Femicide research group expects sex-based hate crimes are on the rise in N.S.
Posted May 14, 2020 08:25:34 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Nova Scotia had one of Canada's lowest rates of women and girls dying by violence in 2019, but the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability expects that won't be the case in 2020.
As first reported in the Globe and Mail, at least nine women and girls have been killed in domestic homicides in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the accused, is a 45-year-old man who has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the homicide of a woman in Hammonds Plains in early April.
Kathy Majowski is with the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability (CFOJA) which tracks the murder of women, and says the recent mass killing will also likely impact Nova Scotia's rate of femicide.
“We recognize that this was predicated with gender based violence, and it culminated in the mass killing,” she says. “Although not all the victims were women, the gender-based violence component of this situation has definitely been highlighted.”
Details released by Nova Scotia RCMP reveal the perpetrator behind the province's mass murder had a history of domestic violence, with a former neighbour of the gunman reporting he held down and beat his common law spouse in 2013. Police have also said one of the killer's first violent acts in the series of events was assaulting and forcibly confining his female partner, although she managed to escape. Motives for the killings of the 13 women including one who was pregnant, along with nine men, have yet to be clarified.
The CFOJA found in 2019, a total of 118 women and girls were killed by violence in Canada. On average, that works out to about one women or girl killed every three days.
Majowski says the observatory is concerned about how the COVID-19 pandemic might escalate abusive situations.
“I think everyone is under additional stress with all the changes in our lives, and when you take a violent situation and add a pile more stressors there is always the risk that the violence could get worse and could escalate to where it is in fact a femicide,” she says.
Majowski points out the pandemic and associated public health initiatives, could have greater impact on women aged 65 and older who were over-represented as victims in 2019.
“Victims are isolating with their abusers, and particularly in the case of older adults, victims are sometimes dependent on their abusers to maybe get them groceries or medications,” she says. “The dynamic of the relationship has changed.”
At Wednesday's provincial briefing, Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil says the province will continue to work to better support women and children living in abusive situations.
“When you hear it is still happening and people aren't leaving that environment we need to do more, and we as a government will,” he says. “As a society we all need to do our part to provide that support and let those women and children know there are caring and loving people in this province who want to support them and protect them.”
The CFOJA reports that in 2019 where the victim-accused relationship was known, 57 per cent of the primary victims shared a current or former relationship with the accused. It also found that of the primary accused, 87 per cent were male and 13 per cent were female.
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