Advocate glad to see focus on prevention in domestic violence report

Much of what Jo-Anne Dusel saw in the province’s new report on intimate partner violence-related deaths wasn’t new to her.

Dusel is the executive director of PATHS, Provincial Association of Transition Houses and Services of Saskatchewan, and was part of the group which did the first such review and report.

The second ‘domestic violence death review’ report was released Thursday. It reported several findings after reviewing 34 killings in 31 cases in the province over five years.

The report included a list of recommendations to stop such killings in the province. In 2023 – the last year data is available – Saskatchewan had the highest rate of police-reported intimate partner violence causing bodily harm or death among the provinces, which was also twice the national number.

What was new to Dusel was a shift in the report and in its recommendations for preventing violence.

The recommendations include things like improving education and awareness and doing early intervention with people using violence.

“We’ve been working reactively, providing supports to victims after the violence happens, it’s very important that those services are maintained, that people have a safe place to go,” said Dusel.

“But we really need to shift to preventing the violence from taking place initially – so that’s where education, perhaps in the school systems, age-appropriate information on what a healthy relationship looks like, it means public awareness campaigns so that we can begin to interrupt the intergenerational cycle of violence.”

She also talked about the need for more supports for children who witness the violence, to stop them from continuing the cycle when they get older.

Among the findings in the report was that more than half of the killings in the review happened in rural areas.

Dusel said there are complex dynamics around that, including that there aren’t likely to be formal services like domestic violence shelters close to the victim.

“But it’s also true that even in those communities where there are either counselling services or shelters, people may have a perception that it would not be confidential should they access those services. There’s still a lot of shame and stigma that victims feel,” she explained.

She said people in rural areas also tend to have guns, which can contribute to the likelihood of an incident escalating. And there’s a lack of transportation in rural areas.

“We know that there’s no longer any bus service in rural areas, so if someone was attempting to leave a situation and they lived in a rural or remote area it’s very difficult to get to a community that might have these supports,” said Dusel.

The distance many people in small towns and on farms are from responding police can also be a factor.

“People may be reluctant to make that call knowing that, either help won’t arrive in time, or perhaps the crisis may have blown over by the time that, say, RCMP arrive but then once the RCMP arrive, everything seems fine, they turn around, drive away, now that victim could face retaliation for making the call,” said Dusel.

In the report, the analysis also found that 82 per cent of cases had financial stress going on in the family, and that 70 per cent of the victims didn’t share the full details of the abuse they were enduring with friends and family.

“People out there might not even know if someone close to them is experiencing a dangerous level of abuse if they don’t know how to effectively ask that person, how to open the door for support, to ask them in a non-threatening way and help them to open up and help refer them to resources,” said Dusel.

She thinks it’s good that people from different services and backgrounds were brought together to do this report, but Dusel wants the province to develop an action plan on intimate partner violence. She said it would be a way to measure and track which actions are underway and whether they’re having an impact.

If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse or intimate partner violence services can be found on PATHS’ website or call 211 Saskatchewan.