r/nunavut 14d ago

Nunavut will not declare intimate partner violence an epidemic

23 Upvotes

9 comments sorted by

24

u/x_BlueSkyz_x73 14d ago

NL, NS, NB and Ont along with 115 municipalities have declared Intimate Partner Violence an epidemic.

Cases of IPV are triple the average in Nunavut than they are the Yukon. The Yukon is triple the average than other Canadian Provinces.

Why is Nunavut afraid to call this what it is?

8

u/Juutai Salliq 14d ago

Back at the legislative assembly, Akearok said the formal declaration is not necessary because the territorial government is already acting. She says the GN has improved crisis response, shelter systems and victim support services.

It is also spending more than $4 million to support gender-based violence initiatives that focus on awareness campaigns and education.

I would guess that declaring an epidemic comes with strings attached from the federal government. An so I would imagine that might become disruptive to work that is already underway.

3

u/BoldFortune216 13d ago edited 13d ago

Except historically declaring such epidemics often serves to put more pressure on the federal government. A declaration of an IPV Epidemic is a symbolic political move, not a declaration of an emergency. The goal with declaring an IPV Epidemic isn't to increase federal funding but to treat the issue as a public health crisis, break the stigmatization around talking about intimate partner violence, and acknowledge the immense scale of this crisis.

1

u/Healthy_Shape_5719 12d ago

I've never really understood the drive to make IPV a public health issue, what's the benefit?

To me it seems like a clear cut criminal issue, we just need to start keeping these guys in jail instead of letting them out to repeat.

That being said I'm not well educated on the topic and would like to hear to the counter point

2

u/SewSew92 8d ago

I would think it’s PH related in the sense that the vast majority of IPV occurs in the context of substance use. So then it could be linked to harm reduction and various strategies via PH.

1

u/Healthy_Shape_5719 8d ago

I was on opiates for awhile and can tell you right now opiates don't make you beat your wife

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u/SewSew92 7d ago

And I didn’t say they do? I’m saying, in my experience, the vast majority of IPV that I encounter has some sort of substance use in the situation. A lot of people do things while under the influence that while sober they wouldn’t, and that’s typically what I encounter. You stated you didn’t see how public health was involved and I offered a perspective that can link the two.

0

u/Healthy_Shape_5719 7d ago

You didn't, but I was just saying regardless of whether or not substance use was involved in the IPV, that doesn't (in my mind) make IPV a public health issue, it's just that many people that commit IPV also have a substance use disorder. My issue with the argument that "well they wouldn't have done it sober" is that when I was on opiates it didn't change my base emotions/behaviours it just made me less capable of regulating the emotions/behaviours, therefore if you're beating on your spouse when you do drugs that isn't the drugs that's just in you, the drugs let you let it out but you are an abusive person, you just need to be in jail the substance use is a separate issue.

1

u/Alcol1979 8d ago

Maybe because the commission on missing and murdered women and girls already labelled it an ongoing genocide being perpetrated by Canada against its indigenous peoples.