This past year has been a memorable one in terms of stories covered for SooToday. It's hard to believe stories like the de-rostering crisis at the Group Health Centre and the threat of the YMCA closing happened within the 2024 calendar year, but my favourite stories from this year revolved around tragic incidents that occurred in 2023 and the efforts to turn those tragedies into real positive change.
When asked to choose a favourite story from 2024, my thoughts turn to the advocacy work of Brian Sweeney and Dan Jennings, who, with the support of the entire city behind them, have been working behind the scenes to get laws in this country changed around intimate partner violence (IPV).
The events of the Oct. 23, 2023 mass shooting in the Sault are seared into the memories of many in the Sault, especially those who lost their most dearest loved ones. In one evening a gunman cut short the lives of 41-year-old Angie Sweeney in her Tancred Street home and three children ages six, seven and 12 in an act police classified as IPV.
Just a few months before Angie and the three children were killed, Dan Jennings was grieving in the Sault for his daughter Caitlin, who was found dead July 5, 2023 in her London, Ont. home. In that case, her fiancé was charged with murder in another case of IPV.
I interviewed Angie's parents Brian and Suzanne Sweeney, along with her longtime friends Rene Buczel and Lindsay Stewart, just days after the killing and they were already promising to see the IPV laws in Canada changed.
Less than a month after his daughter's death, Sweeney crashed a visit by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, introducing himself as the father of the woman killed in the mass shooting.
Brian spoke with Trudeau again on Dec. 6, 2023 during a vigil for the École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal. That time, Trudeau was seeking out Brian at the event for the interaction.
In 2024, both men and their respective support systems continued their advocacy -- Sweeney through Angie's Angels and Jennings through Caitlin's Heard.
In April, Jennings travelled to Queen's Park in Toronto for a debate on Bill 173, which called on the province to declare IPV an epidemic. He was back at the Ontario Legislature in May to support 'Lydia's Law,' a bill seeking to find out why thousands of sexual assault cases in Ontario are thrown out of court.
Jennings and Sweeney were both in the gallery at the House of Commons in Ottawa in June when a key vote was held on Bill C332, which was seeking to add coercive control to the Criminal Code of Canada. That bill unanimously passed in June.
Sweeney also supports Bill C-21, legislation that would ban anybody under a protection order, including a restraining order, from owning or possessing guns. In November Sweeney told The Canadian Press, “I can’t bring my daughter back, but what I can do is use my grief and great sadness to help prevent other femicides."
Those examples are just a fraction of what the two men and their supporters have been able to achieve in just over a year.
The efforts of Sweeney and Jennings were celebrated earlier this month when they were featured on an episode of SooToday's 12 Days of Christmas Random Acts of Kindness. To help with their ongoing advocacy work, Sweeney and Jennings were given $2,000 in gas gift cards and $500 in restaurant gift cards.
— with files by The Canadian Press