Nova Scotia is considering legislative changes that would lead unexpected deaths resulting from domestic violence or involving children in government care to be reviewed by expert committees.
Justice Minister Mark Furey says the proposed changes to the Fatality Investigations Act would create a domestic violence death review committee and a child death review committee.
READ MORE: Why isn’t violence against women an election issue?
He says the domestic violence committee would review all homicides and homicide-suicides that are the result of violence between intimate partners and ex-partners and could include the death of a child or other family members.
The child death committee would review unexpected deaths of children under the age of 19 who die in the care or custody of the province, while also examining trends in the deaths of all young people under the age of 25.
READ MORE: Canadian sexual assault crisis centres report record number of calls
The minister would also have discretion to strike committees in deaths that fall outside the purview of those two standing committees.
However, recommendations by the committees, which will be chaired by the province’s chief medical examiner, would not be binding, and the information contained in the investigations would be exempt from the province’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
- Life in the forest: How Stanley Park’s longest resident survived a changing landscape
- Bird flu risk to humans an ‘enormous concern,’ WHO says. Here’s what to know
- Roll Up To Win? Tim Hortons says $55K boat win email was ‘human error’
- Ontario premier calls cost of gas ‘absolutely disgusting,’ raises price-gouging concerns
Comments