Intimate Partner Violence Needs to be Recognized as an Epidemic with appropriate supports
Intimate Partner Violence Needs to be Recognized as an Epidemic with appropriate supports
For Immediate Release March 6, 2025
This year, the New Brunswick Federation of Labour is joining others in pushing the Holt government to recognize intimate partner violence as an epidemic and adopt Clare’s Law, enabling women to have access to their partners criminal history as it pertains to intimate partner violence.
“Nova Scotia recently adopted legislation declaring intimate partner violence an epidemic. This opens the door to increasing government resources allocated to prevent violence and to support survivors,” says Tasha Salesse, NBFL Vice-President responsible for Women’s Issues. “In Ontario, a similar bill has passed second reading and is in committee. If these provinces can do it, so should we. New Brunswick leads the country with the highest increase, 39%, in intimate partner violence rates over a 12-year period.”
From 2009 to 2021, New Brunswick showed the highest increase in intimate partner violence in all of Canada, namely a 39% increase. In 2021, a total of 3,172 people in New Brunswick reported experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV). In 2019, in New Brunswick, 77% of people who reported intimate partner violence to police were women and 23% were men. In 2021, there were 497 cases of intimate partner violence per 100,000 persons in New Brunswick while that number was 345 per 100,000 in Canada.
“Women have a right to know if their intimate partner has a legal history of committing domestic violence,” says Chris Watson, NBFL President. “Having this knowledge could save lives. Saskatchewan, Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador have already adopted this type of legislation, known as Clare’s Law.”
Clare’s Law is named after Clare Wood and was first adopted in the United Kingdom in 2014. Clare Wood was a 36-year-old mother who was murdered by her ex-intimate partner in 2009. He had a previous criminal record for abusing women. Although Clare had filed a police report and gotten a restraining order, police were not able to share her partner’s criminal history of abusing women. Clare’s Law, where adopted, allows for that.
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For additional information please contact:
Tasha Salesse
NBFL Vice President Responsible for Women’s Issues
(506) 639-9851
Chris Watson
NBFL Interim President
(506) 663-9123
