Ottawa police call woman’s death a ‘femicide’ in 1st for department

The Ottawa Police Service is investigating the demise of a longtime worker with the Royal Canadian Navy in what the police pressure on Monday referred to as a “femicide” — the primary time it has used the time period.

A police assertion recognized the sufferer as 47-year-old Jennifer Zabarylo of Ottawa.

In a press release to International Information, the Division of Nationwide Defence confirmed the lady, who a spokesperson known as Jennifer Edmonds-Zabarylo, was a civilian worker of the division and “a longtime member of the Royal Canadian Navy headquarters group.”

“We’re shocked and deeply saddened to be taught of her tragic demise, and we’re providing assist to her household and colleagues,” the assertion mentioned.

A Linkedin web page for Zabarylo mentioned she labored as a enterprise planner and comptroller for the navy, starting in 2018.

Michael Zabarylo, 55, has been charged with second-degree homicide and appeared in courtroom Monday, police mentioned.

The case is being thought of a “femicide” — a time period typically outlined because the killing of a girl or woman primarily based on their gender — because it “occurred within the context of intimate associate violence,” police mentioned.

The precise nature of the connection was not disclosed.

An OPS spokesperson advised International Information the case marks the primary time the pressure has used the time period “femicide” to explain a murder investigation.

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The spokesperson mentioned the time period’s use stems from ongoing enter from violence in opposition to ladies staff and advocates who commonly collaborate with police on their method.

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In 2022, whereas saying the renaming of its associate assault unit to the intimate associate violence unit, then-interim police chief Steve Bell mentioned the pressure would start incorporating “the usage of phrases like femicide” in the way it speaks about violence in opposition to ladies.

“Now we have discovered that language issues, notably on the subject of schooling and assist,” Bell mentioned in a press release.

No additional data was offered on the circumstances of Jennifer Zabarylo’s demise, because the case is now earlier than the courts.

Femicide is a comparatively new time period to explain gender-based killings that’s not legally outlined in Canada’s Felony Code. Advocates for decreasing gender-based and intimate associate violence have referred to as on the federal government to pursue the Felony Code definition.

Femicide legal guidelines have been enacted in Latin American nations like Brazil, Argentina and Peru lately. Mexico, which has one of many highest charges of feminine homicides on the earth, started documenting femicides in 2012 and has pursued measures to cut back the killings.

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There’s little knowledge on gender as a motivating think about homicides in Canada, although the variety of murder circumstances with feminine victims has been on the rise.

Statistics Canada’s newest annual report on police-reported crime, launched final month, exhibits that the variety of feminine murder victims final 12 months was almost similar in contrast with 2022 — 205 ladies killed — regardless of a 14 per cent drop in whole murder victims over the identical interval.

Homicides the place ladies had been the victims are up 31 per cent from 2019, in contrast with a 12 per cent enhance for all different genders.

The federal authorities and Statistics Canada are at the moment enterprise a three-year knowledge assortment undertaking, the Femicide Data System, “to raised perceive gender-related homicides and enhance decision- and policy-making on this space,” a spokesperson for Girls and Gender Equality Canada advised International Information in a press release.

The undertaking, which is ready to conclude in 2025, is geared toward “creating a complete nationwide image of the state of gender-related homicides in Canada.”

A 2023 Statistics Canada report on gender-related killings was solely in a position to make use of knowledge on solved homicides of girls or women by a male accused of intimate associate violence, the place sexual violence was a part of the killing, or the place an recognized intercourse employee was killed.

Utilizing these parameters, the company discovered that whereas gender-related killings had typically declined since 2001, there was a 14 per cent enhance between 2020 and 2021, “marking the best charge recorded since 2017.”

The United Nations has referred to as gender-based violence and femicide an issue that requires world motion, warning in a report final 12 months that whereas general homicides are falling worldwide, the variety of feminine homicides will not be.

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