Councillors to discuss doctor recruitment, intimate partner violence

Two councillors will introduce resolutions at next week's city council meeting related to issues that have very much been in the news in recent weeks.

Ward 1's Sandra Hollingsworth will ask for an accounting from the Sault's Physician Recruitment and Retention Committee on how many doctors have come here, how many are staying, and the cost of attracting physicians.

Ward 3's Angela Caputo wants to lobby the federal government to include coercive control as an offence under the Criminal Code of Canada to prevent intimate partner violence.

The following are the two resolutions.

Monday's city council meeting will be live-streamed on SooToday starting at 5 p.m.

Physician recruitment report request

Mover: Coun. S. Hollingsworth
Seconder: Coun. S. Spina

Whereas the community is in desperate need of physicians; and

Whereas the Physician Recruitment and Retention Committee has been working on increasing the number of doctors in Sault Ste. Marie since its inception; and 

Whereas the community is interested in the success rate of the committee and its efforts;

Now therefore be it resolved that a detailed report be given to council at a future council meeting outlining the recruitment rates, retention rates, the budget for the Physician Recruitment Committee and what the manager of physician recruitment sees as challenges and opportunities in recruitment strategies in the field of family medicine locally.

Intimate partner violence

Mover: Coun. A. Caputo
Seconder: Coun. L. Vezeau-Allen

Whereas the jury that heard the Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk, and Nathalie Warmerdam inquest (the Renfrew County inquest) issued 86 recommendations to prevent future deaths and delivered those recommendations to the Province of Ontario; and

Whereas recommendation #85 of the inquest is to include “coercive control”, as defined in the Divorce Act, as a criminal offence or as a type of assault under section 265 of the Criminal Code; and

Whereas according to experts, a perpetrator has privileged access to information about the target by virtue of the closeness of an intimate relationship and, as such, is able to identify unique vulnerabilities that can be exploited for coercive control; and

Whereas Coordinating Community Responses to Domestic Violence cites scholars and advocates in the field have consistently described intimate partner violence as both an expression of, and an attempt to maintain, power and control over intimate partners; and

Whereas in 2019, according to the Government of Canada, of the 107,810 people aged 15 and over who experienced intimate partner violence 79 per cent were women. Fifty-five per cent of women who experienced physical or sexual intimate partner violence feared a partner at some point.  Being afraid of a partner can indicate intimate partner violence that is more coercive, more severe, and more likely to reflect a pattern of abusive behaviours; and

Whereas between 2014 and 2019 in Canada, there were 497 victims of intimate partner homicide, and 80 per cent (400 victims) were women; and

Whereas while Indigenous women account for about five per cent of all women in Canada, they accounted for 21 per cent of women killed by an intimate partner between 2014 and 2019 (83 victims). In 2021, the rate of gender-related homicide of Indigenous women and girls was more than triple that of gender-related homicides of women and girls overall (1.72 versus 0.54 per 100,000 women and girls); and

Whereas the Government of Canada names coercive control as one of the acts included in intimate partner violence, but does not include coercive control as an offence contained within the Criminal Code of Canada, and

Whereas Bill C-332, a private member’s bill to amend the Criminal Code to create an offence of exercising coercive control of an intimate partner by engaging in a pattern of conduct that consists of any combination, or any repeated instances, of any of the following acts: using, attempting to use or threatening to use violence against certain persons, coercing or attempting to coerce the intimate partner to engage in sexual activity or engaging in other conduct that could reasonably be expected to cause the intimate partner to believe that their safety, or the safety of a person known to them, is threatened,

Now therefore be it resolved that the Sault Ste. Marie City Council express its support for Bill C-332 as well as call on the Government of Canada to support Bill C-332 and enact the necessary amendments to the Criminal Code of Canada to include coercive control of an intimate partner; and

Further be it resolved that a copy of this motion be circulated to the appropriate federal politicians, Sault Ste Marie MP Terry Sheehan, MP Laurel Collins, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities, Federation of Canadian Municipalities, and all Ontario municipalities.