SAULT STE. MARIE — The father of murder victim Caitlin Jennings says he is disappointed the provincial government moved a recent intimate partner violence bill to committee to avoid debate, but his trip to Toronto in support of the legislation was not entirely wasted.
Dan Jennings of Sault Ste. Marie has found himself standing up for a number of important causes since the untimely death of his daughter Caitlin, who police say was murdered in her London, Ontario home last summer. He created the Caitlin's Heard Facebook group late last year, in part, to advocate for changes to the laws surrounding intimate partner violence.
Most recently, Jennings travelled to Toronto in support of "Lydia's Law," a private members bill put forward by NDP MPP Catherine Fife. The bill is aimed at a "lack of transparency and corresponding backlog in the court system" that causes thousands of sexual assault cases to be tossed out every year.
The bill is named after a young Ontario woman who was sexually assaulted and embroiled in lengthy and difficult court proceedings.
In 2023, 1,171 sexual assault cases were thrown out of court and 1,326 were tossed the year before. If passed, the bill would compel the Ministry of the Attorney General to report the reasons these cases are dropped and thousands of alleged victims are denied their day in court.
"We don't know why, but we deserve to know why," said Fife in a May 15 article by The Canadian Press.
With Jennings and other supporters in Toronto to support the bill's second reading debate, the Ontario PC government moved it to committee with under 24 hours notice.
"We were supposed to have the big rally in the afternoon and since our debate got cancelled, our meeting room all got cancelled," Jennings said of his attendance at Queen's Park last week.
Despite the disappointing move by the government, Jennings said it did provide the opportunity for supporters of the bill — many of whom had only spoken to each other online prior to meeting at Queen's Park — to connect in person.
"For us it's giving more fuel to the fire," said Jennings.
Cait Alexander, a sexual assault survivor who used to live in Toronto, had flown in from Los Angeles to watch the now-cancelled debate as part of her efforts to advocate for change in the justice system.
"We don't need more studies, we don't need more committees, we need the governments who listen and pass the bills," she said.
"This government should stop playing childish games and take sturdy, actionable steps to truly deliver what everyone deserves as their human right safety," she added.
Last week, The Trillium reported that Government House Leader Paul Calandra defended moving Fife's bill, saying the justice committee is already working on studying an intimate partner violence bill and melding the two together makes sense.
"There's some very good parts of this particular bill, and that's why we expedited it to committee," he said.
Jennings said it is unclear how long the bill will be held in committee before it sees the light of day again.
"The just kind of silenced the debate, which upset a lot of people," said Jennings.
— with files from The Trillium, The Canadian Press
