NWT ‘needs to do better’ when partners become violent

Warning: This report contains discussions of intimate partner violence that may be distressing to some readers.

A Yellowknife woman is calling for the NWT’s justice system to better protect people affected by intimate partner violence.

Sarah, not her real name, is originally from the NWT. She says she and her then-husband were living in Alberta in 2019 when he “completely changed.” He left for a week, beginning a pattern of behaviour that she learned was related to addiction issues about which she hadn’t previously known.

Cabin Radio is protecting the woman’s identity for safety reasons.

“I would be hiding the truck keys, my wallet, any spare money that was laying around. I tried to seek him treatment options. However, my efforts were in vain and things just continued to become more abusive,” she said.

Court records indicate the man was convicted in June 2023 of uttering a threat to cause death or bodily harm to Sarah while in Alberta four years earlier.

Sarah said RCMP in Alberta would patrol and check in on her, while victim services counsellors in the province spoke to her about safety planning.

When she moved to the North later in 2019, however, she said the same supports weren’t there.

Sarah said RCMP in the NWT didn’t provide the same patrols or check-ins, nor did she hear back from victim services in the territory for months, while Alberta’s victim services team “continued to play a key role in my ability to begin to heal.”

She questioned: “How come Alberta did so much more for me?”

Sarah was living in Yellowknife while her then-husband was living in the South Slave under a court order not to contact her. Soon, she said, things “started to spiral” and he showed up at her home unannounced.

On one occasion, Sarah said, he grabbed straight razors from the bathroom and came down the hallway toward her. She said her dog came between them, protecting her, and her husband ended up cutting his own arms in anger. She called the ambulance and police.

“He managed to talk his way out of custody,” she said.

Sarah was granted a 90-day emergency protection order, or EPO, by the NWT Supreme Court in June 2020. It barred her husband from coming within 25 feet of her home or Sarah herself while she was out in public. He was not allowed to “take, convert, damage or otherwise deal with” her property. The order was served on him 20 days later.

But Sarah said her husband continued to contact her through social media or mutual acquaintances. She shared a screenshot with Cabin Radio that shows him sending her a Facebook friend request and another of his friends messaging her in July 2020, saying he missed her.

Sarah said police did not take complaints about her husband breaching the EPO seriously, telling her they would give him “a stern talking to.” She filed an RCMP complaint in December 2020, raising concern that officers took three weeks to serve a warrant on her husband, did not update her about the case, and had “dropped the ball” in protecting her.

RCMP said they do not disclose the results of public complaints as they are considered employment records.

Cpl Matt Halstead, a spokesperson for NWT RCMP, told Cabin Radio in a statement that police treat calls related to intimate partner violence “as a priority.”

Halstead said officers are given trauma-informed training on investigations and interviews involving intimate partner or sexual violence, and officers discuss safety planning with complainants.

He said NWT RCMP also have a full-time family violence reviewer who reviews all reports of family and intimate partner violence, to ensure police are adhering to policies and investigations are completed to standard.

Sarah’s husband was charged in August 2020 for violating the protection order and a release order, but those charges were dropped in August 2023. Sarah said the prosecutor in charge of the case told her they were no longer pursuing the charges as too much time had passed.

A spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service of Canada said in a statement to Cabin Radio that guidelines on domestic violence “highlight the importance of ensuring that the safety of complainants, and their families, is the paramount consideration at all stages of the prosecution.”

The prosecution service said it has an “ongoing and active duty to review reasonable prospect of conviction and public interest” in all cases it prosecutes. A spokesperson said that includes the Jordan framework, which sets a deadline of 18 months for territorial and provincial court matters to be dealt with.

The prosecution service said in this case, charges were stayed more than 18 months after they were laid as “the Crown no longer had a reasonable prospect of conviction.” The spokesperson did not provide an explanation for the delay.

‘I’m always looking over my shoulder’

Sarah’s now ex-husband no longer lives in the North. She said that means she can’t get another protection order, but she still feels unsafe and his friends still contact her about him.

