Rural service workers worry as StatCan reports rise in firearm-related intimate partner violence

According to new Statistics Canada research, the average annual rate of intimate partner violence involving a firearm was significantly higher between 2020 to 2024 than a decade prior.

It has community service workers in our region concerned, especially those in rural areas.

The report found that rates of intimate partner violence with firearms were significantly higher outside cities.

The executive director of Haldimand and Norfolk Women’s Services Amber Wardell says it’s systemic.

“The rural per capita ownership with guns is about double of what urban is in Ontario, so we know that it is absolutely a tool of coercive control,” said Wardell.

READ MORE: Woman killed, man shot himself in intimate partner violence case: Barrie police

Wardell says Statistics Canada’s recent report is alarming, and a reminder that rural areas like Haldimand-Norfolk have systemic problems in addressing the issue of intimate partner violence.

“We have high rates of violence in Haldimand-Norfolk, that’s been highlighted through statistics for a number of years,” said Wardell. “We know people are particularly isolated — we see those barriers lead to an escalation of violence, where we have more lethal situations that occur.”

According to the report between 2020 and 2024, the average annual rate of intimate partner violence involving firearms was 58 per cent higher than it was between 2010 and 2014.

Around 85 per cent of the victims were women and girls aged 12 and over, with victims between 18 and 24 years old being the highest.

The executive director of the Ontario Association of Interval & Transition Houses (OAITH) Marlene Ham says the new data begs the question of what is contributing to the rise.

WATCH MORE: Niagara police report sharp rise in domestic violence investigations

“You know, what are the social and economical conditions at play that are contributing to more cases of intimate partner violence, where there has been a presence of a gun, and certainly kind of understanding from there, how does that show up in femicide data,” said Ham.

In 2023, the federal government made it possible for people who believe they are in danger to apply for an emergency prohibition order, which would see a person’s firearms, licence or other ownership removed for up to 30 days or longer, but experts say there needs to be better enforcement.

“To respond effectively to any of the legislation and laws the government has moved forward with, we need the systems themselves to respond with it, and so really that is the systemic issue we are dealing with currently,” said Ham.

Even with that 2023 law, the report says 7 per cent of those shot in intimate partner homicides were under protection orders, as were 14 per cent of victims who died in other ways.

WATCH MORE: How to recognize domestic violence as a bystander