Intimate partner violence is an epidemic. Agencies that support women have long been sounding the alarm. We have many local organizations that have been working to ensure women are safe and supported when leaving abusive situations, so that they and their children can be safe and have hope.

Luke’s Place is based in Oshawa but has been reaching its arms and care wide to serve women and children across the province. Pamela Cross, who has long served as the legal director at Luke’s Place, has been calling on all of us to take action.

Rates of violence have escalated, and women’s ability to access justice is worse. We need investment into legal aid and legal supports for women, as many women fleeing abuse are not working with a lawyer. The province could fix it if it chooses to.

The YWCA in Oshawa gets ministry funding for 15 violence-against-women beds, but they have more than 15 beds that they have to fundraise to use. These beds are for women leaving in the middle of the night with a child under their arm, the clothes they’re wearing, and hopefully some identification. There’s growing need, and funding doesn’t go as far as it used to. Also, women have to stay in those emergency shelter beds longer because they can’t find safe housing, and that means those emergency beds are already full when another woman comes looking for safety. It is unimaginable that a woman fleeing for her life and the lives of her children might get turned away. We need funding for more women.

After the terrible murders of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam, the Renfrew county coroner’s inquest yielded 86 recommendations. I’m glad that the region of Durham resolved to adopt the number one recommendation and declared intimate partner violence an epidemic.

Today, again, we call on the province to show leadership and be clear in declaring intimate partner violence an epidemic in this province, for the women who live with fear and harm, and for the women who have been murdered in this epidemic of gender-based violence.

Women’s lives have value, and this province has to do better.