Question Period Note: Intimate Partner Violence

What is WAGE doing to address intimate partner violence in Canada?

• The Government of Canada is committed to preventing and addressing gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence, which is one of the most prevalent forms of gender-based violence.

• The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to increased prevalence and severity of some forms of gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence, based on data from service providers and police forces.

• Since April 2020, over $235M in emergency COVID-19 funding has been provided to 1,400 organizations across Canada, including women’s shelters, sexual assault centres, and other organizations providing critical supports and services to those experiencing gender-based violence.

• This funding has ensured that more than 1.3 million individuals experiencing violence have had a place to go and access to services and supports during the pandemic.

• The forthcoming National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, supported by a Budget 2022 investment of $539.3M, will serve as a federal, provincial, and territorial governments’ framework to scale up efforts to prevent and address all forms of gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence, across Canada.
• Last June, the Standing Committee on the Status of Women issued their report entitled: Towards a Violence-Free Canada: Addressing and Eliminating Intimate Partner and Family Violence.

• The Government Response to the 28 recommendations will be tabled later this fall.

Investment

• Through It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence, launched in 2017, several initiatives related to intimate partner violence (IPV) have been funded, including:
o Over $30M in research on gender-based violence, including in a new national survey that provided the first comprehensive understanding of IPV in Canada (WAGE);
o Investments to promote healthy relationships (Public Health Agency of Canada); and
o Investments to support Canadian Armed Forces members and their families who may be affected by gender-based violence (Department of National Defence).

• Budget 2021 allocated $11M to WAGE for gender-based violence research and knowledge mobilization, of which $1.2M will be used to fund a femicide information database, in partnership with Statistics Canada, in 2022-23. This will allow for valid measurement and reporting on femicides in Canada. The database will link data from the Homicide Survey to court records and case outcomes, which will help us understand how the justice system is treating these cases and more accurately identify homicides as femicides. (Redacted)

Results

• WAGE has supported a number of activities to prevent and address gender-based violence. Through its Women’s Program, GBV Program and the Human Trafficking Initiative, since 2015, WAGE has invested over $232.8M in 597 projects to prevent gender-based violence and to support survivors and their families.
o In 2020-21, completed projects developed over 186 resources to increase awareness about services and supports, as well as how to prevent gender-based violence and to support survivors. More than 350 partnerships were created to implement training on trauma informed service delivery, transform care for Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and additional sexually and gender diverse people (2SLGBTQI+) survivors of GBV, and implement new supports to help survivors of GBV navigate the legal system.
o Because of these projects, nearly 1.3 million individuals gained access to programs and supports related to gender-based violence, including access to awareness-raising and prevention services, counselling, court services, and trauma-informed victims’ services.

• Of the $300M in emergency COVID-19 funding committed, over $235M in total funding has been provided to date to 1,400 organizations, including women’s shelters, sexual assault centres, and other organizations providing services and supports to those experiencing gender-based violence across the country.
o 559 organizations used the funding to deliver important programs or services.
o 497 organizations used the funding for additional staff or overtime; 448 organizations hired new staff.
o 335 organizations used the funding for infection control.
o Since April 2020, more than 1.3 million individuals had a place to turn to because of this funding.

Project examples

• Between April and December 2018, Statistics Canada (funded by WAGE) administered the first cycle of the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces, the first nationally representative survey of its kind on gender-based violence. It collected information on Canadians’ experiences of safety at home, in the workplace, in public spaces and online. Data from this survey has informed the federal Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence and the development of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. Planning is underway on the next cycle of this survey.

BACKGROUND:

• Intimate partner violence, also known as spousal or domestic violence, is one of the most prevalent forms of gender-based violence. It refers to multiple possible forms of harm—physical, sexual, financial, emotional, or psychological, as well as stalking and coercive control—by a current or former intimate partner(s), dating partner(s) or spouse(s) and can occur in public spaces, private spaces, and can be technology-facilitated.

• More than 11 million people in Canada aged 15 and over have experienced some form of intimate partner violence in their lifetime—6.2 million women and 4.9 million men. This is especially true for Indigenous women. About 6 in 10 Indigenous women have experienced some form of intimate partner violence in their lifetime.

The Standing Committee on the Status of Women (FEWO)

• From February to April 2022, FEWO conducted a study on “Intimate Partner and Domestic Violence in Canada”.

• In their June 17, 2022, report entitled: Towards a Violence-Free Canada: Addressing and Eliminating Intimate Partner and Family Violence, the Committee makes 28 recommendations to provide guidance to the Government on measures that could be implemented by all orders of government to prevent intimate partner and family violence in Canada and to ensure that the needs of survivors from diverse backgrounds are met.

• The recommendations highlight the need for prevention, further support for survivors and victims, research and data collection, and changes to the justice system in Canada.

• The Government’s Response to this report will be tabled in fall 2022.

Femicide

• Femicide is understood—based on the United Nations definition—as homicide where the reason or motivation is the victim’s gender. There is no specific offence for femicide in the Criminal Code.

• In Canada, the Homicide Survey has detailed information on the accused, the victims, their relationship and the incident itself. Since there is no information on motive of the killing, there is currently no way to identify a killing because of someone’s gender.

• The Canadian Femicide Observatory on Justice and Accountability collects and reports annual data on killings that they consider to be femicides. Despite declining homicide rates overall, homicide of women and girls continues to be of concern in Canada. The Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability reports that 173 women and girls were violently killed in 2021, 13 more than in 2020, and amounting to one woman every two days.

• Budget 2021 allocated $11M to WAGE for gender-based violence research and knowledge mobilization, of which $1.2M will be used to fund a femicide information database, in partnership with Statistics Canada, in 2022-23. This will allow for valid measurement and reporting on femicides in Canada. The database will link data from the Homicide Survey to court records and case outcomes, which will help us understand how the justice system is treating these cases and more accurately identify homicides as femicides. (Redacted)

• In Canada, intimate partner violence represented one-third (30%) of all police-reported violent crime in 2019. While just over half (53%) of victims of violence were female, the large majority (79%) of victims of intimate partner violence were women.
o In 2018, 12% of women reported that they had experienced at least one form of IPV in the year preceding the survey—that’s almost 5,000 women per day.

• In 2018, young women aged 15-24 years reported the highest levels of intimate partner violence in the year preceding the survey, almost 2.5 times higher than women in general (29% vs 12%).

• Children exposed to intimate partner violence are at increased risk of a wide range of psychological and behavioural problems including low self-esteem, depression and anxiety as well as increased risks of aggression, delinquency, violence, and risk-taking behaviours.

• While there are no nationally representative statistics yet on how intimate partner violence has changed since the onset of the pandemic, there is considerable evidence from law enforcement, child, youth and family services, helplines and other anti-violence organizations suggesting increases in frequency and severity of some forms of gender-based violence.

• Many organizations providing intimate partner violence related supports and services have reported a significant increase in demand since the beginning of the pandemic. Others have seen a decrease in demand for their services, raising concerns that those experiencing intimate partner violence cannot or are not reaching out for help.

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