Statement of support for city council’s declaration of IPV as epidemic

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, March 10, 2023      4:35 pm

Ottawa — This week, Ottawa city council declared intimate partner violence (IPV) an epidemic. The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) supports the City and all the involved partners and agencies who were involved in making this declaration. We recognize that IPV is a key issue impacting women’s lives and undermining public safety.

On March 8th, we celebrated International Women’s Day and recognized the women of the OPS – past, present, sworn and civilian – for their outstanding contributions to keeping our community safe and making this organization stronger.

Today, we affirm our support for all those within our Service and our City who are working to protect women and gender-diverse people from violence. We will continue to strengthen our efforts to address IPV and support organizations within Ottawa working to end violence against women (VAW).

The inquest into the 2015 deaths of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk, and Nathalie Warmerdam made 86 recommendations. The first was that IPV be declared epidemic. Several recommendations were directed at police services, and the OPS has begun the work of addressing these.

In 2022, we committed to developing and implementing an IPV risk assessment tool and hiring civilian risk assessors, as well as continuing to support the VAW sector as needed. We also began using the term femicide when discussing the murder of women by a male perpetrator. 

Our 2023 Budget includes targeted funds to support local organizations in the VAW sector by assisting them with writing grant applications, as well as providing compensation for organizations who participate in the Sexual Violence and IPV Case Reviews. We have also committed to tracking data on homicides, including relationships between victim and accused.

Across Canada, a woman or girl is murdered every 36 hours. Police services, as well as all levels of government and civil society, must work together to address this crisis.

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