A coalition of groups supporting women escaping abuse is calling on the city of Hamilton, Ont., and the provincial government to declare gender-based and intimate partner violence an epidemic.
The Woman Abuse Working Group (WAWG) made the official appeal during an information session at city hall on Friday. The group revealed some 7,600 calls were made to Hamilton helplines in 2022 with about 5,000 women unable to access a shelter due to a shortage of beds.
The group’s co-chair, Jessica Bonilla-Damptey, said that number is only expected to increase as organizations deal with a lack of funding and space.
“So many women with children or women on their own cannot access a safe place when they are in a position to leave a place that is very unsafe,” Bonilla-Damptey said.
“And it’s not just unsafe because of violence, but unsafe because of the very real, tangible risk of death.”
Lower city Counc. (Ward 3) Nrinder Nann is hoping the declaration, which she’ll bring forward for a vote in August, will release more provincial funding to support shelters and put more attention on the issue.
“Fundamentally, what we’re doing is signalling to the province that we need health care dollars dedicated specifically to survivors of sexual violence, domestic violence, intimate partner violence and gender-based violence,” Nann explained.
Erin Griver, also a co-chair with WAWG, says the coalition is also seeking aid in eliminating femicide in Ontario.
She says some 30 women in the province have been killed in acts of femicide over the last 30 weeks, including a Hamilton incident that saw a mother die in late June at a mid-rise building on Herkimer Street.
“There was a woman in our own community of Hamilton that was killed by femicide, Jacqueline Buckle. So the reality is very real, not only provincially but in our own communities,” Griver said. “This is happening.”
In mid-June, Burlington’s council passed a motion acknowledging that the city has an intimate partner domestic abuse crisis, citing the region’s 3,503 calls to Halton police last year and some 2,200 calls to its Women’s Shelter Crisis helpline.
In Ontario, there are now 36 municipalities that have made similar declarations in recent times.
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