Kingston city council declares intimate partner violence an epidemic

Kingston city councillor and deputy mayor Wendy Stephen was one of three councillors that spoke passionately Tuesday evening about a motion to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic.

“As community leaders I think it’s important for us to be clear in our message to the people living in these complicated relationships, you are not alone,” stated Stephen when the motion was before council.

Stephen moved the motion and it was seconded by Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson.

Council passed the motion unanimously and joined a growing number of of municipalities in Ontario making the declaration.

Momentum behind the declaration stems from a 2022 coroners inquest looking into the deaths of 3 Renfrew women killed by their former partner.

The coroners inquest investigating the 2015 deaths of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk, and Nathalie Warmerdam made a total of 86 recommendations.

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Leigh Martins with Kingston Interval House and Kingston Frontenac Anti-Violence Coordinating Committee was joined by Deirdre Reddick the KFACC chair appeared before council to speak to the motion.

“Unfortunately our provincial government chose not to state IPV (Intimate partner violence) as an epidemic. stating the language ‘epidemic’ should go with health concerns,” said Martins answering questions from city council members.

Reddick and Martins also presented statistics gathered from public health that showed 229 cases per 100,000 people in Kingston reported acts of IPV to Kingston Police in 2019 an increase from 193 in 2016.

The women also noted that not all instances of domestic violence are reported to police.

Reddick told council that a number of mostly women and girls dealing with intimate partner violence do end up in hospitals as well.

“This is actually a health issue, so i think that using the term epidiemic is relevant,” said Reddick.

The motion also tasked city staff with integrating the intimate partner violence epidemic declaration in the municipality’s Community Safety and Well Being Plan.

The city of Kingston has now joined 57 other communities in the province to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic.