Canada Research Chair Myrna Dawson delivered the keynote at a symposium held in Nova Scotia today called Domestic Homicide in Nova Scotia: Opening the Door to Change. Speaking to 250 police officers, service providers and victims’ services workers at the Military Family Resource Centre in Halifax, Dawson emphasized the preventable nature of these crimes and the role that multiple sectors can play in reducing these victims’ exposure to homicide. “The rise of domestic violence death review committees in various countries, including Canada, highlights that internationally, there is a growing recognition that these types of killings are often preventable. In fact, many now recognize intimate partner and domestic homicide as the most preventable form of homicide.” During her keynote, Dawson described patterns and trends in domestic homicide in Canada, identified various societal trends that have been associated with long-term declines in these types of homicide, and highlighted the main findings of nine years of case reviews by the Ontario Domestic Violence Death Review Committee on which she sits as a member. The symposium was organized and hosted by Halifax District RCMP Victim Services in partnership with Silent Witness Nova Scotia with support from the Department of Health and Wellness and the Nova Scotia Council on the Status of Women.
