Clare’s law to combat domestic violence
author: Kaitlynn nordal | staff writer
rotec / Jeremy Davis
New victims find information
The Interpersonal Violence Disclosure Act or Clare’s Law was introduced into legislation on No 2018.
This would make Saskatchewan the first in the province to have a law like this.
Under a “right to know basis” this would give police officers the ability to tell people if their partner has a history of violence under a “right to ask” process. Although the application can come from an atrisk person, concerned family member or friend only the person believed to be at risk would be given a copy of the criminal record.
At this moment in time the proposed legislation s that after someone comes forward it could include law enforcement having to fill out an eight question risk assessment developed by the Ministry of Justice and would go from there.
It has not been established yet but a panel would review the case and then decide if the risk is big enough to disclose partners’ history of violence
“We have seen too many cases of interpersonal, domestic and sexual violence in our province. If we are able to identify risk and inform those at risk, we hope to help protect people in Saskatchewan from violent and abusive behaviour by a partner” Justice Minister Don Morgan said in a statement to CBC.
Saskatchewan ranks highest in domestic abuse in Canada with 5,976 cases of intimate partner violence reported to police in 2015
Currently if someone is trying to look up this information they can look up past charges, conviction, or civil actions against the other person in a court database or ask the Parole Board of Canada ut this information can be hard to access and they can’t see relevant information such as police reports, previous arrests and dropped charges.
As law sit right now there is no set authority over this t falls to the discretion of the officer to decide to release this information or not.
When asked a domestic abuse survivor who wishes to remain anonymous for the safety of her children and herself believes this legislation is one of the best things Saskatchewan could do.
“This is one of the worst abuses that never gets dealt with, just like sexual abusee are women, we give life. If we all get beaten to death what is going to happen to the world? It would be good to have a system that stands up to domestic violence because everybody stand up for other things that.”
She believes this legislation would help women get out of that position or maybe help them
Clare’s Law is named after Clare Wood a woman who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 2009 who had a violent history he, nor her family, w made aware.
At this time there is no set date that this legislation would come into law if passed.
