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Windsor Police: 45% of 2023 reported assaults related to Intimate Partner Violence · Kvetch & Release

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  Speaker 1: Windsor Police put out a post yesterday on Twitter that
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  Speaker 1: really it just it hit me like it just it's
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  Speaker 1: staggering what this statistic here is. I'm just going to
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  Speaker 1: read it directly out. Intimate partner violence continues to be
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  Speaker 1: a pervasive issue in Windsor and Amisburg. In twenty twenty three,
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  Speaker 1: forty five percent of all assaults reported to the Windsor
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  Speaker 1: Police Service were related to intimate partner violence. That is,
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  Speaker 1: indeed a very pervasive issue, basically fifty percent. Joining me
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  Speaker 1: right now to discuss the issue of intimate partner violence,
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  Speaker 1: provide us with an update about the Intimate Partner Violence
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  Speaker 1: Sexual Violence Subcommittee for the Provincial Government of Ontario is
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  Speaker 1: Kitchener South Hespler MPP. Jess Dixon joins me again here
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  Speaker 1: on the dam McDonald show. Hi Jess, how you doing?
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  Speaker 2: Hi John, I'm good.
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  Speaker 3: How are you doing well?
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  Speaker 1: Although again I'm just staggered by this statistic here, forty
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  Speaker 1: five percent of all assaults to Windsor Police in twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty five three related to IPv. I want to get
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  Speaker 1: your thoughts about that statistic, just to start.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm not staggered from ten years of being
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  Speaker 2: a Crown attorney or very in domestic files are a
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  Speaker 2: very large part of what we dealt with. And I
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  Speaker 2: worked in courthouses all across Ontario. So while I am,
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  Speaker 2: you know, disgusted with the statistic, I'm not at all surprised.
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  Speaker 1: I get you know, I suppose for people that aren't
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  Speaker 1: in this field dealing with it, you know, twenty four
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  Speaker 1: to seven, as you so aptly put that you do
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  Speaker 1: on a regular basis, you call this year twenty four
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  Speaker 1: to seven obsession. I wonder how the subcommittee is unfolding
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  Speaker 1: now as it progresses. I know how excited you were
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  Speaker 1: when things were getting kicked off.
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  Speaker 2: I'm still really excited, and I'm really happy about how
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  Speaker 2: it's been unfolding. So we've now completed four of our
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  Speaker 2: ten days of testimony in Phase one, and my sort
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  Speaker 2: of plan going into to Phase one with the one
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  Speaker 2: hundred ish witnesses that we identified was to try, to
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  Speaker 2: the best of my ability to categorize them roughly in
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  Speaker 2: three groups, which I was calling SUT Primary Prevention, Intervention
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  Speaker 2: and Response and then legal response. And you know, because
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  Speaker 2: of scheduling, I couldn't get everybody perfectly, but I would
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  Speaker 2: say the first, you know, few days we had a
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  Speaker 2: really really heavy focus on this idea of primary prevention,
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  Speaker 2: that you can support children and families in ways that
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  Speaker 2: reduce the likelihood of you know, of perpetrators being developed,
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  Speaker 2: or of you know, people that have the vulnerabilities that
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  Speaker 2: can lead to them being more predisposed to being victims
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  Speaker 2: of this type of offense. And now we're moving starting
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  Speaker 2: to move a little bit more into what I would
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  Speaker 2: call like later intervention and reactions like the victims services,
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  Speaker 2: other cultural elements. We also heard from a number of
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  Speaker 2: First Nations and Indigenous organizations as well.
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  Speaker 3: Where have you been holding these committee hearings?
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  Speaker 2: They're all happening at Queens Park for Phase one?
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  Speaker 3: Okay, for Phase one? They're all there at Queen's Park.
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  Speaker 1: Is the issue with intimate partner violence uniform across the province?
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  Speaker 3: Like are there?
