WE CAN’T TURN AWAY FROM ABUSE

Image credit: *SNEHA SIVARAJAN* on Unsplash.

By SHAGORIKA EASWAR

The amber alert came on a sunny afternoon last month. The police were looking for a man on the run with his one-year-old daughter.

This was followed by an update. The child had been located and was safe. Her mother was not.

With news of the gut-wrenching case of the young mother of four who was killed by her partner, the havoc intimate partner violence wreaks was front and centre. Again.

I still remember a poster I saw at our neighbourhood Shopper’s Drug Mart when we were very new in Canada.

Row upon row of faces of women of all ages, all ethnicities. All victims of what has since come to be known as Intimate Partner Violence or IPV.

Created by the Canadian Women’s Foundation, it carried a stark message: One in four women in Canada experiences IPV.

If I was shocked then, what do I make of the statistics from 2025, nearly 30 years later? Every 2.5 days, a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner.

International Women’s Days roll around every March. On December 6, we observe the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. It was established by the Parliament of Canada to mark the anniversary of the 1989 murders of 14 women at l'École Polytechnique de Montréal, who were killed because of their sex.

The Global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is an international campaign to challenge violence against women and girls. The campaign runs every year from November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to December 10, Human Rights Day.

Late last year, community advocates and WomanACT called on Ontario to take decisive action by passing Bill 173, formally declaring IPV an epidemic. They highlighted the urgent need to address IPV as a preventable public health and safety crisis.

“Intimate Partner Violence is an epidemic, but it is preventable,” said Harmy Mendoza, Executive Director of WomanACT.

The first step in solving a problem is recognizing that there is one. Bill 173 is a unified call “from frontline services providers, community organizations, and most notably survivors of IPV themselves,” she said.

Recent data highlights the magnitude of the crisis: In 2024, the Toronto Police Service reported 15,210 IPV-related incidents, marking a 1.39 per cent increase from the previous year. The Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH) reported 59 femicides in the month of October for 2024 alone.

The headlines are from every province, all through the year.

Earlier this year, Marci Ien, then Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, announced over $478,000 for Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre’s Project EmpowerMen – engaging men and boys to prevent sexual exploitation and sex trafficking.

The project includes researching the role of online platforms in technology-facilitated gender-based violence, as well as the development and testing of strategies to better reach newcomers and young men and boys. The outcomes of this project will help address and prevent gender-based violence in Manitoba and in rest of Canada.

In addition, up to $9.7 million in funding was announced for 21 projects across the country to prevent and address gender-based violence by strengthening their communities, building organizational capacity, providing better support and resources, or conducting research. These projects will help increase knowledge on various factors contributing to gender-based violence and the outcomes will ultimately help build support for victims and survivors no matter where they live.

This past May, Abuse Hurts, an annual fashion show in Newmarket, Ontario, raised crucially needed funds in the face of rising demand.

As reported in Newmarket Today, the show plays a crucial role in bringing hope, dignity and meaningful change to members of the community facing some of life’s most difficult circumstances.

“While our event is a joyful celebration, it is also a powerful show of solidarity with women, men, children, and members of the Indigenous community who are impacted by abuse,” said Ellen Campbell, CEO and founder of Abuse Hurts. “The work that Abuse Hurts does in Newmarket, Aurora, and other areas in Ontario is critical as there is no one else doing what we do.”

The Newmarket-based charity provides support for victims of crime – from abuse, homelessness, violence – anyone that is struggling and needs support. Tangible support includes providing housewares, toiletries, clothing, bedding, small appliances, toys – anything needed to start over again if someone is forced to leave their home with only the clothes on their backs and is facing financial difficulties.

As well, Abuse Hurts works with local shelters and agencies serving abused individuals, including Salvation Army, Blue Door, and other street outreach programs, Children’s Aid and Victims Services.

So there are all these movements, worthy initiatives, all these days on which we honour strong women, mourn lives lost or irrevocably altered by violence, and we move on, while women continue to feel like an endangered species.

This is not to diminish the movements – all the people involved are doing phenomenal work – but the question remains that if nothing has changed over all these years, could we be doing things differently?

Countless good men and women are working tirelessly to prevent IPV and to protect and help victims. Among them, these Grant’s Desi Achievers.

Dr Mohit Bhandari is an orthopaedic surgeon and the Canada Research Chair in Surgical Innovation.

