Ontario's domestic abuse counselling program is in crisis

More than two dozen provincial agencies and experts have raised the alarm to the ministry, writing to complain about funding changes, recent cuts to the program’s length and the lack of accountability.

Thestar.com
Sept. 28, 2015
By Emily Mathieu

Ontario’s court-ordered domestic violence program is endangering the safety of some of the women it was designed to protect, veteran program leaders have told the province’s attorney general.

It is too often being used in place of a criminal conviction and jail time, creating a false sense of security, according to the head of one Toronto agency formerly in charge of overseeing the program.

Another leader in domestic violence said the situation has reached a “crisis.”

Partner Assault Response programs are group counselling services overseen by the Ministry of the Attorney General and delivered by community agencies across the province, where men meet once a week for 12 weeks.

The program was originally designed as a way to hold first-time or less-violent offenders accountable without clogging the court system with cases unlikely to result in a conviction.

More than two dozen provincial agencies and experts have raised the alarm to the ministry, writing to complain about funding changes, recent cuts to the program’s length and that the PAR program has no system to determine if it is working.

Harmy Mendoza, the executive director of the Women Abuse Council of Toronto (WomanACT), wrote to the ministry in March describing “a revolving door system that may not be protecting victims after all.”

Mendoza reported that her agency had tracked an increase in the number of dangerous men - who used a weapon, attacked a pregnant partner or have a history of domestic violence - being released on what is known as a conditional discharge, or through another option known as a peace bond. That means after a period of good behaviour they will end up without a criminal conviction.

“Essentially, if the accused reoffends two years later he has no criminal history of the first assault,” wrote Mendoza, of the peace bond option.

It also means they are sent home to live with their partners and do not face the stricter supervision that would follow a conviction, she said.

Despite what Mendoza and others have witnessed, ministry rules stipulate that dangerous or high-risk men should face a conviction first and then can be sent to a program as part of probation.

A ministry spokesperson told the Star they are trying to improve the program using a two-year “staged initiative” that started a year ago. Those changes included tightening the rules around men with a history of violent behaviour. By 2017, the ministry hopes to release results of a recidivism study.

“We remain open-minded about possible reforms as long as victim safety, accountability and program integrity are not compromised,” the ministry spokesperson said. They have met and will continue to meet with agencies throughout the fall and are investigating all concerns, he said via email.

WomanACT used to handle program intake and referrals for nine agencies from five courts across Toronto. They also tracked and reported trends to the ministry, such as an increase in dangerous men being sent to the program rather than facing a conviction, back to 2009. The ministry, Mendoza said, told them that was not part of their contract.

Board co-chair Carla Neto said their position gave them a bird’s-eye view of a broken system. “At one point you need to decide whether you want to be part of that train wreck or not ... we didn’t want to stop,” said Neto.

They cut ties with the ministry in March because the government funding wasn’t enough to pay their staff.

Among the critics writing to the ministry is the Building a Bigger Wave Ontario Network, a coalition of agencies, academics and health care providers.

Colleen Purdon, on behalf of the network, wrote to the ministry in March describing an “emerging crisis,” because, she said, changes to the program were made without properly consulting with agencies across the province.

They also surveyed coalitions made up of agencies and experts in domestic violence across the Ontario. Almost half said they expected the changes would have a negative impact on the safety of victims in their communities. Purdon presented the information to the ministry in July.

“The ministry is not on the ground and we are,” Purdon told the Star. “Changes to (PAR) have a direct impact on the safety of victims of violence ... We actually do feel it’s a crisis and the ministry doesn’t.”

He Said/She Said

Two views from a couple who have been through the courts over assault charges.

‘He loves to push me’

They had been drinking and fighting all night. Joanne wanted to leave and Roger took away her phone. She went to the bathroom and he followed, grabbing her by the hair, pulling her off the toilet and dragging her down the stairs.

He threw her into the corner of the room. Joanne ran to the window, pulled the blinds and screamed for help.

Her boyfriend made a fist and told her “If you leave I will go to the kitchen get a knife and stab you.”

The fight was one of a string of violent altercations described by a Crown prosecutor during a 2014 sentencing hearing, where Roger Desmond pled guilty to threatening and abusing Joanne Beson.

Joanne’s voice softens when she describes the way they met.

“It was, like, perfect. Swept off my feet, you know,” she said in an interview.

She has called the police on at least six occasions. Still, she wants to be with him and wants him to get help from a court-ordered counselling program.

Joanne spoke with the Star on a wooden bench inside Toronto’s Old City Hall courthouse.

