FEMICIDE: A KNOWLEDGE HUB

This is an emergency.

Every two days in Canada a woman or girl is killed violently, most often by a man, because she is a woman.

Femicide is the most extreme form of men’s violence against women – it is the ultimate control of women and girls to dictate their fate and, ultimately, their death.

Misogyny – the hatred of women – is a huge driver of femicide all around the world.

Aura Freedom’s Femicide Calls to Action reflect our calls made in previous petitions and briefs which urge the Government of Canada to take meaningful steps towards ending femicide across the country:

1) Declare femicide an urgent emergency in Canada and prioritize it accordingly.

2) Formally recognize femicide as a distinct form of violence that differs from homicide, in legislation and/or in the Criminal Code.

3) Expedite implementation of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, and ensure this work is community-led and robustly funded.

4) Expedite the process of implementing the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People National Action Plan, and the 231 Calls for Justice of the National Inquiry into MMIWG, and ensure this work is Indigenous-led and robustly funded. 

 

A Deeper Look at Femicide in Canada

To date, femicide has not been officially recognized by the Government of Canada, despite numerous calls from feminist organizations to have it recognized as a distinct crime in the Criminal Code – including Aura Freedom’s For Her campaign launched in 2023. Ignoring femicide will not make it go away. Recognition of this most extreme form of male violence against women is the first step forward to addressing it.

Created in partnership and solidarity with:

What is Femicide?

Femicide is the killing of a woman or girl because of their sex or gender, mostly by men, who are driven by misogyny and a need to maintain power and control over their victims. It is deeply connected to gender inequality, patriarchy and colonialism, and entrenched beliefs of the roles of women and men. Femicide is not the same as homicide.

Femicide is a hate crime, like race- or religious-motivated violence, because misogyny – the hatred of women – often underpins male violence against women and girls. We must recognize the gender-related aspects of the murders of women and girls, and how they differ greatly from the killings of men.

Femicide is recognized worldwide as a distinct form of killing that warrants its own label and its own examination for effective prevention.

In most cases of femicide there are multiple indicators present, which help us better understand the nature of femicide, and also help prevent it. In Canada, 84% of the killings of women and girls by a male accused involved at least one indicator of femicide.

Some common indicators of femicide are:

  • Misogynistic beliefs of the perpetrator – hatred toward women, sexism, seeing women as property of men/inferior/submissive, etc.
    • Recent separation of the woman from her partner
    • Prior violence (this is not always physical and not always reported)
    • Coercive-Controlling behaviours of the perpetrator
    • Victim being exploited illegally
    • Sexual violence committed before the femicide
    • Overkill – perpetrator used excessive violence, mutilation, torture
    • Body disposed in a public place

Femicide: The Facts

Women and girls are most often killed by the men closest to them.

Although femicide can happen at the hands of strangers, women and girls have most to fear from men they know well.

During a 5-year period (2018-2022) in Canada, at least 57% of women were killed by a male accused with whom they shared a current or former intimate partner relationship. Another 22% of victims involved male accused who were family members. In short, 4 out of every 5 women and girls were killed by a man they should have been able to trust (79%).

In 2024, 77.5% of femicides in Canada were intimate partner or familial femicides. It is important, though, to recognize that these killings, which are often inaccurately described as private violence, are intricately linked to public violence against women and girls and the ongoing issue of men’s violence against women.

How is femicide different from homicide? What is the difference?

Femicide is not the same as homicide. It is a form of murder that underscores the ‘how’ and ‘why’ women and girls are killed because of their sex or gender, which is distinct from how men and boys are killed, although both are killed primarily by men.

Femicide is also deeply connected to intimate partner violence and other violence against women that happens in family settings. Instead, when men are murdered, it is rarely connected to maintaining power and control in an intimate or familial relationship.

Femicides are smaller in number than male homicides; however, violence prevention should never be a competition. Our prevention efforts do not and should not only focus on those forms of violence which occur most often.

100% Preventable: Assessing Risk Factors

Femicide is preventable. In fact, it is one of the most preventable forms of murder.

There are often multiple risk factors that can be identified before it happens. Some of the more common ones are (but not limited to):
-A recent separation
-Misogynistic and extreme beliefs of the perpetrator
-Coercive Controlling behaviours exhibited by the perpetrator
-A history of violence against women of the perpetrator, which is not always physical and not always reported
-Stalking and tech-facilitated harassment
-Strangulation, which increases the risk of femicide by up to 750%

In order to prevent femicide, it’s important these risk factors are recognized, understood, and assessed by Police, the justice system, service providers and society at large. Training is key, as is public education.

