Editor’s Note: This article discusses recent murders and violence against women. The Leveller has included List of Resources for women experiencing intimate partner violence and homelessness at the bottom.
The murder of four women were considered femicides by Ottawa Police Services (OPS) within the first half of 2025. This number matched the city’s 2024 rates, and were included in a year of “increasing violence against women in our community” according to OPS.
Advocates and frontline organizations warn that these deaths are not isolated tragedies, but part of a growing epidemic driven by systemic failures, including a lack of safe and affordable housing, inadequate income supports, and limited access to services for people experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV).
To analyze these horrific crimes on an individual, case-by-case basis would be to ignore the greater systemic inadequacies that must be addressed to prevent this epidemic from continuing.
Shelter advocates identify the crux of the current femicide epidemic in Ottawa as the lack of affordable and safe housing as well as the lack of resources accessible to women of all incomes.
“[Femicide is] a horrific phenomenon, but it’s been happening for a long time,” stated Taylor Blewett, public education and communications officer for Interval House Ottawa (IHO).
Blewett and Sarah Woodward, IHO’s Community Engagement and Volunteer Coordinator both spoke to The Leveller about a larger pattern behind years of increased femicides in Ottawa. Interval House is a resource-based shelter that aims to support survivors with intersectional, feminist, and anti-oppressive intervention and prevention services for survivors of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV).
Both Blewett and Woodward highlight that systemic changes are key to preventing femicides in the city, and potentially the world as a whole. “We know, in large part, what needs to be done, and one of the really big pieces of that is having systems in place; affordable housing, income supports, things like a guaranteed liveable income that can allow people who are in dangerous situations [and] who are facing abuse to feel like they have options,” said Blewett.
“Right now, people are left in situations where it can feel like they have to make what are almost impossible choices.”
In Ottawa, housing rentals have been increasingly unaffordable. The Leveller has routinely reported on multiple mass renoviction and demoviction projects. Furthermore, there are difficulties accessing the few women’s shelters that exist, as space is limited. With declining access to affordable housing, advocates warn, femicide rates will increase.
Ottawa Police Service (OPS) were the first Canadian police force to use “femicide” in press releases in 2023, defining it as “the intentional killing of women and girls, 2 Spirit, trans women, and gender non-conforming individuals because of their gender.” OPS also noted that femicide is “overwhelmingly committed by men.”
What took them so long to bring justice through terms of definition, and why is this term not fortified in the Canadian Criminal Code? How many women and girls have been lost to a statistic, one that didn’t even properly define the loss of their lives? How many women and girls were never even reported?
To analyze these horrific crimes on an individual, case-by-case basis would be to ignore the greater systemic inadequacies that need to be addressed to prevent this epidemic from continuing.
The women impacted by femicide in Ottawa
Renée Descary was 51 years old when her life was stolen from her. Brenda Rus was 60. Rachelle Desrochers was 54. Tracey Duncan, also 54, was murdered just a 13-minute drive from Cornerstone Housing for Women, the historical women’s shelter servicing Ottawa’s west end.
Descary was a mother, an aunt, a sister, a daughter, a partner, and more than anything, a human. Just days after her murder, Brenda Rus was murdered in a similar femicide. Rus was a mother, sister, and friend to many. Tracey Duncan, a mother who had lost her son, Justin Duncan, just nine years ago in a tragic murder, was Ottawa’s 13th homicide of 2025.
OPS declared Rachelle Desrochers missing on Elgin Street on March 14, 2025. Investigators believed that her perpetrator dumped her body in a local landfill. In an April 2 OPS missing person’s release, it was noted that Desrochers was known to frequent Centre 507, a drop-in centre that provides meals, resources, and community services to primarily unhoused adults within the city. Desrochers was a woman, a human, somebody’s daughter, somebody who was and is loved.
Unearthing the roots of the epidemic
Western Universities’ Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children created the infographic Tracing the Roots of Femicide, which frames the causes of femicide as a tree.
Femicide is preventable if we access and dismantle the systems of oppression at the roots, namely gender inequality, gender expectations, and systemic gender-based discrimination.
Statistics Canada reported that the rate of IPV has risen 13% between 2018 and 2023. This number only takes into account police reports, which may exclude many women and girls whose deaths were inaccurately labeled.
The Ontario Association of Interval & Transitional Houses (OAITH) creates monthly femicide in Ontario factsheets. These factsheets are filled with Jane Doe reports, referring to women murdered without identification.
