Following the City of Greater Sudbury’s lead, the Greater Sudbury police board has declared gender-based and intimate-partner violence an epidemic.
The declaration was made during Wednesday’s meeting, at which board member Gerry Lougheed described at different times the 265 intimate-partner violence occurrences reported by police in December as “scary,” “unacceptable” and “huge.”
“It is huge,” Deputy Chief Natalie Hiltz said in agreement, noting that in 66 of the 265 cases intimate-partner violence was cleared by charges.
“The numbers there still remain quite high.”
There were 187 intimate-partner violence occurrences reported in November.
During the latest year on record, 2022, there were 3,227 intimate-partner violence occurrences reported in Greater Sudbury. The 10-year average is 3,036 incidents, which the city exceeded in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
The City of Greater Sudbury declared gender-based and intimate-partner violence an epidemic in November 2023 in a resolution which called on the provincial and federal governments to “provide the necessary support to the emergency, social services, health-care agencies and police services to meaningfully address the gender-based violence and intimate-partner violence epidemic.”
The police board’s motion takes matters several steps further.
Included in a list of advocacy, the motion urges the provincial and federal governments to enact recommendations from the inquest into the 2015 murders of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam in Renfrew County.
The inquest’s 86 recommendations “provide a roadmap to preventing intimate-partner violence from escalating to femicide,” according to the police board’s motion.
The recommendations begin with No. 1, “Formally declare intimate-partner violence as an epidemic,” and fall under the following subheadlines: oversight and accountability; system approaches, collaboration and communication; funding; education and training; measures addressing perpetrators of intimate-partner violence; intervention and safety.
Rather than simply advocate for other levels of government to do something, Mayor Paul Lefebvre noted that within the 86 recommendations, “There’s a lot of room for improvement”
The board requested that their next meeting, scheduled for Feb. 21, include a report from staff regarding what can be done at Greater Sudbury Police Services.
The Greater Sudbury police board’s full motion is as follows:
THAT the Greater Sudbury Police Services Board declare gender-based violence and intimate-partner violence an epidemic in the City of Greater Sudbury; and
THAT The Board urges provincial and federal governments to rightfully declare intimate partner and gender-based violence an epidemic and enact the additional 85 recommendations from the inquest into the 2015 murders of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam in Renfrew County, Ontario, which provide a roadmap to preventing intimate partner violence from escalating to femicide; and
THAT the Greater Sudbury Police Services Board calls on the provincial and federal governments to provide the necessary support to the police services, emergency, social services, and health care agencies to meaningfully address the gender-based violence and intimate partner violence epidemic; and further
THAT the Board request the local Public Health Unit declare intimate partner and gender-based violence an epidemic in their District; and
THAT the Board advocates that Femicide be added as a term to the Criminal Code of Canada and state its position to the Honourable Arif Virani, Minister of Justice and Attorney General Canada, and the Prime Minister of Canada; and
THAT the Greater Sudbury Police Services Board forward this item to Sudbury and Nickel District MPs and MPPs, and to Ontario’s Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity; and further
THAT the Greater Sudbury Police Services Board supports OAPSB Zone 1A in its resolution to declare the same.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.