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PC government to support private bill declaring intimate partner violence an epidemic

Ontario says it will support an opposition bill to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic in the province.

Government House Leader Paul Calandra says his party will ask the justice committee in the coming days to thoroughly examine intimate partner violence and return with recommendations.

“The government and this caucus will be supporting the private member’s bill that comes before the house later today. In fact, we’ll be going a step further,” he said Wednesday at Queen’s Park.

“The premier has asked that we seek the advice of the standing committee on justice to do an in-depth study on all of the aspects with respect to intimate partner violence — both the current programs that are available, some of the roots causes of it and how we can do better in the province of Ontario.”

The New Democrats have tabled a bill that simply declares intimate partner violence an epidemic.

Calandra says more needs to be done on the issue to help victims, who are disproportionately women.

Last June, the province rejected calls from an inquest into the deaths of three women at the hands of their former partner to formally declare intimate partner violence an epidemic.

The jury at a coroner’s inquest into the 2015 deaths of Nathalie Warmerdam, Carol Culleton and Anastasia Kuzyk in Renfrew County made that recommendation one year ago Wednesday, along with 85 others aimed at preventing similar tragedies.

The province said at the time it would not declare intimate partner violence an epidemic because it was not an infectious or communicable disease.

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