CLARE’S LAW A WISE MOVE
It’s called Clare’s Law. Saskatchewan is now the first jurisdiction in Canada where police will have the ability to release information about someone’s abusive past if they believe that person’s partner may be at risk.
The movement behind such laws started in Britain after the murder of Clare Wood by her former boyfriend in 2009. As Postmedia reported this week, Wood was unaware of her partner’s violent past and, after her death, her father fought for more disclosure from police.
According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, at least 1,335 disclosures have been made so far in the U.K. since March of 2014. These include both “right to ask” cases — where information was requested — and “right to know” — where police warn potential victims without being asked to do so, according to access to information investigations.
Right now, the public cannot get access to criminal records without consent. Justice Minister Don Morgan said it would not be mandatory for police to give the information requested, but the legislation does make it possible. “What we’ve done is we’ve created a protocol which allows them to do it,” he said.
There are details to be worked out, and it is important the government focuses on this task soon. For example, will police only be allowed to share information from criminal convictions alone, or will incidents where charges are dropped be included? Groups that deal with domestic violence are asking for clarity.
There is no question this is an important step toward creating a safer atmosphere to carry out an intimate partner relationship in Saskatchewan. The provincial law could be dedicated to the 48 domestic homicides that took place in Saskatchewan between 2005 and 2014. Of those victims, 14 were aged 10 or under. If access to such information could have prevented even one of these deaths, it is worth the effort.
Saskatchewan’s record on domestic violence has long been recognized as abysmal. It has the highest rate of police-reported interpersonal and domestic violence of all provinces, across all relationships, according to Statistics Canada.
Earlier this year, Saskatchewan’s Domestic Violence Death Review Panel released a report with 19 recommendations for changing this situation. Adopting Clare’s Law was one of them. Several other recommendations were addressed this year, including increasing staffing in some regions to tackle the issue.
The government needs to work its way down the rest of that list to ensure any unfulfilled recommendations are carried out as soon as possible — and make sure the actions they have taken so far are working.