Prince Edward County Council is taking violence against women seriously.
Councillor Kate MacNaughton brought a motion before council during their Tuesday meeting urging council to declare violence against women and intimate partner violence an epidemic. The motion also commits to working with community partners to educate residents about the severity and impact of gender-based violence.
The resolution called for copies of the resolution to be sent to all Ontario municipalities to encourage more action on the inquiry, along with copies sent to Premier Doug Ford, Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity Charmaine A. Williams, and Bay of Quinte MPP Todd Smith.
Her call to action comes after the Renfrew inquiry, which recommended Ontario declare intimate partner violence an epidemic and found that every six days in Canada a woman is killed by her intimate partner. The inquiry notes that rural communities are more at risk of violence.
Councillor Phil St-Jean briefly spoke about how slow the provincial government has been to react to the Renfrew Inquiry’s findings.
“It’s sad in this day and age that that our provincial government and the Solicitor General are not acting as quickly as they should be,” said Councillor St-Jean. “It truly is sad, when this is such an important issue. ”
The motion passed unanimously.
