Honourable senators, I rise this evening to speak to Senator Gwen Boniface’s Inquiry No. 10 on the subject of intimate partner violence.

Let first let me introduce you to the situations of three women who experienced intimate partner violence in Nova Scotia, two of whom are still living, and one who tragically died just in the county next to my home county.

Here is what the first woman wrote about her experience:

For my first job interview at the CBC in 1981, I spent an unusual amount of time making sure I had just the right outfit: a collarless jacket trimmed in the style of a white Chanel suit. I paired it with a dark blue blouse that I could button right to the top. It wasn’t just a fashion choice. I needed to hide the bruises. There was a purple ring of them around my neck with my husband’s fingerprints left there after he tried to choke me a few days earlier.

At one point, he’d attacked me on a short vacation, and then left me behind. I returned home on an overnight train convinced that I could save our marriage by pledging to be a better wife. But he had his own message for me when I got home: He told me that if I didn’t leave, he’d kill me. “It’s just a matter of time,” he said.

As for the second woman:

If we had a fight, he put the gun to my head to scare me and said he could blow off my head.

So I was scared. I’m not going to say anything.

And after years of enduring abuse:

He arrived at the cottage, he ripped off the blankets, yanked her by the hair onto the floor, kicked and punched her. “Get dressed,” he demanded. He shook gasoline all over the home and pulled her by the wrist out the door to the next-door warehouse. The log home exploded in flames. He ripped off her sneakers and dragged her by the hair. She squirmed out of her coat and raced into the darkness tripping and falling. He dragged her again, handcuffing her and firing his gun on the ground next to her and threw her into the back of the mock RCMP car.

And now, in the case of the third woman, we unfortunately don’t have her voice, because she was silenced before she could be heard. We know that in May 2016, her husband was sent to Ste. Anne’s Hospital near Montreal to try to stabilize his ongoing PTSD symptoms, including his struggle to manage his emotions. At that point, her husband had disclosed to medical practitioners that he was having nightmares about his wife cheating on him, and, in those dreams, he would kill her in retaliation. Her husband was an Afghanistan war veteran who ended up killing her, their daughter, his mother and then himself.

We do know that she had made contact with the Naomi Society in Antigonish, which provides support to people who experience intimate partner violence. She wanted to know how to obtain a peace bond. She had been clearly aware that she was in danger.

Some of you may have guessed who these three women are. The first woman, with the carefully hidden ring of bruises on her 24-year-old newlywed neck, is none other than the nationally and internationally acclaimed CBC journalist Anna Maria Tremonti. She was describing her efforts to hide evidence of her pain and her shame during the interview with the CBC Halifax’s “Information Morning” show, which launched her successful career with that national broadcaster. She only recently went public with her personal story of intimate partner violence, including a podcast series called “Welcome to Paradise.”

The second woman is Lisa Banfield, the long-time common‑law spouse of the perpetrator of Nova Scotia’s mass murders. She had endured years of violence at the hands of her partner, and, as we know, she was the first victim of his violent rampage, which resulted in the brutal and senseless killing of 22 Nova Scotians — the worst mass murder in Canadian history.

Lisa Banfield survived his rampage by escaping into the woods that night in Portapique in rural Nova Scotia. She was later further victimized by our justice system.

The third woman is Shanna Desmond from Upper Big Tracadie in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia. An African-Nova Scotian woman, she was a nurse, a mother and the wife of Afghanistan war veteran Lionel Desmond. As was the case with the tragic Renfrew County stories of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam that we heard Senator Boniface recount in her speech, the intimate partner violence that Shanna Desmond experienced was fatal.

In her speech, Senator Boniface highlighted the case of the murders of the three Renfrew County women — all former intimate partners of the same man — and set those against the context of the epidemic of intimate partner violence in Canada. She articulated particular concerns about intimate partner violence in rural areas, where there’s often a lack of access to support services, as well as how difficult it is to seek help on an anonymous basis in a small town.

She spoke about the coroner’s inquest into the deaths of the Renfrew County women and the 86 recommendations for change, including those related to the creation of an emergency fund for survivors, providing annual, sustainable funding to service providers, with recognition of differences in rural and urban realities; second-stage housing for survivors; education and training for justice system personnel on issues related to intimate partner violence, including unique rural factors; and the importance of expanding cell service and high-speed internet as a matter of enhancing safety for women in rural and remote areas.

Senator Boyer shared information on intimate partner violence against Indigenous women, and she also highlighted important Indigenous responses to that violence. Senator Seidman used a public health lens to show the significant gaps and bias in data, as well as the under-representation of women in research.

Senator Hartling spoke about her own experience of working with women victims of intimate partner violence in New Brunswick. She spoke of the often overlooked but critical issue of coercive control. My intention is to highlight some of the lessons from the cases of the three women in Nova Scotia. My emphasis will be on the findings and recommendations of the Mass Casualty Commission that relate to intimate partner violence.

