Advocates Urge Amendments to Criminal Code to Include Clear Definition of Femicide Amid ‘Uphill Battle’

As police services across Ontario increasingly classify the killings of women and girls as femicides, advocates are intensifying calls for a clear, nationally recognized definition to be embedded in the Canadian Criminal Code. Their push comes at a crucial time, with Prime Minister Mark Carney making vows to address intimate partner violence a cornerstone of his federal election campaign.

In August 2024, Ottawa police began officially using the term femicide — a shift that became evident last week when officers described the death of a 54-year-old woman under investigation as such. A 57-year-old man has since been charged with second-degree murder. Just a month prior, Kingston Police publicly employed the label for the first time, identifying the killing of a 25-year-old woman by her partner as a femicide and arresting a 26-year-old man for first-degree murder.

The use of the word remains so rare among law enforcement that observers see these recent cases as major milestones. Myrna Dawson, founder and director of the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability, highlights that most police forces lack established protocols for identifying or categorizing crimes as femicide, largely due to its current absence in the Criminal Code. “It’s not something that is in many people’s vocabulary as much as it should be,” Dawson emphasized.

Her observatory defines femicide as the killing of women and girls because of their gender, drawing on guidance from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime. The UN framework lists 10 criteria — including killings by family or intimate partners, histories of harassment, or instances where sexual violence is involved — that indicate whether a homicide is likely to be considered femicide. Sometimes, multiple factors may overlap in a single case.

According to this standard, Canada has witnessed 1,014 femicides since 2018, with 187 occurrences last year alone. In nearly half of those cases, a current or former intimate partner was accused; family members accounted for 28 percent, while only six percent of victims were killed by strangers. Despite Kingston Police’s recent use of the term in a single case, observatory data suggests at least four local killings since 2018 could be classified as femicides.

Other organizations attempting to track femicide face similar challenges. The Ontario Association of Interval Houses, for example, has catalogued five femicides in Kingston since late 2019. Its executive director, Marlene Ham, stresses that inconsistent definitions mean differing statistics and an incomplete national picture.

Advocates say adding a formal definition of femicide to the Criminal Code would enable law enforcement agencies and bodies like Statistics Canada to collect more comprehensive data, leading to better analysis and prevention efforts.

The shift toward using the term femicide is not without resistance. Kingston Police declined to comment on future use of the label, while Ottawa police explained that their adoption of the term was intended to highlight the realities of gender-based violence and foster public conversations around what is often considered a private issue. They have outlined a detailed list of 14 types of violence classified as femicide, including intimate partner killings, misogynistic murders, killings of Indigenous women and girls, and those related to sexual violence.

Notably, Ottawa police do not currently apply the label to women killed in murder-suicides, despite experts like Dawson arguing these are common scenarios in femicide cases and should be included in reporting. Meanwhile, other forces, such as Toronto Police Service, avoid using the term femicide due to its lack of legal significance, though they do pursue terrorism charges where misogynistic motives are evident.

Dawson points out that, ultimately, law enforcement needs direction from national leaders. “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 noted.

Mark Carney’s campaign pledge to recognize killings motivated by hate — including femicide — as a “constructive first-degree offence” would result in more severe charges, even if the killings were not planned or deliberate. Justice Minister Sean Fraser’s office has signaled the government’s intent to move swiftly on this promise.

If enacted, a legal definition could improve Statistics Canada’s ability to capture more detailed and accurate data about violence against women. While the agency already tracks gender-related homicide data, current efforts only partially reflect the standards recommended by the UN and experts in the field.

Better understanding, say advocates, will strengthen awareness and prevention. “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,” said Ham, emphasizing that prior threats, violence, and coercive control are often part of these cases.

Dawson added that continuing to spotlight the unique risks faced by women is essential. “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.”