I move that, in the opinion of this House, the government of Ontario should consult with the public and its partners in the Family Court system to promote and ensure the availability of continuing education seminars for professionals in Ontario’s Family Court system, such as judges, justices of the peace, crown attorneys, custody assessors and social workers, on matters related to intimate partner violence and coercive control in intimate partner and family relationships.

This motion comes with a heavy backstory, and it’s an example of why it is so important we re-evaluate and apply new strategies to eliminate these horrific crimes. It’s about a girl named Keira Kagan—she was four years old, almost five. Keira’s mother, Dr. Jennifer Kagan-Viater, remembers her for her love of animals, sweet-natured soul and courageous smile. We say “remembers” because Keira died suddenly in an apparent murder-suicide at the hands of her father.

On February 9, 2020, Keira and her biological father were found dead at the base of a cliff at Rattlesnake Point Conservation Area in Milton. Jennifer Kagan-Viater and Keira had lived in Burlington, and were living in Thornhill at the time.

In the years leading up to Keira’s death, Dr. Kagan-Viater remembered an escalation in abusive behaviour by her ex-husband. Though she’d left him years earlier, she worried about the safety of her daughter during his unsupervised visits.

She said, “The abuse did not stop with separation, and it only got worse. Keira was used as a tool to get claws into me.”

She said she went to the courts seeking protection for Keira, and expressed concern about Brown’s violent and coercive behaviour, but she said she was met with hurdles.

She went on to say, “When I brought forward the evidence about abuse of Mr. Brown, we had a judge, for example,” say “that domestic violence is not relevant to parenting and, ‘I’m going to ignore it.’”

This motion is aimed at addressing a glaring gap in our family law system to ensure that judges, crown attorneys, justices of the peace, court assessors, social workers and other professionals have the information they need to keep women and children safe.

Jennifer Kagan-Viater, her spouse, Philip Viater, friends and supporters worked hard to spread the message about the need to fill this gap. I am proud to have Jennifer’s support for this motion and her commitment to see this become law in Ontario. This work is in honour of Keira and to ensure that no family has to mourn a lost loved one because of violence and abuse.

Violence against women and children is a blight on our society. All of us in this House know we need to fight it. It takes money for shelters and education. It takes teaching men and boys, women and girls that domestic violence of any kind is wrong. And it takes arming those who make decisions about custody access and child safety with the full information they need to keep everyone safe.

Last Friday was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the beginning of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, running until December 10, Human Rights Day. The Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity joined me and MPP Pierre at Halton Women’s Place in our community to see the vital work they do.

This is also Woman Abuse Prevention Month. Yesterday, the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services marked the month, as we all did, by wearing a purple scarf, the symbol of the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses’s Wrapped in Courage campaign. And December 6 is the anniversary of the Montreal massacre. We mark all of these commemorations because we know we need to do so much more.

Forty-four per cent of women in Canada have experienced some form of violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Ending the relationship does not end a women’s risk of death; 20% to 22% of intimate partner femicides were perpetrated by estranged spouses within the first 18 months of separation.

In Canada, a woman is murdered every 2.5 days, ranging from 144 to 178 murders each year between 2015 and 2019.

And in 2021, the rate of femicide was trending even higher. Of the women murdered, 50% were killed by intimate partners and 26% by family members.

Women account for 80% of reported incidents of intimate partner violence, which affects all ages, races, ethnicities and socio-economic strata. Women at highest risk are those who are young, immigrants, refugees, Indigenous or living with disabilities.

In my own community, Halton Women’s Place took 2,200 crisis calls in 2021. Over the same year, Halton police responded to 3,500 intimate-partner-violence-related calls, made 890 arrests and laid 2,000 charges.

Data on femicide in Canada show alarming trends among non-urban and Indigenous women. One quarter of all murdered women in Canada are Indigenous.

The Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses published a monthly report on femicide. In September 2022, they reported 40 confirmed femicides in Ontario since November 26, 2021.

Furthermore, violent and aggressive behaviour towards female partners is not always weighted heavily enough to change outcomes during decision-making in Family Court, such as in child custody cases.

A report from the Canadian Domestic Homicide Prevention Initiative included statistics on children killed in the context of domestic violence in Canada. There were 74 children killed, representing 9% of all domestic homicide victims identified in the period from 2010 to 2019. There were 54 accused identified in 52 cases of domestic homicide involving children; 82% were male. The majority of children killed were the biological children of the accused at 70%, followed by stepchildren at 24%.

