The Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability (CFOJA) was created in 2017 to conduct, mobilize, exchange, and promote research and knowledge to prevent femicide – the killing of women and girls – and other gender-based killings in Canada.
Born from the Centre for the Study of Social and Legal Responses to Violence (CSSLRV) at the University of Guelph, the work CFOJA does is led by a panel of experts from across Canada, including founder and director Dr. Myrna Dawson, professor in the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences and Research Leadership Chair.
CFOJA operates with two objectives: to create a location for information about justice and accountability for victims of femicide in Canada and to facilitate innovative and sustainable research on femicide justice and accountability.
Femicide is not included in the Criminal Code making it difficult to collect data and other information on this type of homicide.
Said Dawson: “This is what we’re trying to show with our work. That we are missing this information and that impacts the lives of women and girls and the risks they face, some groups of women and girls in particular.”
In its annual report, CFOJA provides a by-the-numbers look at the realities of femicide in Canada. The following is from its 2021 data.
- 173: the number of women and girls violently killed in Canada in 2021
- 160: the number of women and girls violently killed in Canada in 2020
- 146: the number of women and girls violently killed in Canada in 2019
- 89%: the rate of killings where a man was identified as the accused
- 45%: the rate of killings that occurred in rural areas or small towns
- 47%: the rate of victims killed in their own home or one they shared with the accused
- 164: the number of children left without a mother following acts of femicide
- 4: the number of femicide victims pregnant at the time of their death
- 35%: the number of femicide victims killed by a current or former intimate partner
- 20%: the number of femicide victims killed by a family member
- 7%: the number of femicide victims killed by a friend or acquaintance
- 5%: the number of femicide victims killed by a stranger
- 42: the average age of victims of femicide
- 97: the age of the oldest victim
- 1: the age of the youngest victim
- 50%: the number of white victims
- 32%: the number of racialized victims
- 19%: the number of Indigenous victims
- 11/25: the date of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
- 16: the number of days of activism against gender-based violence that follow
CFOJA is supported by funding from the CSSLRV, the University of Guelph, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Canada Research Chairs Program.
Contact:
Dr. Myrna Dawson
mdawson@uoguelph.ca