Intimate partner violence study cut short as Ontario eyes early election
CBC speaks to Kirsten Mercer about the Ford government’s decision to curtail its promised study of intimate partner violence
CBC reports on the Ford government’s decision to curtail its study into intimate partner violence in the face of a possible spring election. The government’s plan now is to speed through the study so that it is complete by February. As a result, the committee’s plans to travel the province to hear from survivors, with the final stop in Renfrew County, where a recent coroner’s inquest into the murders of three area women took place, have been scuppered in favour of shortened meetings at Queen’s Park or over video calls.
The coroner’s inquest held in Renfrew County seven years after the murders had been critically important to the community, said Kirsten Mercer, a lawyer and advocate who represented End Violence Against Women Renfrew County at the inquest.
Mercer said the province should follow the coroner’s lead in holding hearings in the rural county.
“It’s very hard to govern from Queen’s Park and adequately hear and represent all of the needs that exist,” she said. “There’s some sense of frustration among the community that what was promised — really doing a deep dive — is dissipating.”
It is important for politicians to have time to complete their work, especially if it involves crafting legislation, Mercer said.
“But there is a cost to that time,” she said. “The inaction is measured in people’s lives.”
Kirsten also appeared on the Morning Rush radio show, where she talked about the study and the government’s decision to cut it short. Listen to that interview here.