Province urged to act on domestic violence review
Panel suggests 19 changes to cut rate that is twice national average
Peggy Musqua, Raime Myers, Nylan Clark, Natalia Shingoose, Latasha Gosling and her children Janayah, Jenika and Landen, Dorothy Woods, Hannah Leflar, Donna Clements, Daniel Matheson, Celine Whitehawk, Jack Lever, Elise Cote, Shirley Parkinson — those are the names behind just a few of Saskatchewan’s dire domestic homicide statistics.
Some of the cases are among those that spurred the creation of a panel of experts to review domestic violence deaths in the province.
The result? Nineteen recommendations put forth to the provincial government to address a domestic violence rate double that of the national average.
The final report was released Thursday, along with several actions being taken by the government to address its findings.
Initial reactions have been a mix of optimism and a demand for follow-through on concrete action, including a comprehensive approach.
“The next step now is for the minister to take these recommendations and actually implement them,” said NDP justice critic Nicole Sarauer, who said the initial actions announced by the government are not enough.
“We’ve known about this problem for a long time. Yet, we see flatlining of funding to crisis shelters that have wait lists that are absolutely unreal,” she said.
Formed in 2016, Saskatchewan’s Domestic Violence Death Review Panel closely studied six homicide cases (which ones are not specifically identified) related to domestic violence that occurred between 2005 and 2014, and also provides a statistical analysis of a total of 48 domestic homicides in that time frame and nine domestic suicides.
In the report, an intimate partner relationship is defined as a current or former dating, commonlaw, marriage relationship or people who are parents of one or more children regardless of their marital status or whether they have lived together at any time.
“I would say that I am optimistic,” said Jo-Anne Dusel, executive director of the Provincial Association of Transition Houses and Services of Saskatchewan (PATHS).
She said the fact the government has undertaken the review shows they are receptive to improving efforts to combat the issue. But big change takes time she said, and sometimes it’s not easy to wait.
“I may be feeling a little bit impatient at times because if you really want to effect true change, we do need to address the broader systems.”
Deep-rooted societal change, like what is needed in Saskatchewan when it comes to domestic violence, can take 20 to 25 years, she said.
A panel member, Dusel said recognizing intimate partner violence as a complex phenomenon with a broad range of causes, from the individual all the way to a societal level, is key.
She said the panellists are calling on government to take an integrated, comprehensive approach.
“A really good first step would be a public education program to raise people’s awareness, first of all what the dynamics of intimate partner violence are and how you can address it in a safe way,” she said. “And further, that it no longer becomes an acceptable activity or an activity that is considered just a family matter.”
She said educating kids at a young age in order to break intergenerational cycles of violence is also a key piece of the puzzle.
The recommendations centre on four key themes — awareness and education, assessment and intervention, children in domestic violence situations and resources.
They include making the domestic violence death review an ongoing process, creating a governance structure independent from the government to co-ordinate and oversee actions initiated to reduce domestic violence, and adequate funding for support services and including suicides related to domestic violence in future reviews.
Justice Minister Don Morgan said that while they want to continue collecting data and reviewing domestic violence deaths, it likely won’t look the same.
“I don’t think we’re going to have this panel go on the same way that it did, but I think we want to have the ministry look at and continue to compile the statistics,” he said.
Morgan announced the hiring of a second person for the Status of Women Office to oversee the implementation of the recommendations. The government has also announced several short-term responses they describe as a starting point:
Establishing a domestic violence disclosure process, also known as Clare’s Law, which would allow police “to disclose information about previous violent behaviour byapotentiallyviolentindividualto
The report also reflects nine domestic related suicides by perpetrators (eight males, one female) in that same time frame.
No breakdowns are provided, but the report also references 10 additional domestic-related deaths (from five cases of homicide and two suicides) in 2015. In 2016, there were three confirmed victims of domestic homicide; other cases remained open. their partner.”
Expansion of the Kids on the Block/Kids Matter programs in northern Saskatchewan, which provide educational programming to school-aged children on family and domestic violence issues.
Funding for additional crisis workers in northern Saskatchewan and one in the rural south to help meet increasing demand for sexual assault services.
Expansion of the Children Exposed to Violence program, which provides children who have been exposed to domestic violence with supports designed to reduce their risk of becoming a victim or offender.
Dusel said while they are good first steps, “every day that we don’t act on those broader issues, there are actually people suffering and people will be dying.”
The government said the report will also be used to inform ongoing consultations on a provincial domestic violence plan.
Sarauer said she’d also like to see implemented the NDP’s proposed Bill 609, giving survivors of domestic violence five days of paid leave — something the NDP has been pressing for the past two years.
She wants money going into expanding programs for survivors and perpetrators of domestic violence.
Morgan said approximately $19.6 million will be provided to community-based organizations across Saskatchewan in 2018-19 to deliver violence support services and prevention programming.
The panel was made up of 13 people from of social services, police, justice, and victim services.