Ontario rejects some recommendations from triple murder inquest jury: Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC) responds

 

On September 22, 2015, three women were found murdered at separate locations within a 25-kilometre radius of Wilno, Ontario in Renfrew County. In 2017, Basil Borutski was convicted of first-degree murder charges in the deaths of Anastasia Kuzyk, Nathalie Warmerdam and Carol Culleton. Two of the women were ex-partners of Borutski; the other had known him as an acquaintance, and friends report she had recently “asked him to stop” visiting her property[1].

The CKW (Culleton, Kuzyk and Warmerdam) inquest took place in June 2022. The inquiry aimed to shed light on the circumstances that led up to the September 2015 tragedy, as well as identify ways to prevent incidents like this in future.

Ontario was the subject of most of the jury’s 86 recommendations. Last week, the Ontario government provided its responses to 30 recommendations: twenty-two of the 30 recommendations were accepted or partly accepted, and eight were rejected[2]. This responds to a small proportion of the total.

Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC) stands in solidarity with those affected by gender-based violence. We continue to advocate to raise awareness about femicide, which affects different people in different ways across Canada. For example: 

• Within one week of the Province’s response to the CKW recommendations, the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH) revealed that in just thirty weeks, thirty femicide victims have lost their lives to gender-based violence in Ontario[3]

 

• While femicide rates overall are concerning, First Nations, Inuit, and Metis people in Canada are at greater risk of being targeted: a Canadian national inquiry found that Indigenous women and girls are 16 times more likely to be slain or to disappear than white women[4]. For example, in 2022 in Winnipeg, Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran, Rebecca Contois and a fourth unidentified woman were all the victims of the same killer. The three women whose identities are known were all First Nations, and police have said they believe the unidentified woman was also Indigenous. The deaths have elicited calls for action to do more to protect Indigenous women and girls[5].

We call on all leaders and levels of government to take action now.

 

Femicide: a form of gender-based violence

Unlike the gender-neutral terms murder and homicide, the term femicide conveys the motivation behind a killing: in femicide, those that kill are motivated by a sense of a right to do so, or an assumption of ownership over a woman, women and other feminized people[6]. Femicides impact all women, girls and Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, non-binary (2SLGBTQQIA+[7]) people, as, implicitly, these groups “learn that there is a series of boundaries in the physical and social worlds which they must not cross if they wish to remain safe”[8]. The person who killed Anastasia Kuzyk, Nathalie Warmerdam and Carol Culleton had a long history of controlling and abusive behavior towards women[9]. When Kuzyk and Warmerdam accessed the criminal justice system for support against threatening behavior, protections were insubstantial[10].

Preventing femicide means understanding what undermines safety for people experiencing violence. For example, the incidences that the CKW inquiry looked at occurred in rural eastern Ontario. Rural realities for women and gender-diverse people include:

• that intimate partner violence is more prominent in rural areas
• the need to travel to access and provide services where telephone and internet coverage is not available
• the lack of public transit
• the cost of transportation for survivors and service providers[11], which can get in the way of safety plans and options to escape or evade violence.

Actions to prevent femicide mean creating solutions to people’s lived realities: for example, more services and supports for victims, awareness about violence targeting women and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people, and a criminal justice system that takes all forms of gender-based violence – for example, criminal harassment, controlling behavior or sexual violence – seriously.

Without fulsomely implementing the CKW inquest recommendations, we won’t see material changes in the lives of people experiencing gender-based violence. “Call for implementation of the inquest recommendations,” said Pamela Cross, the Legal Director of Luke’s Place and a participant in last year’s inquest. “Too many women have already died”[12].

 

While violence is often gendered, it is also informed by race

While violence is often gendered, racism continues to devalue the lives of Indigenous women, girls and gender diverse people more than others. Violence impacts Indigenous women and gender-diverse people in Canada in many explicit and implicit ways:

“In the Canadian context, and in reference to Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people, some examples include: deaths of women in police custody; the failure to protect Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people from exploitation and trafficking, as well as from known killers; the crisis of child welfare; physical, sexual, and mental abuse inflicted on Indigenous women and girls in state institutions…and more” — Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls [13].

The harm and exploitation of Indigenous bodies through violence is rooted in Canada’s colonial legacy. For example, violence brought by colonialism “upon Indigenous Peoples was normalized through the propagation of degrading cultural and sexual myths concerning Indigenous women and men”[14], as well as ideas of white superiority and white womanhood[15]. In our colonial history, those that harmed or killed Indigenous people were rarely held accountable for their actions. Unfortunately, this pattern continues today.

