The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is urging the Ontario government to take legislative action to address intimate partner violence and gender-based violence.
A motion passed Thursday by the health unit's board of directors calls on the province to implement a meaningful and sustained society-wide response to intimate partner violence and gender-based violence, and provide provincial funding to ensure the necessary ongoing investment of resources to support an effective public health approach to addressing violence in Ontario’s communities.
According to a report to the board, the Statistics Canada 2023 Crime Severity Index indicated that Windsor and Amherstburg’s crime severity index increased by 4.8 per cent, the violent crime severity index increased by 15.5 per cent, and the non-violent crime severity index increased by 0.6 per cent from 2022.
Compared with data from 2022, Windsor and Amherstburg saw higher rates of assaults, up 16 per cent. Of the total number of assaults reported, 45 per cent were related to intimate partner violence.
Windsor-Essex County Health Unit CEO Dr. Ken Blanchette says Ontario Public Health Standards require boards of health to address violence through public health interventions, including advocacy.
"As you can see within the report from the public session, it really gives a detailed amount of data, both locally and provincially," he says. "This is a great piece to add on to the great work that's going on to bring awareness to IPV."
Blanchette says funding is critical.
"That and resources and plans and processes to be able to do that. Avenues, access to care, access to awareness, access to emergency types of situations," he says.
Numerous municipalities across Ontario have already declared intimate partner violence an epidemic in their communities, including Windsor, Tecumseh, Essex, and Lakeshore.
In response to an increasing number of IPV cases, the Windsor Police Service launched a pilot project that pairs police officers with a specially trained social worker to provide real-time assistance to victims of intimate partner violence.
Doug Ford's Conservative government has stopped short of calling IPV a province-wide epidemic.
Bill 173, the Intimate Partner Violence Epidemic Act, 2024, would establish provincial recognition that intimate partner violence is at crisis level in Ontario. The bill is currently being studied by a legislative committee, but on Dec. 5, the committee announced the study would be cut short over concerns of a possible early election in the spring.