Nova Scotia establishes 25-member advisory committee on gender-based violence

The Nova Scotia government has established a 25-member committee to advise the government on how to prevent gender-based violence.

Leah Martin, minister responsible for the Advisory Council on the Status of Women, says the group will also focus on providing support to victims and their families.

Last year, Premier Tim Houston’s Progressive Conservative government adopted legislation declaring intimate partner violence an epidemic.

An independent facilitator will help guide the work of the committee, which will be co-chaired by Martin and newly appointed Justice Minister Scott Armstrong.

Its membership will include officials from several provincial departments, and its first meeting is slated for later this month.

More than 260 Nova Scotians applied to join the committee.

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The worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history began on the night of April 18, 2020, in Nova Scotia, shortly after the gunman brutally assaulted his common-law wife.

In March 2023, a public inquiry into the fatal shooting of 22 people issued 130 recommendations aimed at preventing a similar tragedy, including more than a dozen that called on governments to do more to end “an epidemic” of gender-based violence.