Photo courtesy of familyservice.sk.ca
Justice Minister Gordon Wyant says his department is not waiting until the final report on domestic violence deaths is released before taking action.
Today, the province’s domestic violence death panel released an interim report that portrays some disturbing numbers, especially in the Aboriginal community.
The panel is looking at domestic violence death rates over a ten-year period from 2005 until 2014. During that period, there were 48 murders and 9 suicides, all related to domestic violence. Almost half of the victims were Indigenous, most were killed by their partners and most of the incidents happened at home.
Justice Minister Gordon Wyant says the numbers, which include the deaths of 15 children are disturbing.
“You know children are the future of the province, and when you see children being lost in such a tragic way, it has a dramatic effect on you personally and certainly the future of the province,” he said.
Wyant says the information will be shared with the inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women. It will also be used to shape the province’s domestic violence response. He adds work is already underway.
“This will all form the basis and the final recommendations will be part of that as well,” he said. “But we are certainly not waiting for those final recommendations before beginning work on the development of a strategy.”
The report found the domestic violence rate in Saskatchewan was the highest in the country at about two to three times the national average.
It also found that six of the ten communities in Canada with the worst rates of violence against Indigenous women and girls are in northern Saskatchewan.
The domestic violence death panel will release its final report this fall.