Proposed law would create committee to probe intimate partner violence

The Manitoba government plans to launch a committee to review intimate partner violence, years after a similar group stopped operations.

Justice Minister Matt Wiebe introduced proposed legislation Thursday that would require the committee to examine cases to identify trends in an effort to recommend ways to prevent intimate partner violence.

“The bill is a step toward… changing the culture to protect vulnerable Manitobans,” Wiebe said.

The Intimate Partner Violence Death Review Committee Act doesn’t specify how many cases the committee must review or a timeline for completion.

Tsungai Muvingi, provincial co-ordinator of the Manitoba Association of Women’s Shelters, applauded the move.

The association represents 11 shelters — 10 provincially funded, one private. Members responded to more than 20,000 crisis calls and assisted at least 2,000 people in fiscal 2024-25, Muvingi said.

“What we are seeing is more people coming forward,” she said. “Our shelters are constantly at over-capacity.”

Manitoba had the second-highest rates of family and intimate partner violence in 2024, Statistics Canada found.

The national data agency counted 607 cases of police-reported intimate partner violence, and 568 cases of family violence, per 100,000 people. Saskatchewan was the only province with more per capita cases.

Manitoba’s rate of intimate partner violence was down slightly from 2022 — which had 633 victims per 100,000 people — but higher than the 476 per capita cases of 2014.

Two high-profile domestic killings made headlines in Manitoba in 2024. In McCreary, a man killed his former partner’s parents and brother while she escaped into the woods. He then killed himself. She’d had a protection order against him. Earlier in the year, a Carman man was charged with five counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of his common-law wife, their three children and her niece.

“I definitely think a domestic violence death review committee is needed,” said Kendra Nixon, a University of Manitoba social work professor who researches intimate partner violence.

“(It’s) a core tool that we need to understand and prevent future incidences.”

The proposed legislation outlines a six- to 12-person committee. Membership must include the director of victim services, a police officer with at least a decade of experience, a Crown attorney, a Manitoba university faculty member with relevant expertise, a medical examiner and a representative of an entity that provided programs to victims of intimate partner violence.

An Indigenous representative is crucial given the high number of victimized Indigenous women, Nixon said.

She’s waiting to see what power the committee will hold: “It will really depend on… if it’s largely symbolic or if it actually has teeth.”

Committee members would review the circumstances of deaths, including the histories of people in the relationships. Cases won’t be touched until related criminal proceedings and inquiries under The Fatality Inquires Act are completed.

Committee members would have access to any records from a public body or trustee they deem relevant, the legislation says.

Ontario struck a similar group in 2024. A year later, in late 2025, the committee wrote an 877-page report for the legislature.

Manitoba launched a committee focused on domestic violence deaths in 2010. The group was expected to review 10 domestic death cases; it stopped at the 10th case before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a government spokesperson told the Free Press in 2024.

That committee issued at least nine reviews containing recommendations.

“It’s a pernicious problem, domestic violence, and it’s not abating,” said Ben Wickstrom, spokesman for the Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys.

Crown attorneys regularly handle domestic violence cases; it makes sense to have one on the proposed committee, Wickstrom said.

Muvingi hopes to see better collaboration between systems — including police, health care, justice and social services — resulting from committee findings.

Bill 30 must undergo further readings and debate this year before it can be enshrined as law. It aligns with Canada’s strategy to address gender-based violence, Wiebe said Thursday.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com