Back to school for judges!
As students across the province return to the classroom this week, we cannot help but think about how important it is for judges to do the same when it comes to learning about intimate partner violence (IPV). It’s been over a year since Keira’s Law was enacted and we do not seem to be any further ahead when it comes to education programs on issues of IPV for judges in Ontario.
To understand the importance of this education, we need only look at the climbing rate of IPV across the province. The prevalence and impact of this violence are so severe that almost 100 municipalities in Ontario have declared IPV to be an epidemic in their communities, and the province is (hopefully) poised to do the same with Bill 173. As part of our collective response to addressing this issue, legal decision-makers must understand what IPV looks like and how it can be addressed within a courtroom. Judicial education was one of the recommendations from the jury verdict in the Culleton, Kuzyk and Warmerdam Inquest in June 2022 and has been a key recommendation by the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee in past death reviews.
In our work supporting survivors through the family law process, we see firsthand the importance of ensuring that judges have appropriate education on issues of IPV. Access to justice means more than simply access to a courtroom. It requires access to a decision-maker who is fully informed and attuned to the complexities that exist in situations of IPV. While we see some excellent decisions that reflect a deep understanding, we also continue to see and hear about decisions lacking that understanding. When a judge does not fully understand the complex nature of IPV and its harmful, long-lasting effects, decisions may be made that continue to rely on harmful myths and stereotypes and that fail to protect against ongoing violence and harm.
Just over a year ago, both the federal and the provincial governments passed legislation addressing judicial education about IPV, including coercive control. Called Keira’s Law, this law was named after Keira Kagan, a four-year-old child who died while in her father’s care after her mother, Jennifer Kagan-Viater, repeatedly raised issues of IPV and safety concerns for herself and Keira in her family court case. Despite these concerns, extensive and unsupervised court-ordered parenting time between Keira and her father continued with a tragic result.
Following Keira’s death, Jennifer Kagan-Viater called for mandatory judicial education on IPV, and her advocacy was instrumental in the creation and ultimate passing of Keira’s law in the spring of 2023. These legal changes mean that for federally appointed judges, the Canadian Judicial Council must consider providing continuing education on IPV and coercive control and, for provincially appointed judges, all new appointees must undertake to participate in courses on topics that include IPV and coercive control.
This change in the law was hugely significant – it has provided hope to survivors and the many advocates who support them that things may finally change in the legal system, with decision-makers who better understand what IPV can look like and its pervasive, long-lasting effects.
But what we know to be true is that amendments to the law alone are not enough. The laws have to actually be implemented in order to result in any meaningful change.
Luke’s Place has been advocating for the implementation of Keira’s Law since it was enacted. We’ve provided feedback to the National Judicial Institute on topics that should be covered, we’ve sent a letter to the Chief Justices of the Ontario Court of Justice and the Superior Court of Justice asking for information on the educational programming they plan to deliver, we’ve written various articles and blog posts, and we just recently spoke about the importance of judicial education while testifying in front of the Committee on Justice and Policy during their study of Bill 173.
Despite these efforts, we have yet to receive any information on the implementation of Keira’s Law. From a review of the Canadian Judicial Council’s website listing the training programs offered to judges in the last year, only 4 seminars were delivered in 2023 that are tagged as including some “domestic violence” content, none of which were delivered to judges in Ontario. Unfortunately, there is no similar public website listing course content for provincially appointed judges, so we simply do not know what content they were offered in the last year.
Knowing that there is power in numbers, we encourage others to join us in our ongoing advocacy efforts. You can do this by submitting feedback to the National Judicial Institute on topics they should consider for training, posting about and sharing content related to the importance of judicial education on your social media platforms and sending letters to the Canadian Judicial Council and the Chief Justices of Ontario asking about their plans to implement Keira’s law.
Let’s not wait for another death review or inquest to tell us yet again what we already know to be true – judges need to receive ongoing comprehensive training and education on issues of intimate partner violence.
We now have the law, let’s make sure this law is put into action.