PCs support NDP bill on intimate partner violence

But Ford government stops short of immediate legal declaration of epidemic that would boost aid

Ontario edged closer to naming intimate partner violence an epidemic, but left victims and their advocates frustrated by stopping short of a legal declaration and boosting aid.

Noting that 58 women in the province were killed through such violence last year, New Democratic Party Leader Marit Stiles thanked Premier Doug Ford’s government for pledging to support her party’s private members’ bill on the issue in a vote Wednesday.

However, Stiles said she fears a push by Government House Leader Paul Calandra to send the bill to the legislature’s justice committee for further discussion is a stall tactic.

“We know what needs to be done and we can save lives right away,” she told reporters.

Stiles was referring to 86 recommendations from a 2022 coroner’s inquest into the brutal 2015 murders of three women in a one-day killing spree by a shotgun-toting man in rural eastern Ontario.

When the recommendations were issued, the government said there would be no declaration of an epidemic because intimate partner violence is not a communicable or infectious disease.

The man, Basil Borutski, was labelled a high risk to reoffend while on probation for assaulting two of the women and repeated failures to attend programs aimed at changing his mindset — for which he faced no consequences in what has been described as a systemic failure to prevent further tragedy.

Borutski died last month of natural causes in Millhaven Penitentiary, where he was serving a 70-year sentence for killing Anastasia Kuzyk, Nathalie Warmerdam and Carol Culleton.

Calandra surprised the legislature by revealing that Progressive Conservative MPPs would support the bill on its second of three readings, despite previous signals it would be rejected.

“It just became evident to us that we have to do a bit more, we’re going to do a lot more,” he said later.

Calandra maintained MPPs on the justice committee should conduct an “in-depth, thorough investigation” with hearings across the province seeking opinions from victims, their families, case workers, experts in the field and cabinet ministers whose portfolios touch on the problem.

He said Ford asked for a closer look at “current programs that are available … and how we can do better.”

But with a list of coroner’s jury recommendations readily available — including declaring an epidemic, improved funding for intimate partner violence services, ensuring perpetrators of violence do not have access to firearms, and flagging their names and potential victims in police databases — there has been “enough talk,” Stiles said.

Other recommendations involved electronic monitoring and a registry for repeat offenders.

“The greatest, biggest tragedy here in Ontario is that we are still debating this in 2024,” said Fartumo Kusow of Windsor, whose daughter was killed last year. Her estranged ex-husband has been charged.

Cait Alexander of Toronto, whose assailant was accused of attempted murder three years ago before the case was eventually dropped, said the government and the justice system have failed her.

She questioned why Ford has been talking tough about fighting an epidemic of auto thefts, but not intimate partner violence.

“My life has the same value.”

‘‘ We know what needs to be done and we can save lives right away.

MARIT STILES NDP LEADER