Yesterday, we were horrified by news of yet another senseless femicide in Sault Ste. Marie as a result of intimate partner violence. Five people, including three children, are dead. A community is in mourning. These deaths will be recorded in the monthly OAITH femicide report, which confirmed in September that 46 women have already been killed by their intimate partner this year. Last year, there were a record 52 femicides in Ontario.

Yet, the Ford government continues to refuse to recognize intimate partner violence as the epidemic it is, which was the very first recommendation of the coroner’s inquest into the murders of Carol Culleton, Nathalie Warmerdam and Anastasia Kuzyk by their intimate partner in Renfrew county in 2015. The Ford government dismantled the round table on violence against women as soon as they were elected in 2018, leaving nobody to provide the coordination and identify the resources necessary to prevent intimate partner violence. They have ignored urgent pleas for stable and adequate funding for women’s shelters and organizations that support survivors.

Speaker, I am proud that the city of London is among the 63 Ontario communities that have declared intimate partner violence an epidemic. Let this be the femicide that finally forces the government to do the same.

With profound sadness, I rise to acknowledge the tragic deaths of five people, including three children, one as young as six years old, killed by femicide at the hands of a man in Sault Ste. Marie. My deepest condolences go to the family and friends of the victims and to the MPP for Sault Ste. Marie who, I’m certain, is helping his community deal with this profound tragedy.

In 2022 in Ontario, every seven days a woman or child was killed in a femicide. Please, all of us, take a moment to pause and reflect on this horrifying loss. We count femicide because it is intended to mark the tragic loss of each life, to raise a public alarm and to engage everyone in working together toward prevention.

The Premier offered his prayers to the victims, and that is appropriate. However, the Premier has a responsibility to show leadership—to change these tragic outcomes. We must do better. Premier, you can start today by declaring that intimate partner violence is an epidemic in Ontario.

On August 18, 2023, the city of Hamilton declared intimate partner violence as an epidemic, and almost 65 municipalities across Ontario have done the same. Where is the commitment to prevention in Ontario? Premier, please show these survivors that they are not alone.

In Hamilton, the Woman Abuse Working Group is a coalition of more than 20 agencies working to end violence against women and their children. They offer this message:

“We know that it takes a community to end violence. To anyone facing violence, to survivors, please know you are not alone. There are programs and services in place to support you and your family. Please do not hesitate to reach out when you are ready to do so.”

I also rise, as my colleagues have done, to grieve collectively the five folks whom we’ve lost in Sault Ste. Marie and to acknowledge that we have a responsibility in this Legislature to reach out to anybody who, right now, is living in a violent home.

I’m sad to say, Speaker, the Ottawa Police Service has just confirmed there has been a double-digit increase in intimate partner violence charges in our city. Across the river in Gatineau, the increase is up 300 in police officers having to intervene in domestic assaults in violent homes.

Right now, Cornerstone women’s shelter in Ottawa has had to turn away 360 people who have called them for help in accessing their shelter because their shelter is full. Shelter Movers Ottawa has had a double-digit increase in their folks who try to call Shelter Movers Ottawa so that they can move out of a violent home, free of charge for women and their children in low-income circumstances.

So I call upon this government—because I know we all care about it in this place—to send a message imminently out of this Legislature that intimate partner violence has reached epidemic proportions, to agree with the Renfrew county inquest report and to send a signal, through funds that we will allocate to organizations in all of our ridings, that you can leave a violent home, that the province of Ontario is behind you and we believe you have the right to live free of violence.

Speaker, I move that the House observe a moment of silence for the four victims of the unspeakable tragedy in Sault Ste. Marie yesterday.