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  Speaker 1: Is it different circumstances for different communities? How how do
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  Speaker 1: you deal with you know, a province that is as
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  Speaker 1: big as it is, and you know, I think to
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  Speaker 1: northern communities it's got to be a completely different issue.
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  Speaker 1: If you know, if it's a fly in community, if
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  Speaker 1: it's a remote community, how can you get away from
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  Speaker 1: something like that?
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  Speaker 2: Dramatically different in in more rural and remote communities, you know,
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  Speaker 2: the the when you're four hundred cilometers away from help
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  Speaker 2: you know your winter road or fly in only. And
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  Speaker 2: of course there's a lot of complications when you're looking
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  Speaker 2: at First Nations communities with jurisdictional issues as well between
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  Speaker 2: you know, provincial and federal involvement. But we are you know,
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  Speaker 2: I don't think that we're I think everyone went into
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  Speaker 2: this knowing just how much more likely First Nations and
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  Speaker 2: Indigenous women are to be victimized, but you know, hearing
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  Speaker 2: the stories firstand we're actually looking at trying to do so.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to do a bit of a travel component
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  Speaker 2: around the province, hopefully in the fall. But I think
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  Speaker 2: we're agreed that we do want to put a specific
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  Speaker 2: focus on trying to get up to some of the
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  Speaker 2: more remote areas because when you live in southern Ontario,
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  Speaker 2: as I do and many other members of the committee,
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  Speaker 2: you just can't conceive of how different it is in
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  Speaker 2: communities as remote as the ones we're hearing from.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, I mean absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: I remember when we lost our Greyhound bus service here
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  Speaker 1: in Windsor, and it's since been replaced by other private operators.
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  Speaker 1: But when that happened, one of the convers stations that
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  Speaker 1: I had with someone was about how much of a
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  Speaker 1: burden that places on people who need to get out
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  Speaker 1: of communities, because buses are you know, a cheap means
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  Speaker 1: to be able to travel hundreds of kilometers quite frankly,
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  Speaker 1: and if you lose that service, people lose the ability
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  Speaker 1: to immediately leave a bad situation, which I just I
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  Speaker 1: can't stop but think of the parallels too. If you
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  Speaker 1: live in a community that you know, again it's serviced
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  Speaker 1: by a ice road or by fly in, it's a
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  Speaker 1: completely different.
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  Speaker 2: Story, definitely. And although we're also hearing which I'm not
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  Speaker 2: surprised about, but it's very interesting, a lot of our
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  Speaker 2: First Nation presenters are putting, i would say, a focus
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  Speaker 2: on the idea of restorative justice processes as well. You know,
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  Speaker 2: we've heard a lot of very fascinating information about sort
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  Speaker 2: of the impact of the criminal system, and certainly that's
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  Speaker 2: something that I've seen firsthand, and this idea of having
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  Speaker 2: more sort of in community, community based potentially you know,
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  Speaker 2: not automatically criminal ways to respond, which is also why
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  Speaker 2: we'd like to we'd like to see there's a couple examples,
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  Speaker 2: but to see some of it in practice.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that's why it's important to do these consultations and
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  Speaker 1: to get the inputs of the community who will respond
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  Speaker 1: and tell you, hey, here's what we think would actually
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  Speaker 1: work for us unique situations, unique conditions. I wonder for
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  Speaker 1: those who don't spend their time pouring through the minutes
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  Speaker 1: of committee hearings at Queen's Park, which you know people.
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  Speaker 3: Should be doing.
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  Speaker 2: Everyone does that, Yeah, I don't.
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  Speaker 1: Think so for those who don't, though, what what does
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  Speaker 1: the committee look like? I mean it's is it all
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  Speaker 1: just conservatives? Is it a bipartisan grouping? Like?
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  Speaker 3: What's the actual like composition of it?
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  Speaker 2: So, yeah, we've got the Conservative Party has the balance.
