On November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Ontario government once again refused to pass Bill 173, which was introduced this past April. Bill 173 would have declared intimate partner violence (IPV) an epidemic in Ontario. Instead, the government re-asserted the need for further research through the Justice Committee process, even though hundreds of experts already provided substantial evidence to support the declaration.
Further, it has been over two years since the Renfrew County Inquest into the 2015 murders of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam provided 86 recommendations to prevent IPV. The first of the Inquest’s 86 recommendations called on the Ontario government to declare IPV an epidemic. Across Ontario, 95 municipalities have heeded this call.
The immediate enactment of Bill 173 would provide relief for low-income survivors struggling through another major crisis in Ontario – the housing affordability crisis.
Ontario’s housing crisis puts survivors in precarious situations
Survivors who rent are most often forced out of their homes due to the experience of IPV. After leaving, survivors are trapped in lengthy cycles of chronic homelessness and housing instability. An overburdened shelter system, stagnant social housing waitlists, and unaffordable rents have put renters experiencing IPV at risk of further harm. Survivors are left with no choice but to take whatever shelter or rental unit they can get to avoid homelessness. This has led to survivors experiencing situations of exploitation, discrimination, and sexual violence.
Currently, the housing legal system overlooks the systemic nature of IPV and views it as an individual problem. For example, survivors who rent may be held accountable for the actions of the perpetrator, which can lead to eviction. When legal professionals advocate for renters experiencing IPV at the Landlord and Tenant Board, adjudicators rarely consider the impacts of IPV that led to the hearing. As a result, survivors are evicted with little time to move. This only exacerbates our provinces homelessness crisis.
Bill 173 is a legal tool for survivors
Bill 173 would be a clear statement from the government that survivors’ right to housing should be protected and enhanced. Legal professionals could incorporate Bill 173 into their eviction prevention and advocacy efforts to ensure that renters experiencing IPV are not held responsible for the actions of the perpetrator and evicted into a housing crisis. Similar to the Gladue principles, which requires criminal courts to consider the over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal system, Bill 173 would compel adjudicators to consider the housing realities of survivors and reduce the number of survivors who are over-represented in the homelessness population. We urge the province to enact Bill 173 without delay. Bill 173, is small but mighty. Comprising of only fifteen words. It has the potential to strengthen survivors’ access to justice, prevents secondary victimization through our legal system, and improves their housing stability.
Bill 173 is a meaningful step toward what advocates have called for decades: the eradication of gender-based violence.