NFU-O Declares Intimate Partner Violence an Epidemic in Ontario

Between the Lakes Purchase (Treaty 3); Treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit; Guelph, ON (May 15, 2024) – As an accredited farm organization in Ontario, we are particularly concerned about Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in farm, rural and isolated communities. The NFU-O was pleased to see the Progressive Conservative members of the Ontario legislature support Bill 173, the Intimate Partner Violence Epidemic Act, 2024, on April 10, 2024.

The Renfrew County Coroner’s Inquest has done a thorough examination of IPV and they made 86 recommendations, of which the first was to declare IPV an epidemic. Declaring IPV an epidemic in Ontario will help to save the lives of women and their children, especially in rural communities.

In a presentation to the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women in 2022, the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics stated that the rate of reported IPV against rural women in Ontario is 598/100,000 in comparison to 374/100,000 in urban centres.

Already, 94 municipalities in Ontario have declared IPV an epidemic according to Building a Bigger Wave, the Provincial Network for VAW Coordinating Committees.

Therefore, the NFU-O declares Intimate Partner Violence an epidemic in Ontario, and calls on the Ontario government to declare IPV an epidemic, and enact Bill 173, to help save the lives of our rural women and children.

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 For more information:

Max Hansgen, President, National Farmers Union–Ontario

president@nfuontario.ca, 613-464-1251