Recognized internationally for his research, he is also Canada Research Chair in Musculoskeletal Trauma.

Ranked as one of the top 10 most cited trauma surgeons in orthopaedics, Dr Bhandari says the number one cause of injuries in women worldwide is IPV. And only one in three abused women actually get to a hospital.

Others are prevented from doing so by their partners or don’t go out of fear that their children might be taken away if they reveal the abusive situation at home. Or they just might not be ready to talk about it.

He believes orthopaedic surgeons have to be able to spot the signs of abuse – be knowledgeable, aware and have the sensitivity to ask, “Are you safe at home?”

To this end he had developed a questionnaire to help physicians identify victims of IPV.

“A broken bone is a predictor of more serious injuries to come. Intimate partner homicides are often predicted by increasing physical violence. We have to act. We can no longer ignore the stories behind broken bones.”

Andrea Gunraj, Vice President, Strategic Policy and Partnerships at Civic Action, has spent over two decades working not just in gender justice but in the intersectionality of issues that impact people of all genders and all identities. Before taking on her current role, she was Vice President, Public Engagement, Canadian Women’s Foundation, and has also worked with METRAC, an organization which promotes the rights of women and children to live free from violence and the threat of violence.

Often quoted in the media on the impact of the pandemic on women, on how they were disproportionately affected in the workplace, how intimate partner violence escalated during the pandemic when women had no escape during the lockdowns, Gunraj says what became clear during the pandemic was that decades of progress could be reversed or severely impacted by a crisis.

A staggering one in two women experience some form of abuse. Women, girls, and Two Spirit, trans and non-binary people are at highest risk. It can take physical and emotional forms, such as name-calling, hitting, pushing, blocking, stalking/criminal harassment, rape, sexual assault, control, and manipulation. There’s the tragedy of the missing and murdered Indigenous women.

“These are crisis numbers, and they go to show, again, that we don’t have the supports in place. We need to shock-proof our communities so we can support vulnerable populations when the next crisis hits.”

Prior to taking over as British Columbia’s Police Complaint Commissioner, Prabhu Rajan was Chair of the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee (DVDRC) and Chief Counsel, Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario and the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service.

He also refers to deaths related to IPV as “an epidemic” and lists vulnerabilities that we often don’t stop to think about. That women in rural areas are more at risk because of the distance from nearest neighbours and the scarcity of supports.

“There’s no one around for miles, and the use of shotguns is more prevalent. Not even to hurt, but as intimidation.”

New immigrants could be at risk because they lack a social support network, or don’t know how to access help. The elderly can also be at risk. There have been several cases of a spouse killing an elderly partner in a relationship with no history of violence.

“In some communities, cultural factors come into play because victims don’t reach out for help and violence stays behind closed doors.”

“We can’t look away, we can’t move on to the next news cycle, not while women are being killed. We can’t continue with the one death-one inquest. We have to look at common, systemic issues underpinning deaths. This requires a more aggressive approach.”

Deepa Mattoo is the Executive Director of Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic in Toronto.

When the advisory to stay home as much as possible to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 first went out, people who work with abused women were very concerned.

“My instinctive response was, ‘Why are you saying that?’” she says. “Those who work in this sector know that safety is lacking in the very place we were asking women to stay in.”

Mattoo was, sadly, proven right. Incidence of violence rose all over the globe, including in Canada during the lockdown period.

The kinds of violence also increased, she adds. “Homes become a breeding ground for violence and the women have nowhere to go.” says Mattoo, who is also a lawyer by training.

There’s a large number of women who are underserved because of unique needs, and then there’s the huge number of unserved women who can’t or don’t access help due to a variety of reasons.

International students being one such segment. Sex workers, people without status, all remain unserved, and are not reflected in data on violence that is experienced by women.

“I wonder with the kind of experiences I hear of, if they are aware of the resources that are available to help,” says Mattoo.

The belief that domestic violence occurs only in the lower socioeconomic strata, among people with lower levels of education, and in certain minority groups is a myth, says Dr Bhandari.

“Abuse transfers across all age groups and cultures.”

How can you engage as a community member?

WomanACT has the following suggestions: Contact your MPPs using Bill-173 Community Mobilization Letter Writing Campaign to share how IPV has affected you, families, or the community. Amplify survivors’ voices, push for systemic change, and demand meaningful action to end IPV.

MY TAKE

WE CAN’T TURN AWAY FROM ABUSE