Upper Ottawa Valley OPP responded to 29 domestic disputes last week; charges on two

The Upper Ottawa Valley detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) have laid charges in two domestic disputes. In total, police responded to 29 disputes last week.

On Sept. 19, officers responded to a report of a domestic dispute in Bonnechere Valley Township, leading to the arrest warrant for a 39-year-old individual.

Three days later, officers responded to a threat complaint in Pembroke and police are looking for a 26-year-old suspect for offences related to intimate partner violence.

Reports of intimate partner violence are on the rise across the province, the number of reported cases rising by 40 per cent between 2014 and 2022, according to StatsCan.

The stark increase has led to renewed calls, most recently from the Ontario NDP, for the provincial government to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic. That call was first made in recommendations from a Coroner’s Inquest in 2022 on the murders of three women in Renfrew County seven years prior.

The province has yet to comply to this nomenclature stating that intimate partner violence is “not an infectious or communicable disease.”