NDP releases 121 recommendations to end Ontario’s IPV epidemic

QUEEN’S PARK — The Ontario NDP has released 121 recommendations charting a path to end Ontario’s intimate partner violence (IPV) epidemic. These recommendations are part of their dissenting report, following the government’s IPV report.

“Survivors and experts are tired of study after study with no government action, accountability, or even a timetable for implementation,” said MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam (Toronto Centre). “We have put forward a plan to end IPV, one that honestly reflects the voices of survivors who appeared at the Committee. The Ford government must now act to stop the rise of femicide that has happened on their watch.”

The report follows a lengthy committee study process created and controlled by the Ford government in response to the NDP’s Bill 173, the Intimate Partner Violence Epidemic Act, 2024, reintroduced this year as Bill 55. The NDP committee members cooperated with the three-phase process while advocating that the government enact the recommendations of countless high-quality reports.

“It is outrageous that this government continues to waste the time of survivors, experts in the field, and frontline workers by gaslighting them about their own calls for change,” said MPP Lisa Gretzky (Windsor West). “While sharing their deeply personal traumatic experiences, survivors and victims' families told this government to declare IPV an epidemic, but the Conservatives are twisting their words in an attempt to convince them that the status quo is acceptable.”

When the government report — written by one government member in a highly irregular manner — was presented to the committee, NDP MPPs tried to work within the process once again, before being forced to make the difficult decision to withdraw from a process that failed to respect survivors or subject-matter experts.

Major AI detection tools like GPTZero also flagged the government’s report as likely being largely AI-generated, and multiple sources cited did not exist upon closer inspection.

“To fully respect those survivor and expert voices, our dissenting report includes overlooked voices, 121 recommendations, and a clear executive summary, all in a digestible format,” said MPP Alexa Gilmour (Parkdale – High Park). “We urge the government to adopt these recommendations, starting with declaring IPV an epidemic as called for by the Renfrew County Inquest and recognized by 106 municipalities across Ontario.”

Read the Official Opposition Dissenting Report.

Read the Executive Summary of the Official Opposition Dissenting Report.

The Government report cites articles and studies that do not exist and fit the pattern of AI-originated hallucinations.

Selected examples include:

Adrian Morrow, “Ontario’s toothless school cellphone ban isn’t working. It’s time to rethink it” The Globe and Mail (28 February 2024), online: https://www.theglobeandmail.com	There is a real op-ed by this name published in the Globe and Mail in 2025. However, the op-ed by this name was written by Katherine Martinko and the alleged date of publication is half a year before the Ford government announced the cellphone ban in schools.
B. Sabri et al, “Youth Perspectives on Accessing Abuse Support: The Role of Digital and Anonymous Resources” (2021) 121 Child Youth Serv Rev 105851;	Bushra Sabri is a real scholar who writes about IPV in India. But she never published an article by this name in this journal. The article number cited instead leads to this article and one can see she never published in Volume 121 of the Child Youth Services Review. The alleged title appears to be a variation on a similar article that she published in 2021 in a different journal.
Juliana Cohen et al, “High School Students’ Perspectives on Universal School Meals: A Qualitative Study” (2024) 56:5 Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 457 at 462;	Dr.Juliana Cohen is a real scholar in food security and IPV. However, Volume 56 of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behaviour has no publications by Dr. Cohen. The seemingly imaginary reference appears to be inspired by this article that Dr. Cohen wrote about universal food programs in California.
Miatta Sessay et al, “Free School Meals, Childhood Obesity, and Educational Outcomes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in England” (2024) Social Science Research Network Working Paper No 4708213, online: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4708213.	The URL provided in the government’s IPV report also leads to an unrelated study by a different author. But the citation does use a real publication’s abstract number (to the unrelated article). There is a real person by this name who works at the University of Maryland.
Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI), Submission to the Ontario IPV/SV/HT Prevention Report, “Challenges and Barriers in Accessing Services for Immigrant Women Facing Violence” (2024).	OCASI made one written submission to the committee titled “Submission to Standing Committee on Justice Policy Study on Intimate Partner Violence OCASI – Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants.” Their submission does not mention human trafficking and focuses on the systemic underfunding of sector organizations.
Government of Canada, Safe Sport: What is Safe Sport? (Ottawa: Government of Canada, 2024), online: https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/sport-policies-acts-regulations/safe-sport.html.	This url does not work and a review in archive.org suggests that this url or a page using this title never existed on the Government of Canada website.
Child Development Institute. "SNAP Research Brief." 25 Nov. 2020. Child Development Institute, https://www.example.org/snap-research-brief. Accessed 25 Sept. 2025.	While a research brief does exist by the Child Development Institute about SNAP it is difficult to imagine a person typing 50% of an actual url only to insert example.org, into the url.
D. Mihalopoulos et al, “Does Parenting Intervention Reduce Child Health Costs? Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial” (2007) 16:9 Health Econ 999 at 1007.	This source does not exist. Researcher's name is Catherine Vos MIhalopoulos...she has authored several articles on parenting intervention--none with this title or in 2007. She authored a pub in 2007 titled "Does the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program provide value for money?"; in 2015, "The population cost-effectiveness of a parenting intervention designed to prevent anxiety disorders inchildren"; also 2015 "Population Cost-Effectiveness of a Parenting Program for the Treatment of Conduct Disorders: a Modelling Study to Assist Priority Setting in Australia"; there are 3 more articles going through 2018 on parenting intervention

While the Official Opposition did not have the time to check every citation, this pattern of significant errors and the citation of articles and reports that do not exist, were published elsewhere, by a different author, or at a different time, is likely indicative of the fact that care was not taken to ensure correct citations.

Additionally, the pattern of citing news companies (cbc.ca, globeandmail.ca) without providing exact dates or URLs that specifically link to the article referenced is not in keeping with Canadian Legal Citations in the style of the McGill Guide, which the government report uses.

The government report additionally misstates that the inquest into the death of Lori Dupont occurred in 2002. The inquest, in fact, took place in 2007 after Ms. Dupont was murdered in 2005.

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IPV Committee Statement

Ontario NDP MPPs Statement on the IPV Committee Report

QUEEN’S PARK — Ontario NDP MPPs Kristyn Wong-Tam (Toronto Centre), Alexa Gilmour (Parkdale—High Park), and Lisa Gretzky (Windsor West) have issued the following statement:

"Last year, survivors, frontline advocates, community experts, and service providers gave important, courageous, and oftentimes painful testimony to the Standing Committee on Justice Policy's subcommittee on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). Ontario New Democrats have engaged with the government process, determined to honour their voices and fight for changes that will meaningfully strengthen Ontario’s response to the IPV epidemic.

"Today, after serious reflection, we are continuing to make decisions guided by our respect and gratitude for survivors, advocates, experts and service providers. Choosing to ensure that the process has integrity, accountability, and respect for survivors now requires that we withdraw from the government's report-writing process.

"Because report writing takes place in-camera, MPPs are not allowed to disclose or discuss what is transpiring during the report-writing process.

“Survivors deserve to have their voices heard. Ontario's Official Opposition believes that we must now produce our own dissenting report to ensure that survivors' voices and calls for change are heard."

NDP releases 121 recommendations to end Ontario’s IPV epidemic