Petite, scrappy, outgoing and plain spoken Joanne is a youthful 41, with few natural lines on her face. She has worked as a bartender in Toronto and has lived in the west end, at an apartment where several of the assaults took place. Her family knows little about her long and stained relationship, the violence fuelled by drinking on both sides.

Another attack, described in court, resulted in eight stitches. She had been at Roger’s home and he was drinking with work friends. He got angry when she left.

“He ran up behind me and grabbed my hair and smashed my face off a car,” she told the Star.

In 2014, a judge ordered him to enroll in counseling for violence and alcohol. The Crown recommended the 12-week Partner Assault Response (PAR) program.

Joanne, expecting he would attend, signed a form allowing the couple to reunite. He never went. A month later she was shoved into the car.

“Nobody pushed it. I even went to see his probation officer ... He wasn’t forced to do it, even though he was court ordered,” she says.

Roger assaulted Joanne again this year, after he was locked out of his house in a fight that ended, Joanne says, with her stabbing him in the arm. He ran and was arrested for that crime while he was serving time for a different assault on her.

He has again been told to go to PAR. This time the judge ordered the couple to stay apart.

Roger and Joanne met in 2011, at a bar where Joanne worked. Roger had a good job, was happy, loving and had great friends, she says. But he became controlling. “I started doing things to please him because I didn’t want to make him mad,” she says.

“He loves to push me. I go flying because I am 100 lbs. soaking wet and he is a big boy.”

Joanne says their relationship is worth fighting for.

“I want him to learn, because I think once he gets the help he will look at himself in the mirror,” she says.

Why has she stayed? “Love,” she laughs. “Come on. We all know that answer. I love him.”

‘They don’t teach you nothing’

“I’m always right.” Roger Desmond, sitting in his house, describes what happens when he drinks.

A 49-year-old landscaper, Roger admits he has an issue with alcohol. Jack Daniels is the problem.

“Basically you don’t give a s--- about nothing. I am always right. When I am mad, I am mad, then nobody can stop me.”

There have been attempts to change his behaviour. Recently, he has been told for a third time to attend the province’s domestic violence counselling program, two of those times after assaulting girlfriend Joanne.

“Useless,” Says Roger, describing the program where men sit around a room learning about domestic abuse.

“They don’t teach you nothing about why you got there and that is usually about drinking, but they don’t have no clue about that,” he says, describing his views on the Partner Assault Response program. “Everything is your fault. That is what they tell you.”

PAR is part of Roger’s current probation. He has also been ordered to stay away from Joanne.

One 2014 fight, detailed in court transcripts from a sentencing hearing, was at Joanne’s apartment after a night of drinking on Queen St. West. During the hearing the Crown prosecutor described how Joanne ran frightened into the bathroom after he began screaming at her. Roger later told the Star he “booted” the bathroom door because he was worried that she had too much alcohol and wouldn’t let him in.

Roger invited the Star inside the red brick two-story Queen St. W. area home that used to belong to his parents, where he now lives. He is renovating and had already gutted the living room and kitchen, stripped the walls and altered the stairs. Above the fireplace hung a tile inscribed with “Home is where our story starts.” It belongs to Joanne. So does the framed prayer on the wall.

Roger says he intends to stay out of jail. He calmly explains how he never started the fights with Joanne, and pleads guilty to charges to help her. “I don’t want her in jail because I love her too much.”

He has pled guilty to assaulting Joanne six times, according to information read out in court and summaries of his charges and convictions. He has also pled guilty to assaulting another girlfriend, and threatening a third.

When asked if it is ever acceptable to control a woman using violence or force he says “yes.” When asked what that situation might be, he says “if they are hitting you.”

Not so with men. “Men don’t bother me when we are drinking together because men don’t care if you have another (drink). Women do.”

Roger says his only PAR course took place over 16 weeks starting in 2009, in a basement room in the Dufferin Mall. He was there following an assault on a girlfriend, he told the Star. Roger describes most of his group as men who were “checked out.

“If you are speaking and you have something to say they will just cut you off ... You have no opinion there,” says Roger.

“Once you leave you are dust in the wind ... They are on to the next person who wants to show up,” he says. “Give you your pamphlets, sign your name here and you are healed.” A ministry spokesperson told the Star via email that more content was added when the program was revised in 2014. Agencies still control how the groups are led, but men must discuss domestic violence and sessions are designed to equip them with a plan to avoid future violence, he said.
Roger says men need time to organize their lives before they are made to go.

He gave an example of one teaching he thought was ineffective, that men should walk away from a fight to cool down.

“They were saying that if you walk away from an argument that it stops the argument. But it doesn’t. You have to come back eventually.”