Several anti-violence coalitions are seeking the city to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic in Thunder Bay.

According to Statistics Canada, Thunder Bay is among the highest in the per capita rate for Intimate Partner Violence and sexual assault of any municipality in not just Ontario, but all of Canada.

While reporting is lower, data provided by the Thunder Bay Police Service supports the statistics, last year there were 2300 reportable incidents with 267 individuals being charged.

A presentation on behalf of the Thunder Bay and District Coordinating Committee to End Woman Abuse in May to the city’s Community Safety and Well Being Advisory Committee saw unanimous agreement to bring the recommendation to declare IPV an epidemic to city council.

That recommendation is expected to be presented to council on September 25th in a deputation.

Thus far the province hasn’t done a declaration of its own, however 41 other municipalities have either supported their own declaration or independently supported a declaration from elsewhere.

This graph indicates the number of IPV incidents that have been reported over the course of three years, 2019-2021 (Supplied Image)