As a victim of domestic violence the sliding effect of those it has touched in my life is too numerous to detail. It is our Mothers, daughters, and  children that have been put in danger continuously and their human rights are suffering.  Our Nation should be appalled that we continue to fail victims and survivors of DP/IPV.  Would our government and community declare it an epidemic if we called it by a different name (bondage, torture.)The government refusing to declare Domestic Violence/Intimate Partner Violence an epidemic after an Inquiry in July 2022 of the preventable deaths of 3 women is not only appalling its disheartening and on the basis of the word “epidemic” not being suitable.

The rejection of a declaration of DV and IPV an epidemic based on verbiage not only is idiotic it’s a clear sign that Women’s lives just don’t matter 

It is infectious, it infects the entire surrounding members around a person being subjected to abuse.  The traits of both abuser and abused are infected/spread to children being exposed to the violence.   To merely disregard a serious recommendation on the fact of using the word as a noun is simply put idiotic.  It has shown women again that somehow our lives are of lesser value, that it is acceptable to abuse and beat and kill. Yet somehow we are willing and able to call the opioid crisis an epidemic. Being a drug addict is not a epidemic by definition that the government wants to use as the reason to not declare DV and IPV an epidemic, yet somehow we have made that assertion.  

If every time a women was slapped, kicked, beaten, strangled we thought of if as an attempted murder would then the statistics warrant a declaration. Is 1 women every 6 days not good enough statistically, does it need to be 1 everyday. Because in  reality it probably is 1 a day as some cases are not declared femicides

You want women to feel safe to trust in a system that continually reenforces that the abuse isn’t that bad, that it’s not that serious that there are no safe guards in place.  If your killed by your partner it doesn’t matter.  We will simply put an ad on the tv, enhance an outdated/non preventative program like PAR and we can pretend that we actually addressing the problem. You have shown not only survivors but women living it presently, young children and the Nation that the abuse of women is acceptable.   It’s not a real problem, that it doesn’t warrant a collective response.  It’s absolutely disgusting, and our Ontario and Federal government should be ashamed, and worried. Women and the Nation will eventually ban together and make their voices heard. When victims of abuse finally take the risk to show their faces and voices about what Domestic Violence  truly looks like and how it trickles down into so many peoples lives then will the government do some thing.  When you have children writing letters about how it has infected their lives will their be an appropriate response or is it again going be silenced based on using a word as a noun instead of an adjective. 

In order for there to be any solution, preventive measure to be put in place you first have to acknowledge that there is a problem. And by the government failing to declare it an epidemic tells the country and victims/survivors. “There is no problem”

I ask people to sign this petition and make their local officials aware of our intention to no longer ideally stand by and allow our Nations women to be cast aside and devalued.  This is the time to demand the declaration of Domestic Violence and Intimate Partner Violence what is is an EPIDEMIC