October 22, 2024 – Ottawa, ON – Today, the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) released a new report calling on the federal government to create a Gender-Based Violence Commissioner.
Gender-based violence is an epidemic. In Canada, 44% of women who have ever been in an intimate relationship have experienced intimate partner violence. According to the Canadian Femicide Observatory, this year alone 142 women and girls have been killed in this country because of their gender. Women and trans people from marginalized communities face both higher rates and distinct experiences of gender-based violence.
Although this epidemic is deeply entrenched, it can be stopped. Decades of reports and studies have provided hundreds of recommendations, including 231 Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), 130 recommendations from the Mass Casualty Commission, and 86 recommendations from the Renfrew County Inquest.
“We know a lot about what we need to do to end gender-based violence in Canada,” said LEAF’s Executive Director & General Counsel Pam Hrick. “What we need now is tangible action. A Gender-Based Violence Commissioner will help hold governments accountable and turn decades of research and recommendations into reality.”
The report, authored by Dr. Amanda Dale, draws on extensive research and consultations with 46 subject matter experts from Canada and internationally to set out what a Gender-Based Violence Commissioner requires to be effective. The Commissioner must have the independence, powers, and persuasive influence necessary to create systemic change in government and in community. Importantly, it must work closely with marginalized communities and with the National and Regional Indigenous and Human Rights Ombudspersons called for by the MMIWG Inquiry.
“We are at a critical moment in our efforts to end gender-based violence in Canada,” says Hrick. “We have a National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. We have historic agreements between the federal government, provinces, and territories. Now, it’s time for accountability and action to ensure that these are more than just words. A Gender-Based Violence Commissioner would be a critical step towards this goal.”
This report was created as part of LEAF’s Accountability Project, generously funded by the Canadian Bar Association’s Law for the Future Fund and the R. Howard Webster Foundation.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Jen Gammad
Communications and Advocacy Manager, LEAF
[email protected]
About LEAF
The Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) is a national not-for-profit that works to advance the equality rights of women, girls, trans, and non-binary people in Canada through litigation, law reform, and public legal education. Since 1985, LEAF has intervened in more than 130 cases that have helped shape the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. To find out more, visit www.leaf.ca.