In the March and April 2025 factsheets, six femicide victims out of eleven were over the age of 36. Out of the six femicides, five perpetrators were known to the victim, whether they were family members, partners, or colleagues.
“The fact that older women are more likely to be retired may increase their isolation from both formal (services) and informal supports (friends, co-workers), which in turn, may increase their vulnerability and risk for being abused (by an intimate partner),” according to Western University Learning Network’s 19th newsletter issue. Many of the women in these age brackets, including those in Ottawa, fell at the intersection of age, poverty and gender.
Nicole Jeffrey, a Postdoctoral Associate at the Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children at Western University, notes that the pandemic is one of the branches interwoven in the rise of gender-based violence. “Unemployment, I think, is one of the stronger predictors or risk factors for men using violence,” Jeffrey told The Leveller.
“Women in lower socioeconomic status are at increased risk. If you have less of your own money, you’re going to possibly rely on someone else more heavily. Abusers often take advantage of that,” she explained. “They’re withholding financial and other resources from you. They are isolating you from other folks who might provide financial [support] or other types of support. So it’s not an accident that there’s that link between poverty and abuse, right?”
When both the aggressor and the victim lose their source of income, the risk of violence increases. In 2020, the City of Ottawa declared a housing emergency just months before the COVID-19 public health crisis impacted the province.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many individuals lost their job security, housing, and social support, increasing their risk of IPV.
Jeffery stated that “COVID-19 and the increased physical and social isolation that came out of that certainly contributed to increased rates, particularly of intimate partner violence and the femicide and the sexual violence that occurs in that context.”
According to WomanACT, a Canadian organization advocating for the end of gender-based violence, “Approximately 30% of Canada’s homeless population are women, 91% of whom have also endured some form of violence or assault in their lifetime.”
Rachelle Desrochers was at the intersection of homelessness, age- and gender-based violence when she tragically lost her life.
For marginalized individuals, a lack of affordable housing paired with less access to economic and legal support leaves them more susceptible to IPV and less likely to see justice prevail.
“Compounding systemic issues” put Migrant, Refugee and Indigenous women and girls at disproportionate risk
The current reporting from mainstream media and police breifs lacks to acknowledge intersectionality. To understand and prevent femicide, we cannot separate each tragedy from its roots and intersections. Intersectionality, initially defined by Black feminist scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, is now largely known as the intersection of oppressions. The overlap of these systems and experiences of oppression work together to the disadvantage, whether that be socio-economically, legally, or culturally, of the individual. Therefore, social categorizations–race, ethnicity, class, (dis)ability, sexual orientation, weight, religious affiliation, geographical location, age, and gender–carry a heightened risk of IPV to the individual.
Jeffrey highlighted some prominent marginalized groups at risk for IPV: Indigenous women and girls, immigrant/refugee women, and those living in rural communities.
According to Statistics Canada, “Data between 2011 and 2021 show that of all gender-related homicides of women and girls, 21% of victims were Indigenous, despite comprising only 5% of the female population in Canada in 2021.”
The list of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) continues to be under-reported. Despite the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)’s Calls to Action including a national inquiry, justice is yet to be served for the thousands of MMIWG in Canada.
According to the TRC, the impacts of colonialism, including the residential school system, forced relocations, and the separation of Indigenous children from their families contributed to generational trauma, ongoing mental health issues, substance abuse, and violence issues within Indigenous communities. For some communities, colonialism further disrupted matrilineal family structures, replacing them with patriarchal norms.
Indigenous women, occasionally living in rural communities, also face geographical barriers to accessing resources.
“Rural, remote, and Northern populations often experience a lack of privacy and anonymity because these are often small and tight-knit communities that make seeking help difficult. ” said Jeffrey. “Maybe a woman is experiencing domestic violence, and her brother-in-law or sister-in-law is the chief of police, so who is she going to go to? Maybe the location of the local shelter is not very private, if there even is a local shelter.Maybe there’s even limited access to public transit, or, particularly in Northern communities, the weather might prevent women from accessing certain roadways to escape or seek services.”
Inaccessibility to resources paired with a language barrier may exist for Indigenous women and girls as well as immigrant and refugee women. According to the City of Ottawa, “as of 2011 there were approximately 18,180 Indigenous women and 107,895 immigrant women [in Ottawa].” Immigrant and refugee women are disproportionately at risk of IPV as they face economic barriers, inadequate and unsafe housing conditions, and more limited employment opportunities, which abusers can exploit. Racialized women also face the social barrier of racism, which is on the rise in Canada.