Femicide particularly affects Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people. Last year, one man took the lives of Morgan Beatrice Harris, Marcedes Myran, Rebecca Contois and a fourth woman in Winnipeg, Manitoba; all of the victims were Indigenous[16]. Social media linked to the killer included “violent sentiments, as well as antisemitic, misogynistic and white supremacist material”[17]. In the aftermath of his arrest, Winnipeg police said that while they believe Harris and Myran’s remains are at a local landfill, it wouldn’t be feasible to search for them there; police cited costs, health and safety issues that the search would incur[18]. While these barriers may be a reality, the resistance to search for the missing victims devalues Indigenous bodies, and increases risk to Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people. It conveys low system and public investment in justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and gender-diverse people.  An Indigenous woman shares about her sister who went missing many years ago:

“It was just like my sister was invisible, that nobody cared about her, and I’m the only one that really cared for her. I’m the only one that wants justice for [her]” — Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls [19].

In the most recent case, the Ontario Native Women’s Association (ONWA) stated that the 2022 “serial murders that occurred in Winnipeg, Manitoba are a national tragedy, and another example of racism and hate”[20] targeting Indigenous communities. These realities echo “the systemic violence that seeks to erase their experiences and to make invisible the violence they confront” as Indigenous women[21].

We believe that gendered violence cannot be addressed without first confronting the violence targeting Indigenous women and gender-diverse people in Canada. Acts of violence – and how they are addressed by our systems and governments – continue to reflect who is valued and protected, and who is not.

 

Work remains to prevent femicide

There are things you can do to increase awareness about femicide, and join with others to prevent it:

• Reach out to your MPP today to call for implementation of the CKW Inquest recommendations
• Center the knowledge of Indigenous communities when it comes to gendered violence
• Read about and support the solutions identified by the Native Women’s Association of Canada’s NWAC Action Plan to End the Attack Against Indigenous Women, Girls, and Gender-Diverse People (2021)
• Advocate to your local and federal government to implement action to address violence against Indigenous communities. The Native Women’s Association of Canada says: “There can be no more aspirational documents. There can be no more playing around the edges of this genocide. The next steps must be concrete, actionable, costed, and quickly put into effect”[22]
• Support the Search the Landfill protests: “When you say you won’t move forward with the search, you’re telling my community that it’s OK and that you condone the dumping of Indigenous women”, Cambria Harris, an Indigenous activist and the daughter of one of the missing women, said[23]
• If you work in the gender-based violence sector:
  • Reach out to your MPP to call for implementation of the CKW Inquest recommendations. Request a meeting to review the recommendations, and share why you support the implementation of these recommendations
  • Identify barriers to support and safety for rural survivors of violence in your frontline work and in calls for system improvements
  • Ensure that your advocacy/your organization’s advocacy aligns with the calls to action outlined in NWAC Action Plan to End the Attack Against Indigenous Women, Girls, and Gender-Diverse People (2021)
  • Ensure that your/your organization’s campaigns for action plans to address gendered violence aligns with the calls to action outlined in NWAC Action Plan to End the Attack Against Indigenous Women, Girls, and Gender-Diverse People (2021)
  • Ensure that your/your organization’s requests for funding for the gender-based violence sector includes a demand for funding for Indigenous organizations supporting women, girls and gender diverse people.

We believe that the best way to prevent violence is to work with others for change.

 

Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC) is a network of community-based sexual assault centres in Ontario. Member centres have been supporting survivors of sexual violence and offering prevention education.  If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, go to https://sexualassaultsupport.ca/get-help/.

Additional resources:

• Read community-based recommendations to the CKW Inquest here
• Read the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls here
• Learn about how other mass casualty events in Canada are informed by both sexism and racism here

 

[1] Culleton knew nothing of alleged killer’s violent past, say friends and family. Ottawa Citizen, October 4, 2015. Online: http://ottawaObserver.com/news/local-news/culleton-knew-nothing-of-alleged-killers-violent-past-say-friends-and-family

[2] CBC News. June 28, 2023. Ontario rejects some recommendations from triple murder inquest jury. Online: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ontario-responses-ckw-inquest-1.6891265

[3] Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH). July 6, 2023. Thirty Femicides have now been reported in the same number of weeks: Province and municipalities torn over whether or not to call Intimate Partner Violence an epidemic. Online: https://www.oaith.ca/assets/library/OAITHJuly2023PressRelease-30Femicides.pdf

