Advocates say N.S. falling short on treating intimate-partner violence as epidemic

Nova ScotiaSenior Nova Scotia government officials are responding to concerns that they are falling short on a commitment to treat intimate-partner violence as an epidemic.Since Oct. 18, there have been seven women in Nova Scotia allegedly killed by their male partnersThe Canadian Press · The Canadian Press · Posted: Sep 02, 2025 5:44 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoA legislature committee discussed intimate-partner violence on Sept. 2, 2025. (Mark Crosby/CBC)Senior Nova Scotia officials heard Tuesday at a legislature committee how the government is falling short in its efforts to tackle intimate-partner violence, about one year after the province declared such violence an epidemic.Nicole Johnson-Morrison, the associate deputy minister with the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women, said the unanimous adoption of a bill that declared intimate-partner violence an epidemic on Sept. 12, 2024, was a critical step in acknowledging the severity of the issue.”We know that intimate-partner violence is an epidemic in our province, and it continues to impact far too many Nova Scotians,” she said Tuesday in her opening remarks before the committee.Since Oct. 18, seven women have been killed in Nova Scotia whose deaths are connected to their male partners, and in one case, the father of a victim was also killed.Johnson-Morrison said the government’s commitment to address such violence “is more than just words and money. It is in our action,” she said, noting that the 2025-26 budget includes more than $100 million for initiatives related to intimate-partner or gender-based violence.Nicole Johnson-Morrison is the associate deputy minister with the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women. (Mark Crosby/CBC)Emma Halpern, the executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia, told the committee that her staff’s experience with gender-based violence this year “moved from the professional into the personal” as three staff members from different communities were impacted by extreme examples of such violence.”We had one staff whose cousin was killed, one staff whose aunt was killed. And then one staff who herself was shot by a former domestic partner,” she said.Halpern said the experience trying to help this colleague after the shooting reinforced to her the “massive gaps” that exist in the province’s support systems for survivors.”My staff were the ones at the home after there were shots fired cleaning up the blood. My staff were the ones boarding up the windows of that home to make sure that nobody came in … We saw gaps in medical services … We found her housing because there wasn’t time to access the housing benefit to get her into new housing,” Halpern said.She said those who work in the sector are aware of the gaps that exist and the ways things can be improved — they just need funding and government support to make it happen.Following Tuesday’s meeting, Johnson-Morrison said “we’re trying our best to find ways to listen to the sector and continue to support it as much as we can.”However, Johnson-Morrison would not commit to providing “core” funding, which covers ongoing operational costs, to groups supporting gender-based violence victims.Group calls for annual fundingMeghan Hansford, with the non-profit Adsum for Women and Children, told the committee that instead of core funding, many groups that support survivors of gender-based violence in Nova Scotia are stuck in the stressful and time-consuming cycle of applying for annual funding from the province.Hansford said the province should ensure these groups can continue their vital work by funding them adequately and on a long-term basis.”When our government confronted COVID-19, extraordinary funding was immobilized quickly, reflecting the urgency of saving lives. Gender-based violence demands the same approach,” Hansford said.The final report from the public inquiry into the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting that left 22 people dead and began with a violent domestic assault recommended governments provide an “epidemic-level funding” to gender-based violence prevention and intervention.MORE TOP STORIES