Femicide in Canada

pathssk.org

 

"It's just too easy to harm women, and there's no consequence of any meaningful significance."

Megan Walker, former vice-chair, Police Services Board, London, Ontario 

 

"[The data on female killings gathered by the Investigative Journalism Bureau is] insane."

"The difference between many killings of men and women is} Women are killed because they are mothers and they are spouses and they are sex trade workers and just for who they are." 

Heather Lachine, superintendent of criminal investigations, Ottawa Police Service

 

"[Offenders with close ties to their victims are often treated with greater leniency than other violent criminals as a result of an] intimacy or domestic discount [in sentencing]."

"Persons accused of a  homicide against someone with whom they share a close relationship may be perceived as lacking criminal intent [and viewed as the legal system to have acted on] provocation or strong emotion."

Statistics Canada report 

 

"I represent her desire to find justice in a system that failed her when she needed it the most ... The restraining order did not do its job. It was a piece of paper with meaningless words."

"[My] mission [is to have a law passed in Madisson's name that makes ankle monitors a mandatory condition of a restraining order."

"How many innocent people need to die, like my  young daughter Madisson, for legislation to change?"

"Her life was full of potential."

Jackie Cobb, mother of murdered Madisson Cobb 

Madisson Cobb was killed in a parkade near her office (Photo courtesy of the family).

 

There is an acknowledged Canadian epidemic of women being killed by their intimate partners, a phenomenon now more familiarly known as 'femicide' and which is defined internationally through the United Nations as 'the intentional killing of women because of their gender'. In 2024 when full data of the death toll of women was last tracked, a list of 221 deaths was compiled representing an increase of 46 percent over 2019, when 151 deaths were numerated.

 

The Investigative Journalism Bureau at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health undertook to research the issue, tracking individual cases, and interacting with researchers, advocates and some representatives of police forces. It is an issue that has finally caught the attention of federal authorities. Canada's Justice Minister recently introduced Bill C-15: the Protecting Victims Act which among other issues looks prepared to recognize female murders involving "control, hate, sexual violence or exploitation" as 'femicide', making it a new category under Criminal Law.

 

Should the bill pass, it would mean a first-degree murder designation, in such instances, even without premeditation, to be added to the Criminal Code.  Some 1,329 women and girls have died in criminal or suspicious circumstances over the past seven years in Canada; an average of one female killed every-other day in the country. These killings have steadily grown in number over the years. 

 

The term 'femicide' has not yet been fully accepted generally, although some police forces in Canada label some deaths of girls and women as clear 'femicide'. Other police fores have stated their position that if the term were to be added to the Criminal Code, they would accept it as well. The national police force of the RCMP defines women's deaths as homicides while observing international and local law-enforcement agencies using the word to denote the deliberate killing of a woman by an intimate male.

 

Female victims are killed almost 90 percent of the time by a man and that man most frequently happens to be a current or former intimate partner. Moreover police, child services, judicial or mental health systems were 83 percent aware before the killing of the offender, as a result of previous interaction. At present, a conviction for such murder carries a 10-year sentence. Giving it a first-degree designation through naming it a 'femicide' would result in a lifetime sentence of 25 years.

 

Killed by the same man on the same day in Renfrew County, Ont., in 2015 were, left to right, Nathalie Warmerdam, Carol Culleton and Anastasia Kuzyk. Photo by Postmedia files

 

In their investigation, the Investigative Journalism Bureau researchers took over a year to examine female deaths across the country, searching public records, police reports, court documents and websites for missing persons. The details and outcomes of 1,329 suspicious female deaths taking place in Canada since 2019 represented their worksheet. The database used was that of confirmed homicides and deaths deemed criminally suspicious by police.

 

Of 687 individual cases the IJB reviewed where the accused was either a current or former intimate partner or a family member, judicial outcomes to date reached 337. Of that number, over one-third pleaded to lesser offences, were found guilty of a lesser crime, or had their charges stayed or dropped. In the past ten years inquiries to examine targeted deaths of women including female victims saw hundreds of recommendations made in prevention of root causes of gender-based violence, yet few were enacted. 

 

Most of the intimate partner homicide cases reviewed by the Ontario chief coroner's committee that reviews domestic violence fatalities included red flags that under a better system would be seen as critical alerts, according to psychologist Katreena Scott who sits on the committee: "Systems often don't listen very well. Systems don't listen to survivors -- to women, who are saying, 'Listen, this is a dangerous situation' or are asking for help."  

 

The Red Shoe Project is a global campaign inspired by Mexican artist Elina Chauvet to commemorate the women lost to gender-based violence and to advocate for change. iStock/GIANFRI958