when trying to get the motion passed. 

"We've seen what happened with Davinder Kaur, and she left four beautiful children. And how that affects the city of Brampton — it was echoed across the city," said Brar.

"We need to bring tangible action."

Pandemic exacerbated violence: advocate

Sharon Mayne Devine, the CEO of Catholic Family Services, the lead agency for the Safe Centre of Peel, says the pandemic exacerbated violence against women.

In the last year alone, she says they had 1,000 women in the city come to the centre for support, almost half ages 30 to 39, and many with children.

"The more we can get the word out, the sooner we can intervene, the less severe the violence is," Devine told Brampton city council on Wednesday, noting it's a good sign that women feel more empowered to get support.

But Devine says until they get proportionate increases to their funding, there will be difficulty in both delivering programming and taking care of frontline staff who provide services to victims each day.

That's something that Rebecca Pacheco, the public education and community collaboration coordinator for Peel Committee Against Women Abuse, is already seeing at her own organization, Embrave Agency to End Violence. The group operates two shelters for survivors of gender-based violence in the region.

"We are almost always at full capacity," said Pacheco. 

"The demand is larger than what community services are able to offer and it's horrible. It's not the situation we want to be in, but it is."

Pachecho says getting the other municipalities in the region, Caledon and Mississauga, to make a similar move is the next step for the group.

"We're having these conversations in Peel, but there are coordinating committees across this province doing similar work," said Pachecho.

'We need more support,' says councillor 

In the 2023 budget, the Ontario government said its committed over $693 million to support victims of violence, including emergency shelters, counselling services and 24‐hour crisis lines since 2020. For the 2023-24 year, it says it's putting an additional $2.5 million in youth violence, human trafficking prevention and victim response programming. 

In an email to CBC Toronto, the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services said the government of Ontario fully endorses the 10-year National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, just as federal, other provincial and territorial governments did last November.

"Our government is breaking down barriers so women that have experienced violence have access to timely and effective care, no matter where they live, while also taking action to prevent and address violence against women and gender-based violence in all forms," the statement reads.

"Our government will continue to work to prevent gender-based violence; address its root causes; and provide support for victims, survivors, and their families."

"The demand grows and our capacity to meet the demand shrinks," said Devine.

Moving forward, Santos says she hopes to get more municipalities and regions on board and hopefully get the province on board. 

"Because of that level of attention, we're hoping that the voice would be loud enough to say across the province that we need more support on this issue," said Santos.