Colleagues, as a reminder, intimate partner violence includes a range of behaviours, including emotional, financial, psychological, physical or sexual violence perpetrated by an intimate partner. The overwhelming majority of intimate partner violence perpetrators are men, and the overwhelming majority of their victims are women.

The intimate partner violence described by Anna Maria Tremonti was one of repeated physical attacks, as well as the psychological manipulation she experienced at the hands of her former husband. It not only left her bruised and battered, but also overwhelmed with shame and self-blame. One of the main reasons she kept her painful secret for decades was her fear that, as a woman looking to advance her career in journalism, she would be accused of bias. She now says:

I believe my own experience made me a more empathetic and nuanced reporter, but the assumption of a harmful bias remains in many newsrooms when it comes to gender-based violence.

She also states:

When we talk about objective journalism, whole cohorts of journalists have made the long overdue observation that objectivity is a white man’s subjective construct.

The matter of intimate partner violence in the case of the death of Shanna Desmond is being examined as part of the Desmond Fatality Inquiry. The inquiry’s mandate is to try to prevent future deaths by considering whether the systems that the family interacted with, including health care and domestic violence prevention, ought to be changed. The final report on that inquiry is anticipated in the near future.

Questions guiding the inquiry include the following: Did Lionel Desmond’s spouse Shanna, daughter Aaliyah and mother Brenda have access to appropriate domestic violence intervention services? Did the many health care professionals and police officers who interacted with the family have the necessary training and information to spot the risk of intimate partner violence? Should a man with profound and complex PTSD symptoms, recently released from an in-patient psychiatric program, have been able to legally purchase a firearm?

While we don’t yet have the report on that inquiry, we do know that some witnesses have indicated that systemic failures and racism played a role in the tragic chain of events that resulted in the murders of Shanna, her 10-year-old daughter, her mother-in-law and also her husband’s suicide.

Finally, colleagues, we turn to the Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Commission. Some of you may recall that at that time, Senator Colin Deacon, Senator Kutcher and I sent a letter to federal Minister Bill Blair and Nova Scotia Attorney General and Minister of Justice Mark Furey in early June 2020 — calling for the Government of Canada and the Government of Nova Scotia to launch a joint public inquiry into the Nova Scotia mass shootings and related events, as was requested by the families of the victims.

The Mass Casualty Commission, a joint public inquiry, was established that year. Its final report, entitled Turning the Tide Together — all 300 pages of it in seven volumes, including 130 recommendations — was released two months ago. Many of the commission’s recommendations focus on the RCMP, as was expected. On the topic of this inquiry, the report called for:

. . . a greater focus on addressing and preventing the root causes of violence in our communities, including gender‑based violence, intimate partner violence, and family violence . . . .

The report says:

. . . there is a growing body of evidence that many men who commit mass casualties have previously committed gender‑based violence, intimate partner violence, or family violence.

And many mass violence events begin with an attack on a specific woman. It points out that “Misogyny and unhealthy traditional conceptions of masculinity are root causes of mass casualty incidents.” It also acknowledges that “the division between public and private violence is illusory and problematic.”

The commission indicates that the first step in preventing mass violence is “in recognizing the danger of escalation inherent in all forms of violence.” It also calls for a “prevention-oriented public health approach” to the issue, which should include treatment for perpetrators.

Further, the commission concludes:

. . . that mandatory arrest and charging policies have failed in significant ways and have had unintended impacts that contribute to our collective and systemic failure to protect women and to help women survivors protect themselves.

In her article on the commission’s report, Canadian feminist lawyer Pamela Cross says:

It is gratifying to see how often the Commission report refers to the CKW inquest and its recommendations – maybe some of them will get the attention they deserve housed within this higher profile report.

I do not have sufficient time today to go through all the commission’s recommendations related to the prevention of intimate partner violence, but I can assure you they are worth studying and acting upon. Sustained, annual funding for community-based groups and experts in the gender-based advocacy and support sector is underlined as essential, as is the strengthening of firearms regulations.

Of paramount importance are the commission’s recommendations regarding accountability and ensuring the actual implementation of the recommendations. In that regard, the commission report proposes the establishment, by statute, of an independent and impartial gender-based violence commissioner with adequate, stable funding and effective powers, including the responsibility to make an annual report to Parliament.

Honourable colleagues, as I bring my remarks to a conclusion today, I want us all to take note of the valuable and potentially life-saving recommendations of the many inquiries, inquests and commissions on this epidemic of intimate partner and gender‑based violence. Among them, the May-Iles inquest, the Renfrew County inquest, the Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Commission and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Colleagues, let’s keep in mind the three women I spoke about today — Anna Maria Tremonti, Shanna Desmond and Lisa Banfield — the many other women in Canada impacted by this violent epidemic and our next generation of girls in Canada.

Honourable colleagues, let’s continue to work together so that the young girls of today can grow into women, who can count upon the right to live in safety in their communities and, most importantly, to live in safety in their own homes.

Thank you, wela’lioq.