News both bad and good

As many of you know, Bill 173 — which would declare IPV to be an epidemic in Ontario and which builds on similar declarations made by almost 100 communities across the province – has been sent to a special legislative committee for further study. Over the summer, the committee members from all four political parties heard from approximately 90 experts about what they thought the government should do. Many called, not surprisingly, for the Bill to be passed, and also encouraged the government to establish an independent IPV commission that could advise decision-makers and hold them to account. This, of course, is not a new idea: Kathleen Wynne’s government created a provincial violence against women roundtable to advise policy makers on matters VAW-related, but it was disbanded soon after Doug Ford’s Conservatives took power in 2018.

The Bill 173 committee was supposed to hear from government ministers whose portfolios touch on IPV-related issues in September and then go on a road trip to hear from survivors and others in communities across the province. Given that we already know what we need to do to address the IPV epidemic, some  of us felt there was no need for further study. The more cynical of us – including me – saw this drawn-out process as a stalling tactic to ensure the Bill did come back to the legislature for a final vote before the next election.

Wrapping it up

Last week, the Conservative co-chair of the committee, Jess Dixon, announced that she will be expediting the timeline of the study, which she now plans to complete by February. The sessions with the ministers apparently couldn’t take place until late November because no committee rooms were available.

Really??

Due to time constraints, Ministers will have only 20 minutes to talk about what they are doing and what they would like to do, and there will be just five minutes total for questions from opposition parties.

There will be no road trip. Survivors who wish to have their voices heard will have to make their own way to Queen’s Park or share their stories virtually.

Not surprisingly, NDP committee co-chair, Kristyn Wong-Tam, isn’t happy, and calls the new process a “farce.”

I agree. Even though I doubted the value of this process, these steps are a profound insult to survivors as well as to anyone who has a serious commitment to ending IPV. Twice this fall, the NDP has brought motions to pass the bill, and twice the Conservatives have voted those motions down.

It’s time to admit the obvious: the Conservatives have no real commitment to addressing IPV or gender-based violence, and they are not going to pass Bill 173.

More cheerful news

Recommendation 78 of the CKW inquest directed the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC) to work with the DVDRC (Domestic Violence Death Review Committee), justice partners and IPV service providers to develop a plain language tool to empower IPV professionals to make informed decisions about privacy, confidentiality and public safety.

The IPC moved quickly to respond to this recommendation and, earlier this year, released Sharing Information in Situations Involving Intimate Partner Violence: Guidance for Professionals. It is an excellent tool that will prove very helpful to those responding to situations of IPV.

At the annual meeting of federal, provincial and territorial information and privacy commissioners and ombuds, hosted in October by Ontario’s IPC, those authorities issued a joint resolution to guide the responsible disclosure of personal information in situations involving IPV.

The resolution recognizes the pervasive nature of IPV and defines it as:

“a form of gender-based violence that primarily affects women and gender-diverse individuals and includes multiple forms of harm caused by a current or former intimate partner. It often takes place behind closed doors, can make the victim or survivor feel isolated and afraid, and have devastating impacts on children and youth that are exposed to it.”

As stated in the media release from the privacy regulators:

“The resolution urges governments to work with their respective privacy regulators or ombuds to ensure organizations develop clear privacy policies around permissible disclosures, conduct public education campaigns, develop culturally sensitive and trauma-informed tools to support organizations supporting at-risk communities, and proactively disclose IPV-related data, statistics and trends to help inform and improve policymaking on this issue.”

Patricia Kosseim, Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, put it like this:

“This joint resolution is a collective affirmation by federal, provincial and territorial privacy regulators that privacy laws are not a barrier to disclosing information when there is a risk of serious harm to someone’s health and safety. Together, regulators, governments and organizations can help support responsible data sharing in situations involving intimate partner violence to protect victims and survivors and help keep our communities safe.”

What a good news story this is!

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