November is the month when women’s anti-violence advocates engage in campaigns like the 16 Days of Activism (Nov. 25 – Dec. 10) to end gender-based violence.
This year, the NOWC and many other feminist groups across the province highlighted the 86 jury recommendations from the recent Renfrew inquest into the murders of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk, and Nathalie Warmerdam. While all 86 recommendations are important, we selected those that most directly reflect our years-long advocacy and speak to the reality of women we work with who face the risk of gender-based violence (GBV), intimate partner violence (IPV) or femicide.
View our full 16 Days’ campaign as an infographic with clickable resource links: 16 Days Infographic
Why does this advocacy matter?
From the Culleton, Kuzyk & Warmerdam (CKW) Inquest advocacy toolkit (Luke’s Place, October 2022):
Inquest jury recommendations are non-binding, which means the government and other entities to which recommendations are directed have no legal obligation to implement them. To date (October 2022), the provincial government has not responded to the inquest recommendations in any way. While, of course, there may be work going on behind the scenes, the history of femicide inquests in Canada has taught us that governments do not move quickly to provide a meaningful response. Since 2015, the year of the Renfrew County triple homicide, at least 273 women have been killed in acts of femicide.
As the reports of the DVDRC tell us again and again, the vast majority of domestic homicides are both predictable and preventable. Implementation of the 86 recommendations produced by the jury in this most recent inquest would move us well along the right path to significantly reducing the number of women and children killed in this province. We need to provide the leadership to ensure that these recommendations, which have the potential to save many lives, will be implemented.
Though this year’s 16 Days’ campaign has come to a close, our individual and systems advocacy work continues. Subscribe to our newsletter, Feminist Dispatch, to stay up to date on our latest activities.
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