With investigations underway into Ottawa’s first two femicides of the year, the advisor on gender-based violence (GBV) to the Ottawa Police Service says she’s closely watching for emerging trends in violence against women and girls as other cities declare GBV epidemics.
The term femicide, defined as the intentional murder of women or girls on the basis of gender, was brought into circulation by the Ottawa Poice Service in 2022 as a way to track and classify homicides with female victims.
It isn’t a formal charge or definition in the Canadian Criminal Code; rather, it’s an “acknowledgement” of the motive or context of a homicide, says Melanie Winwood. Winwood, a social worker who has studied GBV for over 15 years, chaired the advisory committee that oversaw the implementation of a GBV advisor within the Ottawa Police Service. She has now held that role since 2021.
In the first four months of 2025, there were two femicides, which occurred within days of each other. In comparison, there were four in 2024, and the first did not occur until July.
While Winwood said it’s too soon to say whether or not these two cases indicate an increased rate for 2025, she’s “watching closely.”
Homicide detectives assigned to the case are the “first line” in determining whether or not a homicide qualifies as a “femicide”, she explained. In the two cases so far of this year, she said they were quick to apply the definition.
“They’re understanding that education piece, and I’ve done a lot of that work internally to try to get people to understand why we’re doing this and things like that,” Winwood told Ottawa Compass.
Renée Descary, 51, was killed on Heney Street shortly after 4:30 p.m. on April 1 Ottawa Police say they have charged Oliver Denai, 24, of Ottawa, with second-degree murder, alleging he stabbed her to death. Police also say her death is being investigated as a femicide.
On April 5, police responded to an address on Bentbrook Crescent in Barrhaven where they located a woman who was deceased. The Ottawa Police Service Homicide Unit have since identified the victim as Brenda Rus, 60, and charged Robert Rus, 61, with first-degree murder. Police also said the case is being considered a femicide.
In both cases, detectives determined that the “manner” of the homicides as well as the context deemed them femicides.
“The intent is just bringing the awareness and appropriately labelling it to be able to recognize what occurred,” explained Winwood.
The Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability (CFOJA) has been tracking and labelling femicides on a national level since 2018. Between 2018 and 2022, reported femicides have been consistently rising, CFOJA data shows, with 196 estimated in 2022.
But Winwood said there is also an “expectation” of additional work to be done that accompanies using the term “femicide”.
“It’s one thing to come out and use appropriate language and label these as femicides. But we also have to try to continue working towards addressing it as much as we can,” she explained. “We can’t just sit back and be like, ‘Okay, like we’re using the word femicide. We’re good now.’”
Many cases of GBV occur within intimate partner relationships, and the violence escalates over time before sometimes resulting in a femicide, Winwood said. In these cases, there are signs of violence, and the femicides can sometimes be prevented with early intervention.
There are also emerging trends that she said she finds “additionally concerning”. For example, she says there are increasing rates of violence and sexual assault against women perpetrated by young males under the age of 18.
“That’s kind of something that I’m really taking a look at to see if that’s going to, potentially, but hopefully doesn’t, lead to any femicide, especially with such young people,” she said. Though she said she doesn’t have access to ongoing investigations and evidence, she suspects social media is playing a big part in this.
“To be quite fair, the political climate and misogynistic groups are having a lot of movement,” she explained. “Europe has a lot of misogynistic movements happening, so that’s something I’m keeping an eye on here, too.”
In general, she said there must be an emphasis placed on believing and supporting victims so that more women and girls feel encouraged to report any violence they are experiencing.
“I’m very much in support of us naming this an epidemic. Our own stats demonstrate that every year we get more and more reports, and we know that that’s just a small fraction of the women that are actually experiencing violence,” she explained. “Most women, unless they are really feeling like they are in danger, just aren’t just reaching out to police.
“Cconsidering that we’re getting almost 7,000 calls a year, and we know that that’s a fraction of the reality, we know that nothing’s going down, which is a problem,” Winwood continued. “So the fact that every year we’re getting more and more calls, and more and more women are being murdered, that definitely shows that we’re at crisis point.”