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  Speaker 2: I'm trying to think. I guess we have six two
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  Speaker 2: indep and one independent. But we've had because it's the
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  Speaker 2: summer and a lot of people have a lot of
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  Speaker 2: other obligations, we've had a fair few people subbing in
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  Speaker 2: and out. So myself and uh and and MPP Christian
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  Speaker 2: Camp have been you know, permit features as the as
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  Speaker 2: the co leagues and we now have a new chair
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  Speaker 2: in MPP Lauren Co. And also in these types of committees,
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  Speaker 2: you can actually have additional members come in and participate. Uh,
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  Speaker 2: they're they're restricted to the time limit that's allotted per
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  Speaker 2: party and they can't vote, but they can ask questions.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, now, I guess.
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  Speaker 1: So what's it like working with your colleagues on this committee.
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  Speaker 1: Are you all paddling in the same direction, so to speak?
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  Speaker 1: Is everyone on the same page?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I I think so, certainly on the certainly
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  Speaker 2: on the government side, and as I said, MPP long
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  Speaker 2: term I believe is you know, very very committed to
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  Speaker 2: to this issue. It's been interesting watching, you know, when
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  Speaker 2: you're when you're sort of more familiar with the area.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm no, I'm no expert in any way, shape
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  Speaker 2: or form, but I would say I came with a
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  Speaker 2: little bit more understanding, just from more so the you know,
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  Speaker 2: prosecution and some of the victim services side, and just
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  Speaker 2: a bit of a sort of academic background. It's been
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  Speaker 2: really interesting seeing, uh, you know, how people have been
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  Speaker 2: paying attention and really being drawn in by the by
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  Speaker 2: the information we're hearing. Like we had a really really
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  Speaker 2: good presenter on team dating violence in high schools and
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  Speaker 2: middle schools, and there were a couple of people in
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  Speaker 2: the committee that were sort of like it never even
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  Speaker 2: considered that issue like that, you have intimate partner violence
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  Speaker 2: and sexual violence in that situation, and when you sort
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  Speaker 2: of look at the Education Act, we only talk about bullying,
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  Speaker 2: and bullying and intimate partner violence, team dating violence, sexual
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  Speaker 2: violence are all quite different than well, you.
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  Speaker 1: Know, that's actually a really good place for us. I think,
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  Speaker 1: take this and then we'll wrap up after this. But
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  Speaker 1: for someone who's listening to this who doesn't know what
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  Speaker 1: intimate partner violence is, and they go, I'm hearing a
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  Speaker 1: lot about this, Why is there a need for another
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  Speaker 1: conversation about any of this? Don't we already have laws
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  Speaker 1: to deal with these issues? Why is there a need
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  Speaker 1: for this level of focus?
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  Speaker 3: Jess.
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  Speaker 2: So, we have a we have you know, criminal code
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  Speaker 2: that he talks about assault, mischief, that type of thing,
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  Speaker 2: and we do have prospbutorial policies and police policies for example,
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  Speaker 2: mandatory charging. There are various concerns that as a crown
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  Speaker 2: you have to take in given consideration. But you know,
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  Speaker 2: as you open with with the statistics, the criminal law,
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  Speaker 2: in my opinion, is is put there to punish. It's
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  Speaker 2: not designed, it was never designed to heal people or
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  Speaker 2: rehabilitate people. And the whole reason I got into politics
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  Speaker 2: in the first place was because of my generalized frustration
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  Speaker 2: with this idea that I was dealing with people day
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  Speaker 2: in and day out, but I felt had voluntough the
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  Speaker 2: cracks a long time before they came to my court,
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  Speaker 2: and then I was being asked to come up with
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  Speaker 2: a way to fix them in court, which is not
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  Speaker 2: the place to deal with it. So this is a
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  Speaker 2: pervasive social ill, and it crosses boundaries of income, of location,
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  Speaker 2: of ethnicity, of religion, and you know, a lot of
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  Speaker 2: those different aspects may add their own sort of complication
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  Speaker 2: to it, but it's it's still happening. And as I said,
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  Speaker 2: I'm a really big fan of putting a heavy focus
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  Speaker 2: on primary prevention as well as everything else, and this
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  Speaker 2: idea that it is actually possible to look at how
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  Speaker 2: do we support you know, children and families so that
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  Speaker 2: we don't have as many perpetrators, so that we don't
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  Speaker 2: have as many people that are dealing with the vulnerabilities
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  Speaker 2: that lead to them being forced to stay in these
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  Speaker 2: types of situations.
