Town to ask Ontario to name intimate partner violence an epidemic after family deaths

The council of a southwestern Ontario town where a mother and two children were found dead in their home from gunshot wounds is writing a letter to the provincial government asking it to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic.

The Essex, Ont., town council passed a motion this week to send a letter to the premier and local MPPs urging them to pass Bill 173, which would recognize intimate partner violence as an epidemic in Ontario.

The bill passed a second reading in April and has been referred to the justice policy committee.

The council motion comes after provincial police were called to a home in the community of Harrow, in Essex, in June and found 41-year-old Carly Walsh and her two children, 13-year-old Madison and eight-year-old Hunter, dead from gunshot wounds.

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Police said Carly Walsh’s husband and the children’s father, 42-year-old Steven Walsh, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Councillor Kim Verbeek, who brought forward the motion, says more than 100 municipalities have already declared intimate partner violence an epidemic, and doing so at the provincial level can call attention to the urgency and severity of the issue.