How best to prevent domestic abuse

Re How court ‘silos’ can prove fatal, Feb. 2 Important and relevant information was communicated in this article identifying court “silos” as a risk factor for fatal domestic violence. In addition to court “silos,” family lawyer “silos” are also a risk factor for lethal domestic violence.

A 2014 Department of Justice publication identifies lawyerclient privilege as a barrier to mandatory information exchange between lawyers and other community-based domestic violence prevention professionals. The Supreme Court of Canada (Smith vs. Jones, 1999) stated that lawyer-client privilege could be breached by warnings and information sharing aimed at prevention so long as the following three factors were present: clear risk of violence against a known person; the risk involves serious bodily harm or death; the danger is imminent. However, the presence of these factors requires the use of a field-tested domestic violence risk assessment instrument and very few family lawyers use them.

Moreover, there is no statutory duty imposed on family lawyers to warn or share information that may prevent imminent lethal domestic violence. Desmond Ellis, La Marsh Centre for Research on Children and Youth, York University Re Triple death renews calls for change, Jan. 30 Why should a victim and young children escape or hide from one violent person and feel “safe” only when relocating to a shelter? Why should children’s lives be uprooted in order to be protected?

A person convicted of a domestic dispute should serve six months in a secure facility that forces them to take angermanagement courses and get help for mental illness, addictions and stresses they experience in their lives.

This would give victims a chance to put their lives together and feel safe in their own home.

Victims already go through enough trauma. They should have every right to feel protected and every abuser should have the right to receive the help they need. Melanie Kohek, Whitby