Essex town council wants intimate partner violence to be declared an epidemic

Essex town council is planning on sending a letter to the province asking it to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic.

Council passed a motion to send a letter to the premier and local MPPs urging them to pass Bill 173 at Monday's meeting.

Windsor West MPP Lisa Gretzky introduced the bill, would recognize IPV as an epidemic in Ontario.

The bill passed a second reading in April and has been referred to the justice policy committee.

Councillor Kim Verbeek says more than 100 municipalities have already declared IPV an epidemic, according to AM800 News.

"By the province declaring that it's an epidemic, it will recognize the pervasiveness and the severity of the problem, it sends a message that the problem and the solutions will be taken seriously and in an effort to stop the violence and the killing," says Verbeek.

She says by IPV being declared an epidemic by the province, it would create accountability.

The motion comes after police found 41-year-old Carly Walsh and her two children, 13-year-old Madison and eight-year-old Hunter, dead from gunshot wounds in their Harrow home.

Police say the husband and the children's father, 42-year-old Steven Walsh, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

~ With files from AM800 News.