Members of the North Bay Police Services Board discuss the ongoing effort to address domestic violence in town during their meeting on Tuesday morning. While not all reported cases result in charges, Acting Police Chief Shawn Devine still called the number "strikingly high." PHOTO BY LIAM BERTI
Domestic violence continues to be a problem in North Bay.
The issue was one of the leading points of discussion during Tuesday's North Bay Police Services Board meeting, where those in attendance were reminded of the distressing facts surrounding the crime.
In the month of August alone, the North Bay Police Service responded to 97 domestic-related incidents, resulting in 27 people being charged with a total of 56 offences.
Breaking down the statistics even further, 21 males were charged with a total of 44 offences, 12 of whom were held in custody pending bail.
On the other hand, six females were charged with 12 offences, two of whom were held in custody pending bail.
After listening to a crime statistics report during the board meeting, Mayor Al McDonald said, “I guess the message of domestic violence isn’t getting through.”
“Unfortunately it’s not,” Acting Police Chief Shawn Devine replied. “Unfortunately, talking with our victim services people, we continue to average somewhere between three to four domestic violences a day, which is very tragic. Not all of them involve charges or involve assaults, but it is a strikingly high number.
“I’m not a big fan of statistics, but the day that I’m able to say that we have no domestics would be a great day,” he continued.
But despite the seemingly high total, those numbers are consistent with those reported over the past six months. In that time period alone, April, May and July all saw more domestic violence incidents than August.
According to Devine, the North Bay Police Service responds to an average of three to four domestic violence calls every single day. Based on those numbers, that’s upwards of 1,460 calls over the span of a year.
“That could be anything from serious assault to people yelling and screaming at each other,” Devine explained, “but regardless of what it is, that’s a staggering amount of calls for a community this size.”
But as both McDonald and Devine alluded to, the far-reaching effort to eradicate or minimalize domestic violence is a marathon, not a sprint. They also said it’s beyond the scope of one individual or one organization; instead, it’s going to take a complete community effort to see an overhaul of the astounding statistics.
“There are some great groups that are out there,” said Devine. “There’s the victim assistance groups, there are other advocacy groups. I think what we need to do is all come together as partners. It’s not just one person that’s going to be able to try and stamp this out.”
One of those groups is the Domestic Violence Community Coordinating Committee of Nipissing, comprised of local shelters, police services, justice partners, counseling and children’s services.
The DVCCC, which formed in the late 90s, sets out to develop and facilitate the implementation of a coordinated, effective response to the identification, assessment response and prevention of domestic violence.
Additionally, in an effort to help spread awareness on the issue, the City of North Bay, North Bay Police Service and the Nipissing Transition House partnered up to create One Pledge, a project encouraging every citizen to say no to domestic violence.
“It’s one of the causes that I really believe in, that I want to make a difference in,” McDonald said after Tuesday’s meeting. “But I’ve realized that it’s not just going to be a one-year fight; it’s going to be a multi-year campaign to really bring it to the forefront and get the community to take ownership of stopping domestic violence.”
The effort, which started almost a year ago, has garnered 2067 pledges to date, with an ultimate goal of eventually reaching 20,000. McDonald said the group has every intention of continuing the campaign for the foreseeable future.
“I can tell you, from a Mayor’s perspective, we know it’s happening each and every day in our community,” said McDonald. “But our community needs to know that it’s everybody’s responsibility to step up and speak out against domestic violence.
“Having our community stand up and take offence to it and take a stand against domestic violence will go a long way.”
Devine said he believes a collective change in public consciousness on the issue isn’t such a farfetched idea. He compared it to society now having the ingrained belief that drunk driving is socially unacceptable.
“I think we need to get through to people that it is socially unacceptable to not only hit somebody, but in a domestic situation even more so,” he concluded.
To add your name to the One Pledge campaign or to find out more information, visit www.onepledge.ca
Also, you can visit the DVCCC website at www.endthecycleofabuse.com
