AB-2025-05161 - FVDRC Special Case Report on Indigenous Family Violence

Under the Protection Against Family Violence Act (PAFVA), the Family Violence Death Review Committee (FVDRC) is mandated to review incidents of family violence resulting in deaths in Alberta and provide advice and recommendations to the Minister of Children and Family Services on family violence prevention and reduction strategies. According to Statistic Canada 2019, Alberta has the third highest rate of family violence in Canada, and the second highest rate of reported family violence homicides involving Indigenous victims – only second to Saskatchewan. In 2022, the FVDRC initiated an in-depth review of 11 police-reported family violence deaths involving Indigenous families. This focus aligns with key frameworks that guide the committee’s work including recommendations from Alberta’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) Roadmap report, Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation: Calls to Action (TRC) report and the FVDRC 2023-25 Strategic Plan identifying the need to ensure increased safety and prevention of violence against Indigenous Peoples and families. To this end, the FVDRC’s in-depth review of 11 police-reported family violence-related death incident involving Indigenous families aims to develop a special case report that: 1) Highlights the systemic issues and factors contributing to increased risk factors to family violence-related incidents and deaths among Indigenous families and communities. 2) Provides a comprehensive analysis of the systemic, institutional and socio-economic barriers impacting the prevalence of family violence among Indigenous Peoples and their communities. • This will include a thematic analysis of dominant risk factors identified across the 11 cases and associated recommendations. 3) Creates a better understanding of the interactions among systems and agencies within the family violence response and to provide recommendations to prevent future tragedies.