More funding needed to help curb family violence: Lynn Moore

A prominent St. John's defence lawyer says more funding needs to be provided at the federal and provincial levels to help curb family violence.

Lynn Moore's recommendations come on the heels of a report from Canada's Chief Public Health Officer that identified family violence as a major health issue.

In Dr. Greg Taylor's 2016 report on the state of public health, he spoke of the "staggering" statistics surrounding family violence,

He said that population surveys tell us that one third of the population, or 9 million people, have reported experiencing abuse before they were 15 years old.

As someone who works with victims of family violence, Moore said she's seen the lasting effects on people who have fallen victim to it from a young age.

"Most of my clients are people who are in their 40's and 50's who were very badly hurt as children by people that they knew, people that they trusted, and their lives are just not the same," she said.

According to Moore, preventing family violence should be one of the government's main goals.

"It most definitely is a public issue, it's a safety issue, and it's really a law and order issue," she said.

Moore believes that for change to happen, there needs to be more funding across the board.

"If the government would step up and do what it should do, we could really eradicate this problem," she said.

"It's a huge problem for one third of our population and it has to be addressed."