CBC Manitoba: Deaths of 5 people in southern Manitoba must be treated as case of domestic violence, say experts
The deaths of five people this week in southern Manitoba are a clear example of domestic violence and come in the midst of an epidemic of intimate partner violence in the province and beyond, experts say.
“When anything ends in a fatality, when a life is taken, that’s the most severe form of violence that someone can endure,” said Tracie Afifi, a University of Manitoba professor in the department of community health sciences.
“Here we have the death of an intimate partner … [and] we have the deaths of three children that were part of that relationship and a fourth family member as well, who was also a child,” she said.
“Without a doubt this is intimate partner violence.”
Kendra Nixon, a professor in the Faculty of Social Work and the Director of RESOLVE at the University of Manitoba, says it’s troubling to see the issue rising.
“We’ve experienced seven years of escalating rates of intimate partner violence in this country. It is an epidemic and we need to do something about it, [but] in order to solve a problem, we first have to identify it and name it”, says Nixon.
Listen here to Dr. Kendra Nixon’s interview with CBC LISTEN – Up To Speed with Faith Fundal