CTV National News: Modi invite overshadowing Carney's G7 announcement
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PM Carney's announcement outlining Canada's priorities ahead of the G7 Summit is being overshadowed by his invite to Indian PM Modi. Jeremie Charron explains.
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National Post
an hour ago
- National Post
Femicide must be defined in law, experts say as Ontario police use term in homicide cases
Article content As police in Ontario increasingly investigate killings of women and girls as femicides, advocates say a firm definition of the term must be embedded in the Criminal Code. Article content It's a change they hope could be on the table soon after Prime Minister Mark Carney proposed cracking down on intimate partner violence in this year's federal election campaign. Article content Ottawa police, who have been using the term since August 2024, said last week they were investigating the death of a 54-year-old woman as a femicide. They arrested a 57-year-old man and charged him with second-degree murder. Article content Last month, Kingston Police logged its first use of the label in a news release. Article content Police said they determined the death of a 25-year-old woman to be a femicide because it occurred 'in the context of intimate partner violence,' and they arrested a 26-year-old man for first-degree murder. They confirmed it was their first time describing a homicide in this way. Article content Police use the word so rarely that the Kingston example was a 'very significant' move, said Myrna Dawson, founder and director of the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability. Article content 'That's not something that's really in their vocabulary right now. It's not something that is in many people's vocabulary as much as it should be,' she said. Article content Dawson, who is also a sociology professor at the University of Guelph, said the lack of Criminal Code definition is part of the reason why. Article content The observatory defines femicide as the killing of women and girls because of their gender. Article content The group also uses a framework from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime that lists 10 specific indicators that a crime could be considered femicide. Article content They include a woman or girl being killed by her intimate partner or family member, a victim having had a history of being harassed and sexual violence playing a role in the crime. In some cases, more than one factor can be at play. Article content 'They're killed in distinct ways from men and boys, and they're killed in many ways because of men and boys being entitled to relationships with them and expecting that women don't get to decide when they don't want a relationship any longer,' Dawson said. Article content Using the UN framework, her group has counted 1,014 femicides across Canada since it began tracking the killing of women and girls in 2018. Article content That included 187 femicides last year. A current or former intimate partner was accused in nearly half of those cases, the observatory found. Family members were accused in another 28 per cent of cases. Only six per cent of alleged perpetrators were strangers to the victims. Article content Though Kingston police have now called one case a femicide, the group's data suggests at least four killings since 2018 could meet the definition. Article content Article content Other groups are attempting the same work. The Ontario Association of Interval Houses, which tracks cases in the province, has identified five femicides in Kingston since late 2019. Article content Its executive director, Marlene Ham, said that without a universally recognized definition for femicide, different groups will end up with different numbers. Article content Adding a definition of femicide to the Criminal Code would allow better data on violence against women to be captured by police and national agencies such as Statistics Canada, both advocates said. Article content Kingston Police spokesperson Const. Anthony Colangeli declined to answer questions about what motivated the force to use the term femicide and whether it plans to use similar terminology in the future. Article content An Ottawa police spokesperson said the force started using the word femicide to 'highlight the realities of gender-based violence faced by women in our community.' Article content 'By using appropriate language to refer to these murders, we are continuing conversations about this subject that is often considered 'private.' We are raising awareness about an epidemic that is occurring and labelling these deaths appropriately,' the spokesperson said in an email. Article content In the absence of an agreed-upon definition, Ottawa police have come up with a list of 14 forms of violence that fall into the category of femicide, including intimate partner violence killings, the torture and misogynistic slaying of women, the killing of Indigenous women and girls, killing related to sexual violence and the 'non-intimate killings of women and girls.' Article content The force confirmed it does not use femicide to describe women killed in murder-suicides something Dawson said should change as it is 'a very common scenario in femicide cases.' Article content Other police forces, such as the Toronto Police Service, don't use the term femicide because it currently has no bearing on which charges police lay in