Council Approves Motion Declaring Intimate Partner Violence an Epidemic

RICHMOND HILL – Richmond Hill Council unanimously passed a motion to declare gender-based violence and/or intimate partner violence an epidemic in Ontario.

The City joins 42 municipalities and regions in calling on Ontario to make the same declaration, in the hope of creating legislation that targets family violence and provides more funding to municipalities, regions and their emergency and social services to help address the issue.

Declaring gender-based and intimate partner violence was the first recommendation made by a coroner’s inquest at last year's Renfrew County inquest that looked into the 2015 murders of three women: Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam.

The motion urges the Ontario and Canadian government to enact the additional 85 recommendations from the inquest and add the word Femicide as a term to the Criminal Code of Canada.

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“The first step in solving this problem, is naming it. This declaration recognizes the serious problem we have here in Canada, where half of all women have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence. Making this declaration sends a message to our neighbours, family and friends who have experienced gender-based violence: we see you, and we support you.” – Mayor David West