CBC Ottawa reported today on a distressing increase in domestic violence in the Lanark Highlands area, the municipality just to the west of Mississippi Mills, taking in rural parts of Lanark County. According to the article:
Residents of an eastern Ontario township gathered Monday to discuss an alarming spike in domestic violence-related charges in their community.
The number of charges laid in Lanark Highlands rose from 22 in 2010 to 43 in 2014, a jump of 95%. Though the township contains just nine per cent of the total population of Lanark County, it accounted for 16 per cent of the domestic violence-related charges laid by Lanark County OPP in 2014.
OPP Insp. Derek Needham presented the numbers at an event called “Let’s Talk in the Highlands.” The community meeting was organized by Lanark County Interval House, a women’s shelter in Carleton Place, and led by a survivor of domestic violence.
Seventy-three per cent of the people charged in Lanark Highlands between 2010 and 2014 were male. The average age of the victim was 41, while the average age of the accused was 43.