Intersectionality matters.

Femicide happens to women from all walks of life, but some women and girls face higher risks.

Indigenous women and girls pay the highest price of femicide in Canada and are killed at exponentially higher rates when compared to non-Indigenous women and girls – a situation that has been documented over many decades by numerous studies and organizations. Learn more in the section below created with the Native Women’s Resource Centre of Toronto.

The risk of femicide for women and girls with other racialized identities (e.g., Black, South Asian) is difficult to determine given a lack of consistent and quality data; however, it is recognized that they face increased barriers, including systemic racism and discrimination, which can exacerbate their risk of femicide.

Women and girls killed in non-urban regions of the country (45%) are disproportionately at risk compared to their representation in the population, whereas those killed in urban centres (55%) are underrepresented.

Women aged 24 to 44 years are consistently overrepresented as victims of femicide; however, adolescent femicide and femicide of older women are also recognized as emerging risk groups based on age. In fact, despite men more often being victims of homicide overall, women begin to outnumber men as homicide victims in older age groups such that elderly victims of homicide are more likely to be women than men, the majority of which will be femicide.

When there are multiple or overlapping identities or discriminations (e.g., sex/gender, race, class, age, sexuality, ability, geography), the risk of femicide is compounded significantly.

Children: The Unseen Victims of Femicide

With Intimate Partner Violence, one of the most dangerous times for a woman and her children is actually after leaving.

To maintain control and “show them who’s boss”, some men will kill their ex-partners. In extreme cases, abusers will kill their own children (filicide) to punish Mom for leaving, and as a way to continue abusing their ex-partners through their children. These murders are deliberate and calculated, as the abuser knows there is no greater pain for a Mother.

Honouring Keira:
Keira, forced to see her father by Family Court even after numerous reports of domestic violence by her mother, was killed by her father in an act of intimate partner violence and femicide. As are approximately 30 other children in Canada every year. These tragic deaths are completely preventable. Aura Freedom was honoured to support Jennifer Kagan, Keira’s brave Mother, who used the worst pain imaginable for change. Jennifer recently succeeded in passing Keira’s Law, which will train Family Court judges and protect children from domestic violence.

Femicide often results in the deaths of multiple victims in addition to the woman who was the male perpetrator’s primary target. Some cases, contexts, or circumstances indicative of femicide result in the deaths of many women, men, and/or children, which often obscures that these killings were femicides or the result of femicidal motivations. During a 5-year period (2018-2022), in addition to the 850 women and girls killed in Canada, another 138 victims were killed. This does not include ‘living victims of femicide’ which, when focusing on the children left behind, left at least 868 children in Canada without their mothers.

Dispelling Misconceptions & Sharing Truths

"Crime of Passion"

Femicides, especially when perpetrated by male partners, are often wrongfullyportrayed as ‘crimes of passion’; however, these killings are as likely, or more likely, to be pre-planned than other types of killings.

"Stranger Danger"

Women and girls face the greatest danger in their own homes and are more likely to be killed by men they know (i.e., intimate partners or family members). Although femicide can be perpetrated by strangers on the street, it is much more rare.

A History of Violence

Femicide is rarely an isolated incident; rather, these killings are often the result of targeted, chronic, and/or escalating violence against women and girls by men, whether in the context of intimacy or perpetrated by men with histories of violence against women.

Mental Health Myth

Femicide is often attributed to perpetrators’ mental health issues. While mental health may sometimes play a role, focusing on this as the sole contributing factor stigmatizes the many people living with mental health issues (including many women) who are never violent.

Physical Violence?

Femicide at the hands of an intimate partner happens even with no prior history of physical violence in the relationship. However, such violence is frequently unreported by victims and/or unrecorded by police so it is often difficult to determine.

Guns and Femicide

Gun ownership greatly increases the risk of femicide. One study showed that intimate partner violence incidents with a firearm make death for the woman 12 times more likely.

Mass Killings

Many mass killings (i.e., Montreal Massacre, Toronto Van Attack, Nova Scotia Mass Shooting) are also mass femicides and deeply connected to misogyny and incel culture. It’s important to connect the dots between misogyny, white supremacy, Male Violence Against Women, and mass killings/mass femicide.

