Nova Scotia government facing more criticism over its response to domestic violence

A Bridgewater police vehicle is pictured outside a home on Haven Drive on March 3, 2025. (Callum Smith/CTV Atlantic)

HALIFAX — The Nova Scotia government is failing to adequately address the recent spike in gender-based violence, an advocacy group for reproductive health says.

The non-profit group Wellness Within issued a statement Thursday saying that among other things, the provincial budget tabled last month lacks substantial support for responding to this long-standing problem.

Wellness Within says the $100 million in “continued support” announced in the budget for gender-based violence and intimate-partner violence does not address the ongoing need for sustained funding.

“The province has seen a broader surge in intimate-partner violence, with seven women killed by their partners since October 2024,” the group said in a statement.

“To truly build resilience, we must uplift all Nova Scotians, and Wellness Within calls on (Premier Tim) Houston’s government to invest in gender equity.”

The volunteer group also said the budget ignores calls for free contraception. “Other governments have acknowledged that ensuring reproductive autonomy is also fiscally responsible, as direct costs of unplanned pregnancies in Canada total $320 million per year,” the group said.

Citing the work of the Access Now Nova Scotia coalition, the group said there’s a connection between intimate-partner violence and lack of access to contraception, saying Canadian women who face domestic violence are twice as likely to experience an unintended pregnancy.

In an emailed statement, the Health Department said, “We appreciate there is interest in full coverage of contraceptives. We continue to look for ways to remove barriers for those who want to access prescription birth control.”

When the budget was tabled Feb. 19, government officials said it included $7 million more for transition houses and women’s centres, and an expansion of a paid domestic violence leave program to five days from three days.

Meanwhile, Wellness Within is also calling on the province to implement the recommendations of the inquiry into the 2020 mass shooting, which started with an act of gender-based violence and resulted in the deaths of 22 people.

On the day the budget was presented, Carrie Low, a survivor of gender-based violence and an advocate, said she felt let down because the fiscal document fell short of providing substantial new funding to prevent domestic abuse. “The lack of support, it says that we’re not important enough, that our lives don’t matter,” Low said at the time. “The message, again, is that this is not a priority.”

Trauma therapist Kristina Fifield said the lack of “core funding” for victim advocacy groups indicated the province wasn’t willing to provide “an epidemic-level response to the epidemic of gender-based violence.”

The leader of the province’s Opposition New Democrats, Claudia Chender, has also called for long-term funding for these non-profits. The party recently introduced a bill that would ramp up spending to address domestic abuse by creating a funding formula to ensure non-profits and shelters have the money they need to operate.

The Bridgewater Police Service said that just before noon on Sunday, officers responded to a 911 call reporting an 83-year-old woman in medical distress. Police said they found Patricia Tanner inside a home, where it appeared she had been injured by a weapon.

Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene, and police say an elderly man was found with “related injuries” inside another room in the home.

Deputy police chief Danny MacPhee said Tanner’s 85-year-old husband, Andrew, was arrested at the scene and later charged with first-degree murder.

Since Oct. 18, seven women and one man have been killed in incidents of intimate-partner violence in Nova Scotia. In five of the seven homicides, the perpetrator then killed himself.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2025.