Question Period Note: Gender-based violence

How has WAGE worked to prevent and address gender-based violence (GBV)?

•Gender-based violence (GBV) is one of the most pervasive, deadly, and deeply rooted human rights violations of our time. Rates of GBV continue to rise. In 2024, 42% of women homicide victims were killed by a spouse or intimate partner, up from 32% in 2023.
•In 2022, the Government of Canada launched the 10-year National Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence in collaboration with Provinces and Territories.
o Work under the Plan is also part of the Government of Canada’s response to recommendations from the Final Report of the Mass Casualty Commission.
•This federal-provincial-territorial framework is supported by a federal investment of $539.3 million over five years, starting in 2022-23.
•To implement the Plan, Women and Gender Equality Canada worked with each province and territory to establish bilateral agreements. In Year 1, joint investments totaling nearly $558 million supported efforts to prevent and address GBV across Canada.
•We support victims, survivors and their families, and we are committed to preventing violence before it occurs. This is a why a minimum 25% of federal funding under the bilateral agreements must be spent on prevention.

•Gender-based violence can take many forms, including physical, sexual, psychological, emotional, and financial abuse as well as technology-facilitated violence.
•Instances of gender-based violence are widespread and rising considerably:
o As of 2018, 44% of women and 36% of men report experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) at least once in their lifetime;
o Additionally, 30% of women reported having been sexually assaulted at least once since age 15, a rate almost four times higher than that for men (8%); and,
o From 2018 to 2023, overall rates of intimate partner violence increased by 13% while rates of family violence rose by 17%.
o While rates of gender-related homicide had been declining between 2001 and 2020, beginning in 2021, the rates began to increase again. There was a 14% increase between 2020 and 2021, with 21% of victims being Indigenous, despite comprising only 5% of the female population. In 2022, 184 women and girls in Canada died due to GBV. In 2024, 42% of women homicide victims were killed by a spouse or intimate partner, up from 32% in 2023.
•Violence, including GBV, is a key pathway to homelessness, particularly for women, girls and 2SLGBTQI+ individuals. However, data from 2019 show that more than 3 in 5 women and more than half of children seeking shelter are turned away due to lack of capacity.

•While there is no single agreed-upon definition of “femicide” in the national or international context, the term is widely understood to refer to the killing of women and gender-diverse individuals, primarily by men, because of their gender. The 2025 Liberal Party of Canada platform committed to “making murder motivated by hate a constructive first-degree offence, including femicide”.
•While anyone can be a victim or survivor of gender-based violence, women and girls, Indigenous women and girls, racialized women, immigrant and refugee women, 2SLGBTQI+ individuals, people with disabilities, and women living in Northern, rural, and remote communities are disproportionately impacted.
•On March 30, 2023, the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) delivered its final report, which included a volume dedicated to GBV.
oThe Progress Monitoring Committee (PMC) was established in 2023 to provide a mechanism for monitoring as Canada, Nova Scotia, and others respond to MCC recommendations.
•The PMC released its second annual report on October 9, 2025, covering the period from September 2024 to September 2025. For this annual report, the Government of Canada was assessed on its progress under the themes of Public Health and Policing Reform.
oProgress made by the Government of Canada under the themes of Access to Firearms and Gender-Based Violence and Intimate Partner Violence was assessed as part of the PMC’s first annual report. The PMC noted an appreciation for the foundational work completed to develop the National Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence, but highlighted the need for additional and ongoing financial investments by the Government of Canada.
•WAGE is leading the implementation of It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-based Violence (Federal GBV Strategy), in collaboration with other federal departments and agencies. Recent accomplishments include expanding research, developing training materials, and supporting promising practices across Canada.
•WAGE continues to fund organizations in the GBV sector to address gaps in supports for underserved and at-risk populations. As of March 2025, 120 organizations were being supported with $22.5 million to develop promising practices and undertake community-based research. These projects are helping support survivors, engage men and boys, address human trafficking, and generate knowledge to better address the needs of those most impacted by GBV.
•In December 2024 Canada released the first annual report on the National Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence (National Action Plan to End GBV), covering Federal-Provincial-Territorial actions in 2023-24.
oThis federal funding supported Provinces and Territories, with joint investments through the National Action Plan to End GBV totaling $558.9 million in 2023-24, 46% of which went towards prevention.
oThe annual report for Year 2 will be released in early 2026.
•In March 2025, Canada signed the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women (Belém do Pará Convention), which complements Canada’s existing efforts to prevent and address gender-based violence, including through the Federal GBV Strategy and the National Action Plan to End GBV.
oThis work was undertaken by Global Affairs Canada, with support from WAGE and Canadian Heritage.

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