Statement on Violence Against Women and Gender-based Violence

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, November 24, 2023   11:15 am

(Ottawa) — Today, we recognize and support the White Ribbon movement.

November 25th will mark 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 March of this year, we issued a statement of support for City council’s declaration of intimate partner violence (IPV) as an epidemic. IPV is an ongoing issue; in 2021, we received 6385 reports of IPV, and in 2022, we received 6544 reports. So far, in 2023, 5815 reports of IPV have been made.

The Ottawa Police Service maintains 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 VAW and all gender-based violence.

“I am wearing a white ribbon this year to symbolize my commitment to being part of the solution,” said Chief Eric Stubbs. “I want to make an impact on the issues of violence against women and gender-based violence. As such, I affirm the Service’s commitment to: 

• Listen to and believe victims and survivors.
• Be an ally to those who are working to end all forms of gender-based violence.
• Acknowledge the factors that lead to gender-based violence.
• Building a culture, policies, and processes that promote a workplace free of any kind of violence, harassment, and discrimination at the Ottawa Police Service.”

 In 2022, the Ottawa Police 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 have now hired two Risk Navigators who will start in their roles at the end of November.

The University of Western Ontario’s Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children has partnered with us to develop a tool to identify occurrences that would benefit from early intervention to mitigate risk. We are also dialoguing with male-serving agencies to ensure that men are part of the solution to end VAW, gender-based violence and femicide.

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. The 2024 Draft Budget supports the hiring of an additional missing persons Investigative Analyst to assist the Service in its efforts to fully respond to the recommendations emanating from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ (MMIWG). We are also working with the Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition (OAC) on the job description for the full-time Indigenous Women’s Safety Advisor position to replace the contracted position.

This month, we introduced the beta version of the Community Safety Data Portal at data.ottawapolice.ca. This interactive platform aims to enhance community awareness of policing and foster engagement for a safer community.

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. Since we began this project in 2018, we’ve seen continuous improvement in responses to reports involving violence against women.

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