Editor's Note: This story was previously posted on StratfordToday.ca.
It’s an epidemic of world wide proportions as an estimated 640 million women aged 15 or older have been a victim of intimate partner violence.
November is National Domestic Violence Awareness month, and the new novel from Pamela Cross, And Sometimes They Kill You, takes an in-depth look at that very epidemic.
“Pamela is a leading expert in intimate partner violence,” said Jennifer Olenewa, Community Projects Lead at Optimism Place women’s shelter. “Pamela has sat on a number of inquest that have taken place following femicides, including most recently a femicide that saw three women murdered in Renfrew County in 2015.”
Cross is also a member of the death review committee for the coroners office, which makes recommendations to the government and social service agencies on how to best address domestic violence in our communities. Her novel explores her career of confronting the epidemic of intimate partner violence.
“The book takes a look at her experience, and information she has gathered while talking to victims and service providers,” said Olenewa. “She is doing a book tour around Ontario, and we are bringing her to Stratford because we felt that she has a very important message that is in line with our goals of collaboration across all sectors tackling domestic violence in Perth County."
Despite different recommendations from various experts, domestic violence is still very prevalent in our world, our country, and even our communities.
“The book also looks at why we are still having these conversations some 40 years into the release of different community based strategies and criminal justice interventions to tackle violence against women,” said Olenewa.
When asked about why and how domestic violence is still an issue in 2024, Olenewa brought it back to a lack of funding and a problem with early intervention.
“The school curriculum that existed in the 80s and 90s was around things like healthy relationships and consent, but none of that is funded anymore, instead the funding is going into reactive responses,” she said. “When that happens the interaction has already happened, the relationship is damaged and the harm has been caused. We intervene when it is way too late, and no money is going into prevention and public education services.”
Currently there is programming available for male offenders but it only happens after an interaction with the criminal justice system, there are no voluntary spaces to attend the same type of programming. Even if a person recognized what they are doing and that it is wrong, and they seek help, it is very difficult to find those supports to help change their behaviour. Despite being a leading expert in the field of domestic violence, and providing recommendations to prevent further violence, the recommendations to the government are not legally binding.
“The recommendations are just that, the government does not have to follow through with them,” she said. “The recommendations have been similar since the early 90s, they are around community coordination, funding public education, and changes to the criminal justice system. One recommendation coming from Cross’ time on the Renfrew County inquest was to declare violence against women an epidemic, but the Ontario government came out and very clearly said they wouldn't declare it an epidemic despite over 90 individual municipalities declaring the issue an epidemic in their communities.”
Since November 26 of 2023, 59 women have been victims of femicide in Ontario, including Kassidy-Ballantyne-Holmes from Stratford. Cross will be in Stratford on November 27 at the Stratford Library for the local leg of her book launch.
