Ontario grants $2.8M to help northern victims of gender-based violence

The province is providing $2.8M to an organization that helps victims of gender-based violence in Temiskaming Shores and Kirkland Lake.

The province is providing $2.8 million to an organization that helps victims of gender-based violence in the Temiskaming Shores and the Kirkland Lake area.

Officials with Keepers of the Circle, an urban Indigenous hub, say they will use the money to address gender-based violence issues.

They said Indigenous women are more likely to experience gender-based and domestic violence than non-Indigenous women and it’s also more difficult for them to access help.

“With some of our local communities, they voice that a lot of our Indigenous women will not seek …. from a non-Indigenous shelter because there’s none of that cultural support provided or that traditional kind of supports … in their on their healing journey that’s provided within those type of shelters,” said Bertha Cormier, executive director of Keepers of the Circle.

“This funding is going to allow for us to offer those kinds of programming that will provide those culturally based, traditional supports that our women and their children are hoping to be supported with.”

Space for healing

The province announced the funding last week and said space for healing will be provided by strengthening support for survivors through culturally informed approaches.

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“This might be small to some people, but, you know, if you have a family pet, you know, and mum and the children are going to be fleeing, they want to take that family pet with them (and) a lot of shelters don’t allow that,” said Cormier.

“So, you know, that’s one aspect where we’re trying to indigenize the shelter policy.”

Ontario said it’s spending about $98 million on up to 83 new initiatives throughout the province that aim to stop gender-based violence before it happens.