As I wrote about last week, there is talk of creating a stand-alone offence of femicide, in response to ongoing high rates of gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence (IPV) and homicide. (The OPP announced earlier this week that reports of IPV had increased by 18% in 2024 over 2023 after an increase of 13% in 2023 over 2022.)
Those who support creating a new offence of femicide suggest that it will allow for more accurate data collection about who is being killed by whom as well as give the police more resources. According to supporters, it could also lead to increased public awareness about the prevalence and seriousness of all forms of gender-based violence, including lethal violence.
Maybe, but before we move to create a separate offence of femicide we should consider whether there might be other ways to achieve these goals.
What do we already have?
We should also take a look at what the Criminal Code already offers. For example, section 718(2) sets out some aggravating factors for the court to consider in sentencing. (An aggravating factor is one that could increase the penalty for the offender.) These include evidence that the offence was motivated by prejudice or hatred based on, among other factors, gender, as well as evidence that the offender, in committing the offence, abused their intimate partner or another family member.
In other words, the law already says that it’s worse when someone harms someone else because of their gender and/or in the context of intimate partner abuse.
To create an offence of femicide, we need to know what we mean by the word, and right now there are some differences of opinion about that. We need to clearly define what the elements of the offence would be. We also should consider potential, if unintended, negative consequences, including the differential impact of such an offence on marginalized communities, which are already disproportionately affected by a carceral criminal system.
Having a look at mandatory charging policies, which have not proven to be as effective as hoped when they were implemented, would be helpful before a new criminal law response to gender-based violence is developed.
If one of the goals is to make women safer – as surely it must be — we need to eradicate the root causes that lead to gender-based violence, including the murder of women. That will take a lot of work, but it’s time to meaningfully address racism, poverty, misogyny, homo- and transphobia and the many other structural realities that leave women vulnerable to gendered abuse.
Education – of children, youth, the public and all those involved in the legal systems to which survivors turn — is another key part of making communities safer for women and children.
In fact, maybe we should stop tweaking the existing criminal system and, instead, think about alternatives that might better encourage true accountability on the part of those who have caused harm while also ensuring the safety and well-being of those who have been harmed.
None of these are new ideas, but we seem to lack the public and political will to get serious about working on them.
Learning from others
Some other countries have created criminal offences of femicide. In the past three years, Cyprus, Malta, Croatia and Belgium have done so, as has South Africa.
It is from Latin America and the Caribbean that we can learn the most. In response to extremely high rates of violence against women, eighteen of 33 countries in that region have introduced a distinct offence of femicide into their criminal laws, beginning with Costa Rica in 2007. However, the rates of GBV and femicide have not gone down.
In Costa Rica, with a population of just five million people (one-eighth that of Canada), there were 10 femicides in the first two months of this year. According to the Judicial Branch’s Observatory on Gender Based Violence Against Women, femicide – most of it taking place in the context of IPV — has been steadily rising since 2022. The Ministry of Health reported in March that domestic violence overall has more than doubled in the last four years, increasing from 9,406 reported cases in 2021 to 23,046 in 2024.
Research conducted by Queen Mary University of London looked at the impact of femicide laws in Mexico, only to find that they have failed to reduce the number of both femicides and girls and women reported missing. The report points to ambiguities in the legislation as one of the reasons for its lack of effectiveness, but also argues that the roots of violence need to be addressed and that the laws need to be supported by a judicial system that can enforce them effectively.
Moving quickly to create an independent criminal offence of femicide can let government look good while it does little to support substantive change. We need to pay close attention to the history of the criminal response to gender-based violence in this country and to the experiences of those countries that have already implemented such an offence before making any decisions about what to do.
This is the only way to ensure that our actions move us in the direction of preventing GBV in all its forms while also building safer communities for everyone.