Canada'sTragicReportCardonFemicide

report also states, “while information on race/ethnicity was not available in many cases, at minimum,aboutoneinfivefemalevictimskilledby male accused was an Indigenous woman or girl (19%).”This is a significant outlier, as, according to StatisticsCanada,Indigenouspeoplesmakeupatotal of five percent of the population. The timing of the report,justaheadofRedDressDay,alsoknownasthe NationalDayofAwarenessforMissingandMurdered IndigenousWomenandGirlsandTwo-SpiritPeople, makes it clear that we have a lot of work to do to combatfemicide.

Thereportnotesthatfemicidesareincreasing across Canada. In fact, one of the more concerning details in the report reads as follows: “During this period, a common question has been whether the killings of women and girls increased. At first, this was a difficult question to answer, as homicide numbers fluctuate annually. But we are now three years beyond the beginning of the pandemic, so it is possible to say, yes, there have been increases in the killings of women and girls in Canada…In fact, the number of women and girls killed involving male accused in 2022 represents a 27 percent increase compared to those numbers in 2019, pre-COVID.” Whiletherewere148victimsin2019,therewere184 victimscountedin2022.Whiletherewereconcernsat the start of the pandemic that the mechanisms to prevent the spread of the virus, such as social distancing and work-from-home, may increase incidents of sexual- and gender-based violence, it's stilldifficulttoseestatisticslikethislaidbare.

The CFOJA report proposes naming femicide a crime as a distinct sub-category of homicide. It notes that femicide has been officially recognizedasadistinctcrimein22countriesaround the world, particularly in Latin America. The Mass CasualtyCommissionReportthatfollowedthemass shootinginNovaScotiainApril2020madeasimilar recommendation.Thegovernmenthasinfactsigneda global treaty, the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Punish, and Eradicate Violence Against Women, along with 35 other countries, that aims to create initiatives to investigate and eliminate femicide,butisoneofonlythreesignatoriesthathas yettofulfiltheircommitmenttothetreaty.

Further than this, the government needs to ensure they move forward with the NationalAction Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, but movement on the action plan has been slow. Additionally, the Indigenous Shelter and Transitional Housing Initiative, which set aside $724.1 million to expand supports for Indigenous women, children, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people escaping gender-based violence, has barely been used, with recent reports stating that only around five percent of the fund has been spent to create transitional houses in it's third yearofexistence.Thegovernmentneedstofocuson buildingthiscapacitytoensurethatwomencanleave violent situations before worst-case scenarios happen.

Most people understand how important it is tocombatgender-basedviolence.Ittakesrealaction to combat the problem, and at its current pace, the governmentisn'tdoingnearlyenough.