Most domestic violence victims in province are women, children

A panel examining domestic violence says most domestic homicide victims in Saskatchewan have been women and a third were children.

The panel’s interim report released Thursday by the justice department examined 48 cases of domestic homicide between 2005 and 2014.

It found that 19 victims were adult women, while 15 were children. Justice Minister Gordon Wyant said he found the figures “a little bit surprising.”

“One of the things that was surprising was that six out of 10 communities in this country that have the highest rates of domestic violence are in Saskatchewan,” he said.

Wyant said he was also surprised by the ages of the victims. Five female and nine male victims were 10 or younger.

The majority of perpetrators of domestic-related homicide — 32 — were male while 14 were female.

The review was prompted by several high profile cases, including the murder-suicide of a couple and three children in Tisdale in April 2015. The interim report says these deaths were not considered in selecting cases for the pilot because some hadn’t made their way through court yet.

A final report will be released in the fall. The province says the report, along with the Saskatchewan Domestic Violence Death Review pilot project, will help shape its strategy on domestic violence.

“We’ve asked our ministry to start working on that,” said Wyant. “I think this will be very instructive.”

Wyant says the interim report will also be shared with the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The report found that 27 of the 48 domestic homicide victims were indigenous.

Last month, the Saskatchewan government passed legislation allowing a tenant to end a rental agreement with 28 days notice if they or their family members are being abused by another resident or former resident. Having signed a year-long lease will no longer factor into someone’s decision to leave, Wyant said at the time.

New Democrat Nicole Sarauer

suggested the legislative change last June as a way to quickly help domestic violence victims.

Sarauer has also suggested Saskatchewan look at a Manitoba law that allows employees who are victims of domestic violence to take leave from work.

Jo-Anne Dusel, executive director of the Provincial Association of Transition Houses and Services of Saskatchewan, is a member of the Domestic Violence Death Review Panel.

“For us, part of the difficulty is working through the process in such a way that we are having adequate information to be able to make some really concrete recommendations,” Dusel said.

“Once the process is complete … I know there will be recommendations coming forward, but my hope would be that government would certainly act on those recommendations, and that we could start to see some changes in the statistics.”

Dusel said education is the key, both for the population and the authorities tasked with handling domestic violence cases.

“Some of the things that I think could influence the occurrence of domestic violence in our province, would be to start with education from a young age,” she said. “I’m talking elementary school, in terms of what a healthy relationship looks like, and what it doesn’t look like.”

“We’re the only province in Canada that doesn’t have a provincial plan. Minister Wyant has been speaking about their plans to put one together, and I find that very promising.

The Canadian Press. With files from Dave Deibert and Brian Fitzpatrick, Postmedia News