There’s enough research on violence against women. We need action

‘Deeds, not words,” was a rallying cry of the women’s suffrage movement in the early 20th century. We recalled this phrase when reading the closing comments of the Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Commission’s final report, released last week: “Future acts of violence are preventable if we have the will to do what is necessary.”

The commission rightly recognized the links between the April, 2020, mass shooting in Nova Scotia and violence against women. Its report outlines the perpetrator’s decades-long history of sexual harassment and assault, including acts of domestic violence committed against his intimate partner. His behaviour culminated in an attempt to kill his partner, which was followed by a horrific rampage that stretched into the following day. The perpetrator had never been held accountable for his entitled, misogynistic and abusive behaviour, and his partner had never received the help she needed, with the commission noting that she was revictimized throughout the process of investigating what happened.

The report makes many recommendations as to how police, community services and all Canadians should be playing an active role in addressing the problem of violence against women. Unfortunately, we have seen recommendations in official reports like these many times before.

The federal Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women was formed as a direct response to the previous worst mass shooting in Canadian history, in which the perpetrator targeted female engineering students at Montreal’s École Polytechnique on Dec. 6, 1989. The panel’s 1993 final report, Changing the Landscape: Ending Violence – Achieving Equality, called for a “zero-tolerance approach” to gender-based violence and outlined hundreds of recommendations for major reforms to Canadian legislation, policies and practices across institutions including governments, workplaces and social services. It is disheartening to see that 30 years later we are still saying the same thing, as the MCC’s final report felt compelled to call for a “sustained society-wide response” to gender-based violence by businesses, social services and all levels of government.

The MCC’s final report also called for improved education among those who might have contact with victims of genderbased violence, as “police and other institutions continue to operate on the basis of limited understandings of intimate partner violence [IPV].” In 2003, the Ontario Domestic Violence Death Review Committee (DVDRC) began producing its annual report analyzing homicides committed by intimate partners and ex-partners. The committee has since reviewed 351 cases involving 496 deaths, in which the majority of victims have been women killed by current or former intimate partners. In its very first report in 2003, the committee noted: “There is a need for ongoing training in the issues of domestic violence and potential lethality for police, social workers/ counsellors, clergy, and physicians.” Over the past 10 years, the DVDRC has made more than 400 recommendations to various government ministries and professional colleges on the issue of gender-based violence, but follow-up and audits of any actions taken have been lacking.

A study by the Canadian Domestic Homicide Prevention Initiative examining the cases of 815 domestic homicide victims between 2010 and 2019 found the overwhelming majority of victims were women, and almost 90 per cent of the accused were men. Overrepresented among the victim population were Indigenous women, women living in remote regions, and female immigrants and refugees. Contextual factors, including many victims being limited in their access to timely social services and supports, placed them at greater risk – themes echoed in the MCC’s recounting of the Nova Scotia perpetrator’s history of violence.

The 2022 Renfrew Inquest in Eastern Ontario examined the 2015 domestic homicides of three women by the same perpetrator (who had also committed IPV against two of the victims in the past), providing 86 recommendations to the government for reducing violence against women. One of the first was to “formally declare intimate partner violence as an epidemic” – a recommendation repeated in the MCC’s final report. The MCC also echoed the Renfrew Inquest in its call for the federal government to amend the Firearms Act, “to automatically revoke the firearms licences of persons convicted of domestic violence or hate-related offences.”

Between 1993 and 2023, we have been saying the same things over and over again. We need mandatory professional education on gender-based violence in every sector and profession so that risk factors and warning signs are recognized. We need to properly fund women’s safety so that services are always available and accessible to those who need them. We need effective and accountable responses to men who are perpetrating abuse, particularly when firearm ownership is involved. We need to invest funding in public education so that Canadians are better informed and know what to say and do if they see someone experiencing abuse. Healthy relationships should be included as part of school curriculums from preschool to Grade 12. We need agencies and systems to get out of their silos and commit to genuine collaboration to save lives.

We need deeds, not words.