Chatham-Kent council has unanimously declared intimate partner violence and gender-based violence an epidemic.
This follows the lead of several municipalities from across Ontario that have also adopted the same stance while calling on the Ontario government to do the same.
Michelle Schryer, Executive Director of the Chatham-Kent Sexual Assault Crisis Centre, said the number of women killed by men who purported to love them is increasing.
Statistics show a woman is killed by her intimate partner on average every six days in Canada, murders Schryer says are preventable.
“You have the opportunity to support a simple but incredibly powerful recommendation…to declare intimate partner violence as an epidemic and I implore you to do so,” Schryer told members of municipal council at their meeting Monday night.
Chatham-Kent Coordinating Committee to End Violence Against Women co-chair Karen Hunter said while it’s a difficult subject to talk about, it needs to be discussed.
Hunter said in 2022, Chatham-Kent Victim’s Services reported assisting 296 domestic assault victims, 148 sexual assault victims, and 47 human trafficking victims, and officials expect to surpass those numbers in 2023.
Almost two years ago, a jury at a coroner’s inquest into the 2015 deaths of Nathalie Warmerdam, Carol Culleton, and Anastasia Kuzyk in Renfrew County, Ont., made 86 recommendations aimed at preventing similar tragedies. Among those recommendations was a call to the province to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic.