“The Montreal Massacre, the Toronto Van Attack, the Nova Scotia Mass Shooting – these mass femicides were not the result of the actions of ‘madmen’. They were calculated acts of misogyny deeply rooted in patriarchy. They targeted and brutalized women because they were women. And the killers in each case had a history of domestic violence and a hatred of women.

We must first recognize these murders as femicides and hate crimes if we are to end them. When will women matter enough? ”

Marissa Kokkoros, Executive Director, Aura Freedom

Femicide and MMIWG

The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) highlights how the deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations are directly connected to Canada’s staggering rates of violence against Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ Peoples.

Created in partnership and solidarity with:
Native Women's Resource Centre of Toronto

The National Inquiry

The Final Report of the National Inquiry into MMIWG found that Indigenous women are 12X more likely to be killed than any other women in Canada.

Overrepresented in the Data

During a 5-year study, at least 1 in every 5 women and girls killed were Indigenous (20%), despite representing only 4-5% of the population of Canada.

Increased Risks for Indigenous Women

A study by the Native Women’s Association of Canada found that Indigenous women and girls make up only 4% of Canada’s population, but 50% percent of sex trafficking survivors.

Intimate Partner Violence

Indigenous women experience spousal violence at a rate 3.5X higher than non-Indigenous women.

MMIWG is not an “Indigenous issue”.
It is genocide.

The crisis of MMIWG has been internationally recognized as genocide. It started with first contact and the intent to eliminate Indigenous Peoples, destroy the family and “kill the Indian in the child”.

This genocide was no accident. It was all meticulously planned through Canada’s systems. From residential “schools” and brutal family separation, to forced sterilization, child apprehension and birth alerts, over-policing and incarceration, and the environmental destruction of Indigenous lands.

Indigenous women and communities are aware of the fact that the genocide of MMIWG2S+ is pervasive and ongoing for a specific reason. In the words of Audra Simpson (2016), “Canada requires the death and so called ‘disappearance’ of Indigenous women in order to secure its sovereignty” (p 1). 

The murders and disappearances of Indigenous Women and Girls work to further break down Indigenous communities and their cultures, because our women are matriarchs and stewards of culture in our families and communities. Violence against Indigenous women, and the impacts of gender-based violence such as losing children to the child welfare system, create cyclical, ongoing genocidal patterns that violently remove women and girls from communities because their presence threatens the very foundations of the Canadian state. (An excerpt from Portrayals of Gender-based Violence in the Media – written by Sabrina Lamanna, Indigenous Research lead for Aura Freedom’s GBV In The Media project)

Systemic and structural racism, combined with the objectification of and disregard for Indigenous women’s lives, continue to contribute to and perpetuate the harm to Indigenous women, which too often ends in death.

On the front lines of our communities, we continue to see the consequences of first contact, residential schools, systemic racism and MMIWG. We continue to see the harm and danger our women face each day. We see the systems that continue to fail these women and will continue to cause harm… systems that are not inherently ours and were designed with intent to eliminate the community.

The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls has 231 Calls for Justice for all levels of government, industries, citizens, and more to respond and take action. The process of the National Inquiry opened the hearts of Indigenous communities, and their stories must be heard, respected, and answered to. In the end, the National Inquiry concluded that the violence experienced by Indigenous women in Canada amounts to genocide.

Today, the majority of the Calls for Justice have not been answered and more than half have not even been started.

The genocide continues.

4000 Cover Stories is a project by the Native Women’s Resource Centre of Toronto created to commemorate the lives of the thousands of Indigenous Women who have been taken from their loved ones, and to create awareness of the ongoing genocide of Indigenous Women. NWRCT created a newspaper filled only with cover stories of missing or murdered Indigenous women—4000 of them—to help get our stolen sisters the attention they deserve. The newspaper was hand-delivered in Ottawa to the doorstep of Canada’s leader, demanding the attention Indigenous Women are owed.

To date, no response from Canada’s leadership has been made.

“Indigenous Women are mothers, daughters, aunties, and sisters. They are leaders, protectors, warriors, life-givers. They are beautiful, artistic, strong, proud, ground-breaking and they are recalling their spiritual power. Indigenous Women are SACRED.”

Pamela Hart – Executive Director, Native Women’s Resource Centre of Toronto