Ontario won’t declare intimate partner violence an epidemic following inquest
The Canadian Press talks to Kirsten Mercer about the government’s refusal to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic
The Ontario government has refused a coroner’s jury recommendation to delare intimate partner violence an epidemic.
The government’s response to the recommendation states: “Intimate partner violence (IPV) would not be considered an epidemic as it is not an infectious or communicable disease”.
It’s a response that doesn’t cut it with Kirsten Mercer, a lawyer who represented End Violence Against Women Renfrew County at the inquest.
“With the greatest of respect, I mean, I can look up epidemic in the dictionary too,” she said.
“I think part of the reason it is important is because using that public health frame to understand what is happening is another way of telling survivors that what’s happening to them is not their fault. It’s not a character flaw on their part. It is a sociological phenomenon. It is a society-wide problem.”
More than 30 municipalities across the province have made their own declarations of intimate partner violence as an epidemic, she noted. The list includes Peel Region, Halton Region, Ottawa and Renfrew County.
“In some senses, yeah, maybe it is a symbol, but it’s an important one, and sometimes that’s government’s role – a symbol and a signal and a commitment of the scope of the problem and the kind of approach that we need in order to tackle and dismantle it,” Mercer said.
Read the Canadian Press article here.