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WELLINGTON COUNTY – As a first step to address the growing problem of intimate partner violence in Wellington County, a public educator with Guelph Wellington Women in Crisis (GWWIC) has asked county council to declare it an epidemic.
Cindy McMann, public educator with GWWIC, in a delegation to county council Thursday explained why declaring intimate partner violence could help save lives and build a stronger community.
While based in Guelph, McMann said GWWIC has offices in Fergus, Erin, Palmerston and Mount Forest.
In an interview, McMann said intimate partner violence looks different in rural communities like Wellington County compared to Guelph.
For example, those living on a family farm may not be able to as easily leave an abusive partner due to caretaking responsibilities, the county is very large geographically lowering emergency response times and more people have access to guns.
“Folks who are in smaller communities often face a sort of bystander issue from folks who are around them, they might have family, friends, neighbours who either want to weigh-in on the relationship and hold that court of public opinion or they might be in denial that abuse is happening,” McMann said.
In her delegation, she said the service supported 256 clients plus 142 of their dependents and took 3,004 calls on the crisis line.
But McMann cautioned most people don’t end up reaching out for help and this is only the “tip of the iceberg” for the problem in the region.
“About 44 per cent of women in Canada will experience some form of intimate partner violence in their life time,” McMann said, adding the rate is 10 per cent higher for transgender people. “We also know that rates of violence are going up. Across Canada rates of intimate partner violence are about 19 per cent higher in 2022 than they were in 2014.”
With violence going up, McMann said the problem doesn’t seem to be going away and isn’t being addressed in the right way.
“Our response to intimate partner violence really has to be a community responsibility, it is buckwild to say that it’s everybody’s individual responsibility to make sure that they don’t get abused,” McMann said.
To prevent mass murders stemming from intimate partner violence, such as was seen in Sault Ste. Marie in 2023 or Nova Scotia in 2020, McMann recommended changing the approach from a criminal or punitive one.
“A broader community safety strategy that integrates a public health prevention model is the sounder approach,” McMann said with the approach looking at social determinant of public safety including access to housing, health and social services, adequate income and education.
Coun. Matthew Bulmer found the use of the word epidemic as fitting as he had noticed an uptick of OPP news releases about intimate partner violence.
“All of the sudden it seemed like every other day there were intimate partner violence issues with the OPP here in Wellington County, it seemed some days it was every day, it looked like an outbreak,” Bulmer said.
When Bulmer asked about shelter space, McMann acknowledged there is none in Wellington County and the 28 spaces in Guelph are almost always full. She also mentioned people are beginning to stay for up to a year at a time at their shelter.
“A lot of folks in the county don’t want to come to Guelph but they want to stay in their communities,” McMann said.
Coun. Diane Ballantyne said as a former teacher she saw how intimate partner violence impacts generations but asked how declaring an epidemic would help the county.
McMann said acknowledging it allows for a better framework to address the root causes and destigmatizes intimate partner violence to empower people to seek help.
Guelph city council declared intimate partner violence an epidemic in November but McMann said in an interview it was too early to see any results from that declaration.
Wellington County council received the delegation as information.
