Romano defends Ontario's refusal to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic

EDITOR'S NOTE: A version of this article originally appeared on SooToday on Dec. 6. It is being republished here for readers who may have missed it.

Sault Ste. Marie MPP Ross Romano says the Ford government is working on meaningful steps to address intimate partner violence in the province and is defending its decision to not declare the issue an epidemic.

Romano was reached by telephone on Dec. 6, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women — and the final day the provincial government is sitting at Queen’s Park before the Ontario Legislature breaks until Feb. 20.

During a Nov. 28 Women in Crisis event in the Sault, Lanark County Interval House women’s shelter executive director Erin Lee said a total of 72 communities in Ontario have each passed a motion for the province to declare intimate partner violence (IPV) an epidemic. The event was held in response to multiple femicides that have occurred in Sault Ste. Marie in recent months.

Asking the province to make the declaration was the first of 86 recommendations from the Renfrew County Commission struck in response to the 2015 killing of Anastasia Kuzyk, Nathalie Warmerdam and Carol Culleton in that part of the province. Lee said it should be the easiest recommendation to have implemented, yet the provincial government has yet to do so.

“One might think that the jury’s number one recommendation should be simple for the province of Ontario to embrace, but the province of Ontario did not embrace the recommendation, it rejected the recommendation and continues to reject the recommendation,” said Lee at the event.

As of the Nov. 28 event, a total of 62 women and children have died from femicide since November of last year.

“Why wouldn’t we pass it?” Lee asked the room at the Night of Remembrance. “Then let’s get to recommendation nine about restorative justice, and let’s move on to recommendation 23 about public education, and let’s move on to the recommendation about the justice system, and let’s maybe move on to recommendation 21 about second-stage housing and let’s move on to the recommendation that talks about working better with perpetrators and let’s figure out how to get upstream so we stop picking out bodies out of the water.”

Asked why the province has so far decided not to make the declaration, Romano said he has given the idea some thought since the Oct. 27 vigil held at The Machine Shop in support of the families affected by a number of local tragedies, including the killing of a woman and three children just a few days prior.

“My initial thoughts when I first was confronted with the question on the day of the vigil — only a matter of four days after the incident occurred — my first reaction was if there was a reasonable chance that using this type of terminology is somehow going to prevent intimate partner violence then we should absolutely be considering it and if there is a reasonable chance that it’s going to help the problem then it’s absolutely something we should be doing,” said Romano.

Upon reflection, Romano said he looked into the wording and questioned what using it would achieve.

“I know anybody can pull out a dictionary and look up what the word epidemic was and I thought let’s start there,” he said. “When you actually look at what the definition is of epidemic, it is a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.”

Romano appears to be directly quoting the Oxford Dictionary’s primary definition for the word epidemic. He did not reference the secondary definition: “A sudden, widespread occurrence of an undesirable phenomenon.”

“Obviously it is referring to an infectious disease and that’s where we heard this is a medical term, it’s not something that would be attributed to something like intimate partner violence and it happens in a particular community and we know it happens in all communities, unfortunately,” he explained.

Romano said his government is working on meaningful solutions on prevention and education strategies to combat IPV.

“I think we have heard references to symbolic words and gestures aren’t going to actually help to combat the problem and I think what we need to do is focus on the work that is going to be done to actually prevent intimate partner violence,” said Romano. “There are conversations absolutely happening on the subject and there is an intention to do something that is meaningful and will help address the matter.”

He noted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also not embraced the word epidemic when applied to intimate partner violence. 

When he was in the Sault last month, Trudeau said he hasn’t shut the door on making that same declaration at a national level but, as he noted during an exclusive interview with Village Media editor-in-chief Michael Friscolanti, he believes there are greater steps that should be taken first.

“I don't care as much about the headlines — declares an emergency — as opening up a new shelter, as moving forward on gun control,” Trudeau said in the interview. “Give me more headlines on supporting people facing intimate partner violence, better mental health supports for people struggling with addictions or mental health issues that could lead them down these horrific paths of taking the wrong kinds of actions.”

“Let's just get people doing it, and if it takes a declaration of emergency to get people to act, well okay,” he added in the interview. “But I'd rather just act and not have to wait for that.”

Romano didn’t offer specifics on the actions the provincial government will make when it comes back from break on Feb. 20, but suggested some money will be spent to tackle the problem of IPV.

“There are a number of different ways to look at it, both through funding Victim Services, through looking at ways to assist our service providers, and then there is also goals that I think can help from an education level to try and really learn more and to make sure we are addressing it at the mental health level to ensure we understand what signs to look for — both in terms of the individual who will potentially be victimized, as well as from the perspective of the individual who may become a perpetrator some day. I think there are a lot of things we can do in that regard,” said Romano.

He also noted the federal government has to come to the table with some solutions to the problem of IPV.

“I think we have seen a lot of the discussions happening at a federal level that I think absolutely need to be addressed, for instance stricter bail, that would be a real helpful tool in minimizing the occurrences of intimate partner violence,” said Romano. “I think what we need to be focused on is everybody putting their best foot forward and doing the hard work that needs to be done to solve it and let’s do what needs to be done to ensure that no family has to deal with the kind of situation that a number of families in our community are presently having to deal with.”