Statement on Violence Against Women and Gender-based Violence – November 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, November 25, 2024   8:40 am 

(Ottawa) — November 25th marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (VAW), an annual day of significance that begins the “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence”. 

In August of this year, the Ottawa Police Service was the first police service to use the term femicide to report on the death of a woman by her partner; since then, we have reported another case of femicide, this one stemming from a familial connection.  

Using the term ‘femicide’ is a significant step in recognizing the epidemic of violence against women in our community and our society. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) continues to be an ongoing issue; in 2021, we received 6385 reports of IPV; in 2022, we received 6544 reports, and in 2023, we received 6594. So far, in 2024, 5891 reports of IPV have been made (as of November 22^nd).  

The Ottawa Police Service maintains support for all those within our Service and our City who are working to protect women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ individuals from violence. We will continue to strengthen our efforts to address IPV and support organizations within Ottawa working to end VAW and all gender-based violence. 

As in previous years, we recognize and support the White Ribbon Campaign.  

“Our Service is committed to listening to and believing victims and survivors of gender-based violence while supporting the efforts of our community partners working to address this serious matter. We also acknowledge that there are many factors that lead to gender-based violence,” said Chief Eric Stubbs. “The Service is dedicated to creating a culture, policies and processes to promote a workplace free of any form of violence, harassment and discrimination.”  

In 2022, the Ottawa Police partnered with the University of Western Ontario’s Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children to develop a tool to identify occurrences that would benefit from early intervention to mitigate risk. We have been working diligently to finalize the tool and hope to launch it in early 2025, initially with a pilot and then service-wide.  

Throughout this year, we have continued to work with our partner agencies on a number of initiatives to enhance our efforts to prevent and respond to these issues. We are in the process of updating our protocols for working more effectively with community VAW shelters and have welcomed our community partners during our patrol training days to educate our front-line officers about the realities faced by victims and survivors of abuse. The 2025 Draft Budget supports trauma-informed initiatives such as a pilot for virtual reporting of certain occurrences, reducing the time spent by victims and survivors waiting for physical police response.  

We continue to collaborate with local violence against women agencies to audit our cases and provide us with feedback on our approaches. These reviews include approximately 400 files per year. 

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Through the Community Safety Data portal data.ottawapolice.ca, members of the public can view, download, and interact with data released by the Ottawa Police Service.

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