The provincial government tried to find a better way to protect women and children who are in abusive relationships, but it doesn鈥檛 know if the new system is working.
In March, the province replaced the old system of restraining orders with protection orders, which bring criminal penalties if they are violated. After Peter Lee killed his family and himself in 2007, tougher protection orders were seen as a way to give women and children better safeguards.
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, sa国际传媒鈥檚 representative for children and youth, is getting monthly numbers from the ministry, but says there is no information on how effective the orders are. The ministry hasn鈥檛 provided any statistics on the number of people who violate the orders, whether the orders are being enforced properly and how many are being prosecuted in court.
About 100 orders are issued each month, Turpel-Lafond said. She has had anecdotal reports that about 30 people have breached their orders between May and August. She thinks both those numbers are too low, pointing out that domestic violence is the second most common criminal activity in sa国际传媒
Further anecdotal information comes from women鈥檚 groups, who say clients report that police often don鈥檛 enforce protection orders.
Children and Family Development Minister Stephanie Cadieux promises to report to Turpel-Lafond on the 鈥渦se and effectiveness of protection orders.鈥�
The ministry says the program is too new to have gathered enough meaningful numbers for statistical analysis.
It has been in place for eight months, however. It shouldn鈥檛 take sophisticated analysis to tell the representative how many people have been charged with breaching protection orders.
