8 suggestions were turned down, 10 were accepted, and 12 were accepted in part
Three women were killed in Renfrew County a year ago. The day before the first anniversary of the inquest, the Ontario government gave its answers to 30 of the jury’s suggestions for preventing similar deaths.
In Pembroke, the murders of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk, and Nathalie Warmerdam in 2015 were looked at in a weeks-long inquest last summer.
The jury was made up of three men and two women from Renfrew, Griffith, Petawawa, Chalk River, and Pembroke. They suggested that the provincial and federal governments, as well as other groups, adopt 86 recommendations, which included many preventative measures.
On Wednesday, people involved in the investigation will meet in Pembroke to talk about what has been done so far.
Some recommendations duplicate existing efforts, province say
Most of the 86 suggestions made by the inquest jury were about Ontario. The province’s first response was sent to the coroner’s office in February, and the second response was sent on Tuesday.
Twenty-two of the 30 suggestions in the second update have been accepted or partially accepted, while eight have been turned down.
Among the suggestions that were turned down are:
- Some local governments, including Renfrew County, have taken the step of officially calling domestic violence an epidemic.The province said that an epidemic is the spread of a disease, and that IPV “would not be considered an epidemic because it is not an infectious or communicable disease.”
- Creating a committee to make sure that the recommendations of the inquest are fully thought through and that any responses are fully reported and published. The province said that existing bodies will be used and boosted by targeted consultation with stakeholders to give input and advice on how to put recommendations into action.
- Studying the decisions judges make in cases of IPV and keeping track of repeat offenders, violence that gets worse, and new victims in longitudinal studies.The province said that academics and researchers would be the best people to do this kind of study, citing how important it is that the courts are independent and that the government doesn’t get in the way.
- Setting up an independent IPV Commission whose goal is to end all forms of intimate partner violence and act as a voice for survivors and families of victims, raise public awareness, and make sure that the government and other organizations are open and accountable when dealing with IPV in all its forms.The province said that the committee would have offices, programs, and services that were already in place.
- Creating a Survivor Advocate who will speak up for survivors about how they were treated by the justice system.The province said that the Family Court Support Worker Program, Sexual Assault Centres, the Victim Crisis Assistance Ontario program, and the Victim/Witness Assistance Program are just some of the government and community services that already help IPV survivors in the justice system.
- Installing safe rooms in the homes of high-risk survivors who need them.The province said that safe rooms can be dangerous for survivors if they are mishandled or used against them, and that there are already programs to help keep victims safe.
- Setting up a list of repeat IPV offenders, like the list of sexual offenders.The province said that there are already ways to keep track of and record information about IPV in Ontario, and that an IPV registry would probably duplicate and complicate these efforts.
Pamela Cross, the advocacy director at Luke’s Place, an Oshawa non-profit that helps women fleeing violence, took part in last year’s inquest. On Wednesday, she posted on social media that she was disappointed by the rejections.
“Contact your MPP today and ask that the inquest’s suggestions be put into action. “There have already been too many women’s deaths,” she wrote on Twitter.
Among the province’s accepted suggestions are:
- Exploring how to use restorative justice and community-based approaches to deal with appropriate cases of IPV to make sure survivors are safe and get the best results.
- Reviewing policies to make sure that information is shared in a timely, reliable, consistent, and accurate way. This includes using emergency alerts and media releases when the police know of situations that could put the public in danger and making sure that safety is the main focus when deciding what information to share with whom and when.
- Creating and using a new way to teach the public about IPV through public education campaigns.
- Reviewing the current training for people in the justice system who work for the provincial government or the police.
- Providing services that target the people who commit IPV.
- Getting rid of barriers and making opportunities and ways for people who commit IPV to get services in the community.
- Improving the way services for substance abuse, mental health, child protection, and perpetrators of IPV work together and promoting cross-agency service delivery and case management.