Photo (from left to right): Prabhu Rajan Counsel to the Chief Coroner of Ontario, Valerie Warmerdam the daughter of Nathalie Warmerdam, Kirsten Mercer Counsel to EVA (Renfrew County), Pamela Cross VAW Activist and Legal Expert
An inquest in Renfrew County has made 86 recommendations.
The verdict from the jury was read this afternoon (Tuesday, June 28th, 2022).
The inquest looked at the circumstances surrounding the murders in September of 2015 of Carol Culleton, Nathalie Warmerdam and Anastasia Kuzyk.
The inquest also focused on gender-based violence, intimate partner violence and femicide in rural communities.
The first recommendation from the jury is for the Government of Ontario to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic.
A number of recommendations also surrounded the term femicide, adding it to the criminal code and adopting it as a manner of death.
Another recommendation is to add coercive control as a criminal offence.
Some of the jury recommendations are listed below:
- Ensure that survivors and those assisting survivors have direct and timely communication with probation officers to assist in safety planning.
- Create an emergency fund in honour of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam to support women living with intimate partner violence who who are taking steps to seek safety and include small grants up to $7,000 with referrals to service providers.
- Funding for “safe rooms” to be installed in survivors homes in high-risk cases.
- Ensure teachers are trained to deliver the intimate partner violence related curriculum.
- Establish clear guidelines regarding the flagging of perpetrators or potential intimate partner violence victims in police databases, immediate dispatch and police access to the identities and contact information of potential targets, and how to notify those targets.
- Establish a province-wide 24/7 hotline for men who need support to prevent them from engaging in intimate partner violence.
- Set up satellite offices for police officers to work safely and comfortably to spread
police resources more evenly over wide rural areas (i.e. consider asking schools and municipal governments to provide office space).
- Consider finding alternate means for survivors to attend and testify in court, such as by video conferencing.
- Require that a PAL is automatically reviewed when someone is charged with an intimate partner violence related offence.
Significant financial investments and commitments to stable funding are being recommended from the jury to ensure the recommendations from the inquest are implemented.
The jury also recommended to immediately create a provincial implementation committee dedicated to ensuring that the recommendations from this inquest are comprehensively considered, and any responses are fully reported and published.
The inquest lasted three weeks and was held at the Best Western in Pembroke.
(written by: Rudy Kadlec)