Police are investigating the death of an Ottawa woman earlier this week as a suspected case of femicide.
At around 11:30 a.m. Monday, Ottawa police were called to a home on Carousel Crescent, near Hunt Club Road, and found a woman dead inside. She has been identified as 54-year-old Tracy Duncan.
Stephen Doane, 57, of Ottawa, has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder. He is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.
Ottawa police is widely considered the first police force in Canada to use the term “femicide” — as it has labelled this case — in its policing after officially using it to describe a case for the first time in August 2024. That year, the force responded to 6,636 incidents of intimate partner violence, which resulted in 3,355 charges laid.
Following consultation between its departments and community groups, the force felt it was crucial to use the term, despite its absence from the Criminal Code, according to Deputy Chief Trish Ferguson.
“It draws attention to the issue,” Ferguson previously told Global News. “Femicide is … often driven by stereotypes, gender roles, discrimination towards women and girls or unequal power relationships between women and men.”
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A spokesperson for Ottawa police previously said it “defines femicide as the killing of any woman at the hands of a man.”
Anyone with information, cellphone footage, or any other video of the incident is asked to contact the Ottawa police’s homicide unit.
— with files from Gabby Rodrigues
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