homicides. The force does, however, lay terrorism charges in homicides where misogyny is a motivating factor. Article content Dawson says police are 'fighting an uphill battle' when it comes to using femicide terminology more consistently. Article content 'Police really need leaders to take the initiative, and by that I mean the federal government who decides what is a criminal offence and what should be labelled and legislated officially,' she said. Article content Carney promised in the campaign to make killings motivated by hate — including femicide — a 'constructive first-degree offence,' which means a first-degree murder charge would be laid even if the slaying was not planned and deliberate. Article content Chantalle Aubertin, a spokesperson for Justice Minister Sean Fraser, said in a statement the government is 'determined to bring forward legislation to advance this commitment as soon as possible.' Should the federal government enshrine a definition of femicide, Statistics Canada could record better data, Dawson said. Article content The agency already tracks homicides reported by police each year, and the genders of the accused perpetrators and victims. While a 2023 report on gender-related homicides of women and girls broke down some indicators of femicide, it only addressed some of the UN's indicators. Article content 'The more we know about these killings and the more we can contextualize them within that understanding of femicide, the more awareness that we can ultimately build and continue to have these discussions about prevention,' Ham said, noting a history of threats, violence and coercive control is present in many cases. Article content It's important to keep the conversation about violence toward women going, Dawson added, with an emphasis on how these killings differ from those targeting boys and men. Article content 'That's what we're trying to emphasize because if we don't recognize that, then our prevention efforts also don't recognize that, and we don't recognize the urgency of this.'
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Ottawa sending support from armed forces amid northern Ontario wildfire evacuations
A tour boat makes its way along the Rideau Canal as buildings are obscured with haze from wildfires burning in Canada's prairie provinces, in Ottawa, Friday, June 6, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld Prime Minister Mark Carney says the federal government is deploying members of the Canadian Armed Forces to help evacuate a northwestern Ontario First Nation as wildfires rapidly spread in the region. Carney says Ottawa has accepted Ontario's urgent request for assistance in and around Sandy Lake First Nation, and the military will help with emergency airlift evacuations. The Ontario government says the Red Lake 12 wildfire, near Deer Lake First Nation, is out of control, more than 1,500 square kilometres in size and was threatening Sandy Lake First Nation as of Saturday night. It says the community is conducting a phase one evacuation of residents by air, and boats will be available if needed. The province says Deer Lake First Nation remains evacuated and is being protected by fire rangers. Carney says the federal government is 'prepared to mobilize every resource' to keep Canadians safe. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2025. The Canadian Press
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Ruba Ghazal wants QS to endorse pro-worker stance
Quebec Solidaire Leader Ruba Ghazal questions the government at the legislature in Quebec City, Tuesday, April 29, 2025 (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press) Québec Solidaire (QS) co-spokesperson Ruba Ghazal wants her party's members to endorse a pro-worker stance at the party's National Council meeting this weekend. 'We need to prioritize and focus on one major issue, and that is workers. That doesn't mean we're putting everything else aside, far from it,' she told The Canadian Press. She insists that this is not a vote of confidence in her leadership. 'It's the members who decide. So we shouldn't assume anything, but I'm not worried about that,' said Ghazal. After Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois resigned as party co-spokesperson and the party suffered a disastrous result in the Terrebonne by-election last March, Ghazal said that QS needed to rediscover its 'North star.' Since then, she has been trying to focus her discourse on defending workers. 'Especially since we are facing a CAQ government that is anti-worker. We have seen this with the increase in labour disputes in the public sector,' says Ruba Ghazal. QS was quick to denounce Bill 89, which was passed last week and limits the right to strike in certain circumstances. According to interim co-spokesperson Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, the 'Manifesto for a Quebec in solidarity with its workers' that will be submitted to members is 'also a promise of action on the ground.' 'We intend to be much closer to workers, on the ground, visiting their workplaces and meeting with them,' he says. With its poll numbers struggling, QS hopes that this new direction will shift the polls in its favour. A Léger poll published in May puts QS at only 10 per cent of voting intentions. The Qc125 poll aggregator projects only six seats for the political party. QS currently has 12 members in the National Assembly. This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French June 8, 2025.
