Femicides rising in Canada as a woman or girl is killed every 48 hours, shows report

Femicide cases are drastically increasing in Canada, according to a new report that details hundreds of women and girls have been killed over the past five years.

In a report released on Thursday, the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability (CFOJA) indicated that at least 850 women and girls have been killed since 2018.

"That means, at least, one woman or girl is killed by violence every two days," the CFOJA noted in its report. "One woman or girl is killed every 48 hours. Where information is known, men are the majority of those accused."

There were at least 184 killings in 2022, the highest number the organization has seen since it began documenting these deaths in 2018. The number of killings that year was 169, and has been growing each year since 2020.

While 2019 saw a slight drop to 148 killings, there were 172 deaths in 2020 and 177 a year later.

One highlight in this year's report shows there was a 27 per cent rise in deaths involving male suspects in 2022 compared to 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 184 deaths noted in 2022 were tallied up from 170 cases. Eighteen of those cases do not have an accused suspect. For the other 152 cases, there were 173 people accused.

Out of the cases where the accused were identified, 82 per cent were male suspects and 18 per cent were female suspects.

For the 150 women and girls killed by male accused in 2022, the type of relationship between the parties were known for only 89 victims, or 59 per cent. Out of those, 52 victims — or 58 per cent — were killed by a current or former intimate partner.

For familial femicide, there were 20 cases in 2022 involving 24 victims and 20 accused.

Non-intimate femicide cases — where the relationships are primarily between acquaintances or strangers — accounted for 11 cases in 2022. Of those, there were 13 victims and 12 accused.

"We really wanted to address the issue so there would be better understanding publicly," Myrna Dawson, founder of the CFOJA and University of Guelph professor, shared in a news release.

Advocates have been pushing for the federal government to include femicide in the Criminal Code of Canada, while some have called on provinces to address intimate partner violence.

In the final inquiry report for the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shootings, the Mass Casualty Commission urged the government to recognize "gender-based, intimate partner and family violence as an epidemic."

The CFOJA's report indicates there are 20 countries — including Brazil, Argentina and Mexico — that have legislated the term "femicide," or used it to classify some offences.

Out of 35 countries, Canada is one of three that has not committed to the 1994 treaty, "Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women," according to the release.

"This is one example of how Canada lags behind other countries in its response to male violence against women and girls," Dawson added.