“I’ve had severe PTSD, I’m on anti-anxiety medication. It took me two and a half years to be able to function normally, with a whole bunch of my triggers going off. But I’m always looking over my shoulder,” she said.

“Any time there’s a loud noise or yelling, or any signs, I get jumpy, I get shaky, it’s there for life.”

Sarah believes the institutions responsible for helping people facing intimate partner violence in the NWT need to “do better.”

“If my story can be used to do something better, then it happened for a good reason,” she said. “If I just sit here and do nothing and cower, then it didn’t happen for a good reason.”

The NWT has some of the highest rates of intimate partner violence in Canada.

According to data from Statistics Canada, in 2022 the territory’s rate of intimate partner violence per 100,000 people was 4,139, the second-highest in the country, compared to a national average of 346.

A five-year report on intimate partner violence in the NWT, published in 2017, found factors influencing those high rates include colonization and intergenerational trauma, poorly resourced communities and a lack of safety and support.

“In response, violence continues to be normalized as a way of life,” the report stated. “There continues to be shame and blame attached to violence that is most often directed at women who are the survivors of violence, not the perpetrators of the act.”

Resources offered

Research indicates some of the resources meant to help people facing intimate partner violence in the NWT aren’t working.

A report published by the YWCA NWT in 2020 found that the use of EPOs is inconsistent across the NWT.

That report found barriers such as an onus on victims to reach out for help, a lack of awareness about EPOs, a revolving door of front-line service workers, and a lack of consistent statistical data. The report noted 11 NWT communities have no RCMP detachment, making enforcement of court orders difficult.

Some RCMP officers interviewed for the report expressed the view that EPOs aren’t effective at preventing violence and breaches aren’t taken seriously by abusers or the court.

“To me here, they’re the same as like another piece of paper. At the end of the day, it doesn’t stop anything,” one officer was quoted as saying.

According to the Department of Justice, there are 10 victim services programs operating in the NWT to “help victims of crime or tragedy deal with the emotional and physical consequences and to help them navigate justice processes.” That can include help accessing housing, income assistance, medical, mental health and addictions supports.

People can independently apply for an EPO through their local RCMP detachment or by calling YWCA’s Alison McAteer House.

Last year, the NWT government and YWCA NWT launched the Independent Legal Advice and Representation Program. It provides up to four hours of free, confidential legal advice to survivors of sexualized or family violence to explore their legal options. It also offers legal representation for sexual assault cases and, in some cases, intimate partner violence.

“I think people know that the legal system can be really hard to navigate,” said program coordinator Farah Rajan.

She said lawyers working for the program are trauma-informed, survivor-centred and can answer questions about the court process.

“By having access to an independent lawyer who can provide them with that advice ahead of time, or even throughout the process, that lawyer can help them just really be prepared,” Rajan said, “and that person can make informed decisions about what they think is right for them and their family.”

The Status of Women Council of the NWT offers safety planning resources online. Executive director Sophie Lubet said dealing with intimate partner violence can be especially difficult in small communities, while leaving a community also comes with challenges.

“When you’re a victim of intimate partner violence, sometimes it’s hard for you to share about this experience because people know each other very well and they don’t want to be involved, they don’t want to intervene,” she said. “It can be very hard to be taken very seriously about that.”

Lubet said more resources are also needed for offenders, to address the underlying reasons why they perpetrate violence and to stop it occurring again.

“We’ve been talking about family violence, intimate partner violence for many, many years, but we still have more work to do,” she said.

There are family violence shelters in Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Smith, Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. Safe homes have recently opened in Fort Good Hope and Fort Simpson through a pilot project.

If you are affected by violence, other resources in the territory include:

• NWT Family Violence Crisis Line: 1-866-223-7775
• Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868, by texting “CONNECT” to 686868, or live chat
• Victim Services: regional contacts
• Community counsellors