The 16 days of activism to end gender-based violence began on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and run until December 10th, which is recognized as Human Rights Day around the world. Over those 16 days, individuals, anti-violence organizations, communities and governments at all levels will be engaging in activities intended to focus attention on the epidemic of gender-based violence around the world.
The Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH), together with Building a Bigger Wave, the network of violence against women community coordinating committees across the province, released its annual We Count Femicide Because report on November 25th.
As always, the numbers are sobering: at least 62 women were killed in Ontario in the 52 weeks between November 26th, 2023 and November 25, 2024. Of those, 35 were killed by men in their family: 21 by intimate partners, 10 by sons/sons-in-law, one by a grandson and three by other family members. Three children were killed in acts of femicide.
Shocking as these numbers are, it is important to remember that, when we talk about intimate partner/gender-based violence, femicides are but the tip of the iceberg. Tens of thousands of women as well as, in many cases, their children, live with the reality of IPV every day in this country.
All of society problem
Violence against women is an all-of-society problem, as Canadian journalist Brian Vallee wrote in his still all-too-relevant 2007 book, The War on Women:
“We live on a planet beset by war. In North America alone, the most familiar wars — those spotlighted by the media – include the War on Drugs, the War on Terror, the War on Crime, the Gulf War, the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq . . .
“There is another war—largely overlooked but even more deadly – with far more victims killed by ‘hostiles.’ But these dead are not labelled heroes, nor are they honoured in the national media or in formal ceremonies. From time to time they may attract a spate of publicity as the result of a high-profile trial or an inquest that will likely conclude that society let them down once again and recommend changes to prevent future deaths, though those recommendations will be mostly ignored. This war is the War on Women.”
All-of-society response
We need an all-of-society response. In 2023, the Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Commission’s final report put it this way:
“Gender-based violence is a societal problem and requires a whole of society response. . . . We need to understand that the problems and solutions are holistic and multifactored. They involve many systems, which can interact to reinforce rather prevent violence against women.”
Canada’s National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence says:
“Ending GBV is everyone’s responsibility. It . . . requires cross-sectoral approaches, with responses from education, health, justice and social service sectors. Working in partnership across orders of government, with victims and survivors, Indigenous partners, direct service providers, experts, researchers, advocates and the private sector is essential.”
I couldn’t agree more. Over the 16 days of activism, I will be spending time in several Ontario towns and cities, talking about the issue of gender-based violence and facilitating community discussions about what each of us can do to be part of the work to end this violence.
We all have to do our bit, but we also need to hold governments and others in positions of power to account. As I have written here before, there are recommendations aplenty about what needs to be done, most directed at different levels of government, but those that have been implemented are few and far between. That’s because there is no accountability system to ensure action is taken, making it easy for those in power to ignore or selectively choose which systemic changes they will act on.
Recommendation 2 from the CKW inquest calls for a provincial independent Intimate Partner Violence Commission “dedicated to eradicating intimate partner violence (IPV) and acting as a voice that speaks on behalf of survivors and victims’ families, raising public awareness and ensuring the transparency and accountability of government and other organizations in addressing IPV in all its forms.”
Right now, there is one simple step the government of Ontario could take to persuade us that it is paying more than lip service to the issue of gender-based violence. Bill 173, which would declare IPV in Ontario to be an epidemic, could be moved immediately to third reading and be passed. Obviously, that alone won’t eradicate IPV or GBV, but it would be a powerful step in the right direction.