“[Immigrant and refugee women and girls] might experience language barriers and more limited knowledge of the Canadian legal system that could otherwise help them to get help. Some immigrants are legally dependent on a violent partner, or, they fear deportation if they report violence, ” said Jeffrey. “[These] compounding systemic issues exacerbate women’s experiences and make it difficult for them to seek help. And I think it answers that question that a lot of people have of ‘Why didn’t she leave or why didn’t she get help sooner?’”
Politicians aren’t doing enough
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Pollievre pledged for “tougher sentencing” for IPV during his 2025 election campaign. This acts merely as a bandaid on a larger issue, instead of addressing the roots of IPV. What they talked about was sentencing after women have already been impacted by IPV, and not preventative systemic measures like affordable housing and shelter services. The following week, Mark Carney’s Liberal Party campaigned on a similar pledge to increase legal penalties and hire more police forces.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford refused to declare IPV an epidemic when it was proposed by the Ontario NDP in November 2024. This is despite OAITH listing 62 Ontario victims in the year leading up to the motion.
The City of Ottawa’s 10-Year Housing and Homelessness Plan went into effect a few months after the 2020 declaration of a housing emergency. Since then, not much progress has been made, as the number of households on the city’s Centralized Wait List for social housing has increased at a larger rate than those housed in the past 5 years.
Furthermore, IPV within marginalized communities has not been adequately addressed by police services.
“We know that Indigenous people face continued racism and discrimination, and that has meant a wholly inadequate response by police in the legal sector in particular,” Jeffery explained.
Jeffery explains that the police and legal systems frequently provide insufficient investigation, response, and support for cases involving Indigenous victims, resulting in a significant gap in justice and protection
Amidst the silence, inaction and reticence of each level of government, advocacy for policy change to the roots of the femicide tree is being done largely by grassroots organizations.
On September 18, 2025, feminist organizations and women’s support services within Ottawa organized Take Back The Night. Posters shared by the City for All Women Initiative promoted the annual rally and march with the tagline “Femicide is an Epidemic.” Inside Ottawa Valley reported on Lanark County organizations joining the rally on Parliament Hill, as the municipality announced IPV was an epidemic in 2022.
This past year has demonstrated that rising femicide rates are an epidemic and they are preventable.
List of Resources
Education and Counselling
As we rewire flawed and oppressive systems, a lengthy but necessary fight, we must also focus on preventative measures. Maybe you are feeling at risk; maybe it’s your sister, your mother, your teacher, or your daughter. If you are struggling, please know there are resources that are built with and for you.
To identify the signs of IPV, Western University’s “Neighbours, Friends and Families” is an educational resource for those close to survivors or those who recognize abusive behaviours in those around them.
Counselling Connect offers free one-on-one counselling and support groups for individuals of all ages in Ottawa and the surrounding regions, including Renfrew, Cornwall, and the communities in between. Their services are available in multiple languages.
The Sexual Assault and Partner Abuse Care Program (SAPACP) consists of a team of specialized healthcare professionals available on-site around the clock, 24/7, throughout the year. We offer private, confidential, and trauma-informed medical care to anyone aged 16 and older who has experienced sexual assault or intimate partner violence in the greater Ottawa area.
Crisis Lines
If you’re in crisis and need help now, try calling the Assaulted Women’s 24hr Helpline at 1-866-863-0511
Interval House of Ottawa has a 24/7 Crisis Line at 1-613-234-5181
Unsafe at Home Ottawa is a confidential text and online chat service designed for women and members of the 2SLGBTQ+ communities in Ottawa and Lanark County who may be experiencing heightened violence and abuse within their home, intimate, or romantic relationships.
The Sexual Assault Support Centre (SASC) of Ottawa has a sexual assault support line at (613) 234-2266
Fem’aide est un service confidentiel et francophone offrant un soutien 24/7 aux femmes en Ontario, accessible par téléphone, SMS et clavardage. Il vise à soutenir et à mettre en relation les victimes et survivantes de violence avec les ressources communautaires. 1-877-336-2433
Emergency Shelters
For emergency shelters (for both humans and their pets), counselling services, child & family support, peer support, and transitional housing and support, the aforementioned Interval House of Ottawa uses trauma-informed approaches to their services and programs.
Support centres such as Minwaashin Lodge centre Indigenous experiences and culture into their programs and services, working as Ottawa’s east-end Indigenous support centre.
Cornerstone Housing For Women has emergency shelter and supportive housing programs.
Nelson House offers an emergency line and first stage emergency shelter services for women and children facing abuse.
Maison d’amitié provides emergency shelter and temporary housing Francophone services.