[4] National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG). Report released June 2019. Online: https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/

[5] Gowriluk, c. for CBC News. Dec 11, 2022. A timeline of what we know about 4 slain Winnipeg women and alleged serial killer Jeremy Skibicki. Online: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/jeremy-skibicki-winnipeg-alleged-serial-killer-timeline-1.6681433

[6] Baker, L., (July 2015).  Issue 14: Femicide.  Learning Network Brief (29).  London, Ontario: Learning Network, Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children.  Online: http://www.vawlearningnetwork.ca/issue-14-femicide 

[7] This initial stands for “Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual.” It may also appear as LGBTQ2SIA, or in shortened versions such as LGBTQ2S or LGBT+. Learn More:

• The 519, Definitions/glossary
• Egale Canada, 2SLGBTQI Terms and Concepts

[8] Ibid.

[9] Blizzard, C. for The Toronto Sun. October 8, 2015. Why was Basil Borutski released from jail? Online: http://www.torontosun.com/2015/10/08/why-was-basil-borutski-released-from-jail

[10] Friends, family remember Anastasia Kuzyk, one of three women slain last month. Ottawa Citizen, October 18, 2015. Online: http://ottawaObserver.com/news/local-news/friends-family-gather-to-remember-anastasia-kuzyk-one-of-three-women-slain-last-month

[11] Ontario. June 2022. Inquest into the deaths of: Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam: Recommendation 20 (c). Online: https://www.ontario.ca/page/2022-coroners-inquests-verdicts-and-recommendations

[12] CBC News. June 28, 2023. Ontario rejects some recommendations from triple murder inquest jury. Online: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ontario-responses-ckw-inquest-1.6891265

[13] National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Volume 1a. Online: https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Final_Report_Vol_1a-1.pdf: 53.

[14] Nonomura, Robert. (2020). Trafficking at the Intersections: Racism, Colonialism, Sexism, and Exploitation in Canada. Learning Network Brief (36). London, Ontario: Learning Network, Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children. Online: http://www.vawlearningnetwork.ca/our-work/briefs/brief-36.html: 8-9.

[15] Pietsch, N. “‘Doing Something’ About ‘Coming Together’: The Surfacing of Intersections of Race, Sex, and Sexual Violence in Victim-Blaming and in the SlutWalk Movement.” This Is What a Feminist Slut Looks Like: Perspectives on the SlutWalk Movement, edited by Alyssa Teekah et al., Demeter Press, Bradford, ON, 2015, pp. 77–91.

[16] CBC News. December 2, 2022. Winnipeg man charged with killing 3 Indigenous women. Online: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2132525635624

[17] Gowriluk, c. for CBC News. Dec 11, 2022. A timeline of what we know about 4 slain Winnipeg women and alleged serial killer Jeremy Skibicki. Online: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/jeremy-skibicki-winnipeg-alleged-serial-killer-timeline-1.6681433

[18] Gowriluk, c. for CBC News. Dec 11, 2022. A timeline of what we know about 4 slain Winnipeg women and alleged serial killer Jeremy Skibicki. Online: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/jeremy-skibicki-winnipeg-alleged-serial-killer-timeline-1.6681433

[19] National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Volume 1a. Online: https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Final_Report_Vol_1a-1.pdf: 389.

[20] Ontario Native Women’s Association (ONWA).  December 6, 2022. Ontario Native Women’s Association Outraged by Winnipeg Murders and Violence that Continues to Plague Indigenous Women Nationally. Online: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ontario-native-women-association-outraged-130000250.html

[21] National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Volume 1a. Online: https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Final_Report_Vol_1a-1.pdf: 456.

[22] Native Women’s Association of Canada. 2021. NWAC ’s Action Plan to End the A tack Against Indigenous Women, Girls, and Gender-Diverse People . Online: https://www.nwac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/NWAC-action-plan-FULL-ALL-EDITS.pdf. 4. 

[23] Bergen, R. for CBC News. Posted: July 10, 2023. Supporters hold their ground at Winnipeg landfill blockade as noon deadline to leave passes: City of Winnipeg may apply for injunction if talks with demonstrators don’t yield resolution, CAO says. Online: https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6901937?fbclid=IwAR0wjkosy6gVVSgpmE-bXvGqZQ3XWPpn97p6y4MLKTQARG-p1c-WI3YjXQ8

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