Now, what these stats tell us is that the danger in cases of intimate partner violence does not end with separation or divorce. The most dangerous time for a victim of abuse is when she separates from her partner. According to research from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when there is history of coercive control, violence and a recent separation, a woman’s risk of domestic homicide goes up 900 times. A study from the US found that 11% of 231 women killed by their intimate partner had been issued a restraining order; about 20% of those who had been issued a restraining order were killed within two days of the order being issued.

Jennifer drew my attention to the case of Jared Osidacz, an eight-year-old boy in Brantford, Ontario, who was killed by his father after a judge granted him unsupervised access.

In courts in Canada and other countries, one of the strategies used by abusers is victimizing themselves or alleging parental alienation. This is a tactic used by abusers whose interest is not in the best interest of the child or the ex-spouse but in controlling them.

We all know that abuse can be more than physical or sexual. Coercive control is part of the definition of family violence contained in both the federal Divorce Act and in the update our government made to the Children’s Law Reform Act in 2020. Both define it in the same way: “‘Family violence’ means any conduct by a family member towards another family member that is violent or threatening, that constitutes a pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour or that causes the other family member to fear for their own safety or for that of another person, and, in the case of a child, includes direct or indirect exposure to such conduct.”

We have the definition in our laws. We just need to ensure that training about domestic violence includes knowledge about coercive control and all aspects of intimate partner violence.

A federal bill, Bill C-223, introduced by Quebec MP Anju Dhillon, calling for training for federally appointed judges, passed the House of Commons with all-party support and is currently before the Senate. It follows on a law originally proposed by former MP Rona Ambrose for mandatory training in sexual assault law for judges. It was eventually passed as a government bill. The new law would add to this. This is what is needed in Ontario too, as Ontario regulates far more of the Family Court system.

The latest continuing education plan for Ontario judges notes that criminal law education conferences have recently covered a range of topics, including sex offences and sexual offenders and the meaning of consent in sexual assault cases. The plan does not appear to specifically reference intimate partner violence or coercive control in a family law context. The most recent Justice of the Peace Education Plan posted on the Ontario Court of Justice website includes two references to domestic violence issues.

We need to go further than this to ensure that decision-makers in the Family Court system learn about intimate partner violence, including emotional violence and coercive control. For too long, women have been silenced from speaking out about domestic violence and the trauma faced while navigating our legal system. That ends today as the Legislature passes Keira’s Law motion.

I would like to thank the Attorney General of Ontario as we take the first step to ensuring we have training about intimate partner violence and coercive control for Ontario judges, justices of the peace, crown attorneys and other professionals in our family courts. We need more tools to ensure all decision-makers know the signs of abuse so we can keep women and children safe.

To all those women who have suffered or are suffering: We hear you and see you. We know this is only the first step, but I’m going to keep working until we’ve found solutions. The best way that we, in the House, can honour Keira’s memory is to keep safe other women and children at risk from intimate partner violence.

I ask members in this House to support my motion. Thank you.

I’d like to thank all of my colleagues in the House who have spoken on this important motion: the members for Brampton Centre, Burlington and Whitby; the members for London West, Ottawa–Vanier and Toronto–St. Paul’s. Thank you for your commitment to opposing gender-based violence.

Thank you also to all the organizations in my own community who support the victims of violence and who work selflessly to make sure women and children are safe: Halton Women’s Place, Zonta Club of Oakville, SAVIS of Halton and the Women’s Centre of Halton.

I’d like to recognize the many people who have worked to promote Keira’s Law provincially and federally, including the municipal councils in Oakville and Burlington, who passed resolutions in support. Thank you to federal member of Parliament Anju Dhillon and my federal counterpart in Oakville North–Burlington, Pam Damoff, for their leadership.

In the gallery today, we have some great supporters of this initiative: Marlene Ham from the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses, Silvia Samsa from SAVIS of Halton, my friend Sonia Robinson from Oakville North–Burlington and my friend Kristin Demeny. For their insights and advocacy, I thank you.

Most importantly, my gratitude to Jennifer Kagan-Viater and her husband Philip Viater for their courage and leadership. Because of the work they’ve done, I believe that lives will be saved.

On a personal note, I would like to offer my profound gratitude to the women who courageously came forward and shared their personal stories of trauma and abuse with me. In my research, I came across a quote from Grant Wyeth in a recent article saying, “How societies treat women and children is the true reflection of their social health—and the behaviour of justice systems provides the legal framework to these values.” As members of this House, we can lead how our society treats women and children—and I welcome your involvement in the consultation with justice partners as we move forward.