Alberta emergency protection order requests on the rise

Province has some of the highest family violence numbers in Canada, lawyer says

The number of requests for emergency protection orders (EPO) for those facing family violence has spiked 17 per cent since 2018, says Legal Aid Alberta.

Christina Riddoch, staff lawyer with Legal Aid Alberta's Edmonton office, said the province consistently has some of the highest family violence numbers in Canada, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only pushed up the number of EPO applications.

“Quite frankly, we think that the numbers are just going to continue to increase,” she said of EPO requests, now that COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted.

“We hear concerns about recession looming, job security, income, the cost of living — financial strain is a significant cause of difficulties in relationships and that only exacerbates the potential of family violence occurring in relationships.”

Riddoch said when she first started doing EPO reviews in 2007, she was seeing about four or five at a time — now she is dealing with at least triple that amount. She has 13 EPOS to review on Thursday alone. There have been as many as 17 reviews some days.

Legal Aid Alberta staff lawyers working within the Emergency Protection Order Program have reported a total of 2,267 opened files in 2021-22.

Riddoch said the primary applicants for EPOS are women.

“Women in either established relationships, or they could be short-term relationships but they have a child together with their alleged abuser, but generally it's women and usually it's women with children,” she said.

As the number of EPO applications continues to rise, Riddoch said elderly Albertans are submitting applications at a significantly increasing rate.

“Elder abuse is becoming more of an issue. We're seeing an increase in situations where an adult child or stepchild is abusing their elderly parent — something that could be the result of the cost of living becoming harder to manage,” said Riddoch.

“We've been working in tandem with support services for elder abuse victims to try and help get these vulnerable people out of these situations.”

When it comes to family violence, Riddoch said it is important to create more community awareness for the issue. She added it happens behind closed doors and victims don't always know where to go or who to reach out to for help.

“There are service providers in the community, there's our office to contact and reach us but that's not always possible, so if the community would be more vigilant would be my plea,” said Riddoch.

She said everyone in the community, everyone in Alberta and everyone in Edmonton should be vigilant in spotting the signs of family violence.

Riddoch encourages those who hear or see a family violence situation occurring to report it to authorities.

“That may be the difference between someone reaching out for help and someone not being a statistic, a death statistic. It can mean all the difference,” she said.