Intimate Partner and Domestic Violence on the Rise in Saskatchewan – DiscoverMooseJaw.com

Saskatchewan RCMP saw an increase in domestic and intimate partner violence in their jurisdictions between 2019 and 2023.

They saw a 7 percent increase in incidents of such violence in the Southern District, which includes the Moose Jaw area.

Last year, Saskatchewan RCMP recorded incidents of intimate partner violence across all their jurisdictions at 813 per 100,000 population and 890 per 100,000 population, which is higher than the overall provincial rates of 710 and 741 per 100,000 respectively of inhabitants.

Compared to the rest of the country, interprovincial rates of intimate partner and family violence are highest in Saskatchewan, with a 2023 countrywide rate of 354 per 100,000 for police-reported intimate partner violence and 350 per 100,000 of residents for police-reported domestic violence.

In Canada, there was a 1% increase in intimate partner violence and a 3% increase in family violence reported to the police last year, with Statistics Canada report suggesting the numbers may be higher because people are unable to report violence to the police.

Sgt. Kim Stewart, family violence co-ordinator with the RCMP, said they recognize and accept the statistics, but could not say specifically what caused the increase in their jurisdictions.

“We know as of 2020, there was an increase back then, and the numbers have continued to increase or stay roughly the same since then.”

Types of violence recorded may include reported assaults, verbal threats and harassment. “When those are reported to the RCMP, a file is put together, and if it’s in one of those categories, then that’s how we find those numbers.”

“So that doesn’t necessarily mean that charges have been laid for those, but we did have a report of one of these murders.”

Stewart said she addresses intimate partner and family violence, though she works with various organizations across the province, including transition homes and the Provincial Association of Transitional Homes and Services of Saskatchewan (PATHS), family services, victim services and police partners municipal.

She spoke about the Interpersonal Violence Disclosure Protocol Act, also known as Clare’s Lawwhich allows a police service to disclose information about a person’s previous intimate partner violence to current or former intimate partners, with components including a ‘right to ask’ and a ‘right to know’.

When it comes to ‘the right to ask,’ people can request information from a police service to help them decide whether to stay in a relationship.

“Let’s say I’m just starting to meet someone new and maybe there are some kind of red flags. I’ve heard from other people that he may have been involved in domestic violence in the past, or maybe there’s more and more anger, temper, outbursts from this individual,” Stewart explained.

A person can approach the police service confidentially to make a Clare Law claim, which goes to a multi-sectoral review committee made up of community and police partners. “We decide if it’s high risk, low risk or medium risk and what information we can share with that person.”

There are situations where a third party who is concerned that someone they are close to may be at risk can also make a claim under Clare’s Law.

Under the ‘right to know’, police can proactively decide to disclose information to a potential victim.

“We may be aware that a man or woman has been involved in domestic violence in the past, and now we see them with a new person and think, ‘I wonder if he or she even knows what that person was involved in. respective. the past.”

Through the Clare’s Law process and the review board, they can extend this information to a new partner so that they are fully informed.

You can find more information and resources on abuse or violence by visiting abuz.sk.211.caor by calling or texting 211 any day or time. The RCMP also has more information on relationship violence on their website here.