Nova Scotia government faces more criticism over response to domestic violence

A Bridgewater police vehicle is pictured outside a home on Haven Drive on March 3, 2025. (Callum Smith/CTV Atlantic)

HALIFAX — An advocacy group for reproductive health says the Nova Scotia government is failing to address the recent spike in gender-based violence.

The non-profit group Wellness Within says that among other things, the provincial budget tabled last month lacks substantial support for responding to this long-standing problem.

Wellness Within says the $100 million in “continued support” announced in the budget for gender-based violence and intimate-partner violence does not address the ongoing need for sustained funding.

The volunteer group says the budget also ignores calls for free contraception.

Citing the work of the Access Now Nova Scotia coalition, the group says there’s a connection between intimate-partner violence and lack of access to contraception, saying Canadian women who face domestic violence are twice as likely to experience an unintended pregnancy.

Earlier this month, police in southwestern Nova Scotia said an 83-year-old woman had died as a result of intimate-partner violence, the seventh time a woman’s death has been linked to domestic abuse since mid-October.

When the budget was tabled Feb. 19, government officials said it also included $7 million more for transition houses and women’s centres, and an expansion of a paid domestic violence leave program to five days from three days.

Meanwhile, Wellness Within is also calling on the province to implement the recommendations of the inquiry into the 2020 mass shooting that started with an act of gender-based violence and resulted in the deaths of 22 people.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2025.