48 min
Pamela Cross - Luke's Place - A Rural Inquest Clearing a New Path™
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- News Commentary
Pamela Cross - Luke’s Place - A Rural Inquest
Pamela Cross is a feminist lawyer; a well respected expert on violence against women and the law. She is revered for her work as a researcher, writer, educator and trainer. She works with women’s equality and violence against women organizations across Ontario.
Luke’s Place is an award-winning non-profit organization devoted to improving the safety and experience of women and their children as they proceed through the family law process after fleeing an abusive relationship.
After leading the creation and expansion of legal programming and services at Luke’s Place in her role as Legal Director, Pamela has moved her focus to advocacy, and is now the Luke’s Place Advocacy Director, developing and leading law and policy reform efforts and media work at the provincial and national levels.
In 2022, Pamela participated in the Inquest into 2015 triple femicide of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam in Renfrew County, Ontario both as an expert witness in her role as Luke’s Place Legal Director and as an external consultant on behalf of the community. 86 recommendations came out of that inquest and Pamela has created a toolkit for rural communities to enact change on the ground - now. We talk about these resources and you can find them below.
Pamela also participated in the Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Inquiry as an expert witness on intimate partner violence. That report is due out soon.
A content warning for the episode:
Today's podcast episode contains material that might be difficult to hear for some. It talks about intimate partner violence and domestic violence against children and while no details are discussed, it may be distressing to some.
Some staggering statistics:
A woman is killed approximately every six days by her partner or former partner. This is eight times the rate at which men are killed by their partner or former partner.
Intimate partner abuse is the most commonly reported violent crime against women: 42% compared to 12% for men.
In 2018, 44% of women reported having been subjected to psychological, physical or sexual violence by their intimate partner
Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to be murdered or go missing than other women.
Police-reported intimate partner violence is 75% higher in rural communities than in urban areas.
Two-thirds of us know a woman who has been subjected to physical, emotional or sexual abuse.
The aftermath of intimate partner violence costs Canadians $7.4 billion a year.
Resources:
Luke's Place inquest recommendation implementation toolkit: https://lukesplace.ca/culleton-kuzyk-warmerdam-ckw-inquest-advocacy-toolkit/
Luke's Place resource on VAW in rural communities: https://lukesplace.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Going-the-Distance-March-2022.pdf
Pam’s inquest report and toolkit: https://lukesplace.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/WeRemember-2022_finalDec7.pdf
Pam’s community consultation report to the inquest: https://lukesplace.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Inquest-report-community-consultations-final.pdf
Pam’s expert witness report on IPV to the inquest: https://lukesplace.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/family-violence-presentation-for-inquest-june-2022.pdf
Pamela Cross - Luke’s Place - A Rural Inquest
Pamela Cross is a feminist lawyer; a well respected expert on violence against women and the law. She is revered for her work as a researcher, writer, educator and trainer. She works with women’s equality and violence against women organizations across Ontario.
Luke’s Place is an award-winning non-profit organization devoted to improving the safety and experience of women and their children as they proceed through the family law process after fleeing an abusive relationship.
After leading the creation and expansion of legal programming and services at Luke’s Place in her role as Legal Director, Pamela has moved her focus to advocacy, and is now the Luke’s Place Advocacy Director, developing and leading law and policy reform efforts and media work at the provincial and national levels.
In 2022, Pamela participated in the Inquest into 2015 triple femicide of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam in Renfrew County, Ontario both as an expert witness in her role as Luke’s Place Legal Director and as an external consultant on behalf of the community. 86 recommendations came out of that inquest and Pamela has created a toolkit for rural communities to enact change on the ground - now. We talk about these resources and you can find them below.
Pamela also participated in the Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Inquiry as an expert witness on intimate partner violence. That report is due out soon.
A content warning for the episode:
Today's podcast episode contains material that might be difficult to hear for some. It talks about intimate partner violence and domestic violence against children and while no details are discussed, it may be distressing to some.
Some staggering statistics:
A woman is killed approximately every six days by her partner or former partner. This is eight times the rate at which men are killed by their partner or former partner.
Intimate partner abuse is the most commonly reported violent crime against women: 42% compared to 12% for men.
In 2018, 44% of women reported having been subjected to psychological, physical or sexual violence by their intimate partner
Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to be murdered or go missing than other women.
Police-reported intimate partner violence is 75% higher in rural communities than in urban areas.
Two-thirds of us know a woman who has been subjected to physical, emotional or sexual abuse.
The aftermath of intimate partner violence costs Canadians $7.4 billion a year.
Resources:
Luke's Place inquest recommendation implementation toolkit: https://lukesplace.ca/culleton-kuzyk-warmerdam-ckw-inquest-advocacy-toolkit/
Luke's Place resource on VAW in rural communities: https://lukesplace.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Going-the-Distance-March-2022.pdf
Pam’s inquest report and toolkit: https://lukesplace.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/WeRemember-2022_finalDec7.pdf
Pam’s community consultation report to the inquest: https://lukesplace.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Inquest-report-community-consultations-final.pdf
Pam’s expert witness report on IPV to the inquest: https://lukesplace.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/family-violence-presentation-for-inquest-june-2022.pdf
48 min