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  Speaker 1: So it's not just about the punitive, it's also about
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  Speaker 1: the preventative as well as the restorative components of it,
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  Speaker 1: So not just dealing with it after the fact, but
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  Speaker 1: more of a holistic approach from you know, ideally stopping
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  Speaker 1: it to.
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  Speaker 3: All the way through.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say it's like a prevention and to
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  Speaker 2: some extent a punishment regime. Like you know, I think
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  Speaker 2: we're the sort of term you know, smart on crime
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  Speaker 2: to tough on crime. But you know, when we have
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  Speaker 2: perpetrators that aren't being appropriately screened, aren't you know, necessarily
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  Speaker 2: getting high risk animations. And obviously I'm not going to
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  Speaker 2: go and ignore the fact that we're we're seeing you know,
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  Speaker 2: delays in the court process and victims that don't feel
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  Speaker 2: that they're getting justice, and that is I think, you know,
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  Speaker 2: generally considered unacceptable. I would certainly consider unacceptable. And I
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  Speaker 2: do come from the crown background. I don't I don't
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  Speaker 2: really have an you with the concept of the criminal
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  Speaker 2: law existing for the purposes of punishment. I mean, that's
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  Speaker 2: that's a good old social contract, right, you know, you
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  Speaker 2: you send to get some of your rights for revenge
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  Speaker 2: or for vengeance to the state with the idea that
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  Speaker 2: the state will meet out justice for you. And if
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  Speaker 2: that's not happening, then we have a problem. But I'm
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  Speaker 2: also inherently practical, and I believe that all of these
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  Speaker 2: you know, so many Ontarians, particularly kids, they have so
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  Speaker 2: much potential for just amazing things in their lives. And
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  Speaker 2: it keeps me up at night the idea that we are,
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  Speaker 2: you know, losing people to circumstances beyond their control, particularly
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  Speaker 2: losing kids the circumstances beyond their control. And I think
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  Speaker 2: that we have a responsibility to be looking at, Okay,
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  Speaker 2: how how are people ending up in these in these situations,
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  Speaker 2: in these you know, cycles of violences, intergenerational traumenas, and
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  Speaker 2: saying all right, what could we potentially do there as well?
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  Speaker 2: And that's not discounting, as they said, the interim you know,
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  Speaker 2: parts of the services all that. That's all very important,
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  Speaker 2: but that's those sort of the bookends of it. For me.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we know that it's obviously a very important issue.
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  Speaker 1: These statistics from Windsor, while they're not staggering to you,
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  Speaker 1: they still they speak to just how pervasive it truly is.
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  Speaker 1: Forty five percent of all assaults reported to Windsor police
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  Speaker 1: service related to intimate partner violence last year.
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  Speaker 3: So I mean, it's here it's in Windsor and.
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  Speaker 1: Essex, and obviously it's across the province you're dealing with it, Jess,
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  Speaker 1: I always appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 3: We will check back.
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  Speaker 1: In with you at another point coming up in the
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  Speaker 1: future to find out a bit more about how these
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  Speaker 1: committee hearings are going.
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  Speaker 3: I really appreciate it.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: MPP Jess Dixon, Kitchener, South Hespeler. She is the co
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  Speaker 1: lead on the Intimate Partner Violence Sexual Violence Subcommittee. She's
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  Speaker 1: also the Parliamentary Assistant to the Associate Minister of Women's,
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  Speaker 1: Social and Economic Opportunity and she's a member of the
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  Speaker 1: Standing Committee on Justice Policy.