43 Women Killed: Femicide Cases Can Be Our Compass To Guide Change
November 26th 2025– During the 16 Days of Activism to End Gender Based Violence, the Ontario Association of Interval Houses (OAITH) has released the Annual Femicide List 2024 2025 to educate the community about the realities of femicide. Over the last 52 weeks, there have been 43 women killed here in Ontario. There have been 101 charges reported by media, laid against 45 men accused in relation to these femicides, while another 3 cases were deemed a femicide-suicide.
“The headlines this past year continue to make public the heartbreaking stories of femicides that have occurred nearly every week in Ontario. Most of the men accused in these crimes were closest to them and most often women were killed in their home or another residence. Men’s violence against women this past year demands public attention to educate communities because we know femicide is preventable and change is possible” -Marlene Ham, Executive Director, Ontario Association of Interval & Transition Houses
Over the last year, femicide has left an impact on 29 communities across Ontario including Adjala-Tosorontio, Barrie, Bracebridge, Bradford, Brampton, Brantford, Cobourg, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, Leamington, Lincoln, London, Markham, Newcastle, Niagara Falls, Ottawa, Peterborough, Pickering, Sault Ste Marie, Shuniah, Simcoe, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Timmins, Toronto, Tweed, Vaughan and Windsor.
OAITH has been tracking femicides in Ontario for 35 years, and we are aware of more than 1,120 victims of femicide whose lives have been taken and in most cases, by men who knew them. These numbers are a shocking reminder of the ongoing oppression, hatred, inequity, human rights violations and ongoing system failure that has led to these femicides.
Let there be justice for their families and that we all lean in to build a society that brings an end to all forms of gender-based violence and hatred because femicide is preventable.
Media Inquiries:
Marlene Ham, Executive Director
Help us cultivate safety by knowing the services available
mulberryfinder.ca
2024-2025 Annual Femicide List – Snapshot of Trends
43 Femicides of Women and Children in a 52 Week Period
Victim and Accused Relationships
- 33% intimate partner femicides (14),
- 28% femicides perpetrated by family members (12),
- 16% femicides perpetrated by men known to the victim (7),
- 16% femicide cases where relationship details have not been provided (7) and
- 7% femicide cases where there was no prior relationship between the victim and perpetrator (3)
Location and Geography
- 79% of all femicide cases this year occurred either inside, or outside of a residence (34).
- 21% of femicide victims were killed in a rural or small population center (9).
- 26 communities across Ontario were affected by femicide
Victim Race
- Indigenous women (12%), Black women (7%), and South Asian women (12%) are overrepresented within Ontario femicide data
- 33% (14) of cases didn’t identify the race of the victim
Victim Age
- The youngest femicide victim was 20 years old and the oldest femicide victim, this year was 83 years old.
- No femicide victims were under the age of 18 were reported
- Nearly half (47%) of femicide victims were 55 years of age and older
Prior History of Violence and Charges of Accused
- 101 charges laid in relation to cases reviewed this year
- 45 men have been charged in relation to femicide cases this year
- 7% of cases of femicide-suicide where no charges have been laid (3)
- 12% of cases, a reported history of violence against the victim or other women has been identified through media reports
Access the 2024-2025 Annual Femicide List: bit.ly/AnnualFemicideList2024-2025
Learn more about We Count Femicide Because and OAITH’s Femicide Work:
https://www.oaith.ca/campaigns/femicide-reports/
Please note that there may be further changes/ revisions to the list made in the coming days.
How we Contextualize and Understand Femicide Prevention
- Responses to address gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide prevention must be broad in scope and apply to a range of victim perpetrator relationships and all types of gender-based violence.
- Access to safe, accessible and deeply affordable housing is a human right which affects every aspect of well-being, however many survivors experiencing violence face constant fear of violence while at home.
- Indigenous, Black and Racialized women experiencing violence have diverse, unique needs that are often overlooked in research, policy and practice–leading to increased barriers to gender-based violence support. Colonization, racial and cultural systemic violence lead to the invisibility of Indigenous and Black women within femicide discourse compounding both the risk of femicide and overall impacts of gender-based violence.
- Impacts of all forms of GBV compound as survivors age, ultimately accumulating throughout the life stages. Impacts of violence are also compounded by systemic oppression and intergenerational trauma (including residential schools), contributing to increased stigma for older women and additional barriers in accessing support. Despite this, GBV service and prevention is often focused only on younger women.
- Those experiencing gender-based violence in rural areas often face additional risks and barriers to support, including physical and social isolation, long distances between neighbours, lack of or no accessible transportation, limited services, lack of anonymity, animal and livestock responsibilities, and limited affordable housing.
- Criminal and family court systems need to improve how they respond by centering survivor and child safety. Working alongside survivors and gender-based violence community based organizations on risk assessment, risk management and monitoring of those who are causing harm can be the difference between life and death. Without survivor safety at the centre, the system inevitably fails.