I'm based in Ottawa, but I'm from small-town northern Ontario. I not only research this but I've also lived this.

Yes, less than 16% of Canadians live in rural, remote or northern communities, and yet they represent about half, if not sometimes more than half, of femicides in this country.

Isolation is a problem for all victims of intimate partner violence. However, when you live on a back road and you are 40 minutes away from the local OPP detachment—as was the case for Nathalie Warmerdam, who was killed in Wilno—confidentiality is a problem. If everybody knows everybody else, can a victim trust accessing victim services if victim services also plays hockey with her abusive husband?

It's firearm access. In my family, growing up, we all had firearms. I'm the only person in my family who doesn't hunt. I'm a vegan. I grew up with firearms in my home. I was never afraid of them, because I grew up in that context. However, if I lived in a violent home and knew there was a .22 in my basement, it would give me pause if I decided to leave.

Additionally, it's transportation. All of the train tracks going to northern Ontario have been ripped up. Greyhound has left the country. There are very few flights, even. If you're living in a rural community, there's no public transit. You need to have a car and gas, and you need to have access to that car on your own in order to leave. Where will you go?

Lastly, how we fund services is a problem in this country. We fund on a per capita basis, not understanding that while there might be more people in Toronto than Renfrew County, it's more expensive to serve clients in Renfrew County. That might seem like a provincial issue, but we need a federal conversation about how we decide who gets funding. Just looking at population density ignores that it's more dangerous and expensive to live in small-town Canada.

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