The recent call by the United Nations for countries to create femicide observatories is a significant and urgent signal.

Despite research done to date, and advances made, this issue remains a very serious and critical issue for women and girls in Canada and around the world.

The CFOJA was established to respond to this call. Its work is supported and strengthened by collaborations among researchers and an advisory panel of experts from across the country. This ensures that the work is both grounded in accurate statistical data and accompanied by a reliable and accessible presentation of information in a way that best reflects the realities of the women and girls who are killed by violence in Canada.      

This was also the methodology undertaken several decades ago by the Women We Honour Action Committee when it conducted the original intimate femicide research in Ontario.  This report is a testament to that earlier research and activism because those findings remain accurate and unchallenged. They have also created a solid foundation for ongoing research today.

Since this original study, much more research has been done on femicide, but little appears to have changed when it comes to how it occurs and why. Progress on prevention and on accountability has been slow to evolve. We have yet to meet the basic standard required to prevent these killings or to hold perpetrators accountable in a manner that would reflect widespread condemnation of these crimes. 

These reports contains critical information that builds on the earlier and ongoing work on femicide in Canada and internationally by highlighting current and emerging trends and issues that require further investigation and monitoring in the coming years. 

We continue this work because we believe that femicide is preventable.