People take part in a vigil at the Women's Monument in Petawawa, Ont., following the release of recommendations in the Borutski Inquest in Pembroke, Ont., on June 28.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Quebec has started to roll out a program that uses GPS tracking to protect victims of intimate partner violence, and Ontario is considering adopting the technology after an inquest into a triple femicide recommended it.
Alberta is planning to use a variation of the technology, joining Prince Edward Island and its long-standing program in a bid to ensure that victims never have to cross paths with their abusers.
Typically, an offender is fitted with a GPS ankle bracelet, while the victim is supplied with a location-tracking app for their phone or a separate device that alerts police if the two get too close.
Proponents argue that GPS monitoring allows victims to get their lives back, eliminating the need to constantly be looking over their shoulders. But critics of such programs caution against relying on the technology to fix a problem full of nuance and potentially deadly outcomes.
The jury at the inquest in Renfrew County, Ont., into the deaths of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam – who were killed by a mutual former partner in a murderous rampage across the Ottawa Valley in September, 2015 – made 86 recommendations to help prevent intimate-partner femicides.
The jury heard that before the murders, Basil Borutski had repeatedly flouted court orders to stay away from the women and never carry weapons, and had been deemed high-risk in multiple assessments. Ms. Warmerdam was so afraid he would come after her that she got a panic button from her local victim-services office. She slept with it on her pillow and kept a shotgun under her bed.
Vince Morelli, the owner of Alberta-based SafeTracks GPS, told the inquest how his company’s technology simultaneously tracks the whereabouts of both victims and offenders. Ankle monitors are commonly used to monitor people on bail, parole or under house arrest, but giving the victim a tracker as well is essential for cases of domestic violence, he said.
Both are monitored 24 hours a day. If an offender breaches his court-ordered boundaries, the company is immediately alerted and can contact the police. If the distance between the two parties continues to shrink, an operator can contact the victim directly as well.
“It allows the survivor to try to regain a better quality of life,” Mr. Morelli testified. “She’s allowed to roam, travel, do whatever she needs in a day, with a mobile [protection] zone around her.”
A picture of murder victim Nathalie Warmerdam, is displayed during a vigil at the Women's Monument in Petawawa, Ont.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Poor cellular reception – which Mr. Morelli agreed can be an issue in rural areas such as Renfrew County – was one factor that the inquest jury called on the government to consider in exploring the potential use of this technology, along with privacy concerns and the frequency and impact of false alarms.
The jury also wondered if it is appropriate to have such an essential service provided by private, for-profit companies.
“These private corporations stand to make a great deal of money if the government pursues this path,” lawyer Pamela Cross, who led community consultations for the inquest, said.
But Ms. Cross’s main criticism of GPS monitoring is that it is a reactive response to violence.
“It is after the fact, and I think that’s my biggest concern. Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing, but we can’t approach it as though this is the fix,” she said, noting that only about a quarter of victims of intimate-partner violence report to the police, so most offenders will never be fitted with ankle bracelets.
“So as long as when governments enter into this approach, there’s a recognition that this hasn’t dealt with the biggest part of the problem or prevention. That’s my concern – that that acknowledgment has to be there.”
Quebec recently signed a multimillion-dollar contract with security company Commissionnaires du Québec for its program, part of a broader anti-violence strategy after 18 women were killed in the province last year in suspected cases of intimate-partner violence, according to a recent government report. Three GPS monitors have been deployed since the program’s rollout in May.
Electronic monitoring was recommended in a coroner’s report into the death of Marylène Levesque, who was murdered in a Quebec City hotel room in January, 2020. Ms. Levesque’s killer, Eustachio Gallese, was on parole at the time for the 2004 murder of his wife. He was residing at a halfway house under conditions that included no drinking and reporting all interactions with women to his parole officer. Ms. Levesque, a sex worker, was unaware of his conviction or parole conditions, the report found.
Quebec to distribute more than $3-million to police to fight domestic violence
PEI has been using GPS monitors in domestic violence cases since 2016, through a contract with SafeTracks GPS. In that time, 168 trackers have been deployed in such cases. In only two instances, a government spokesperson said, did the offenders breach their boundaries and go to their victims’ homes.
The Alberta government has pledged to invest $2-million to expand its electronic monitoring capabilities. Instead of ankle bracelets, the province uses smartphone apps that combine GPS technology with “ongoing and random biometric checks (e.g. facial recognition).”
An Alberta Justice Department spokesperson said the expansion – for which the province has contracted U.S. company eHawk Solutions – is not specific to or limited to domestic-violence cases.
In Ontario, the Ministry of the Solicitor-General said it is carefully reviewing the Renfrew County inquest recommendations.
Ms. Cross says the privacy implications of GPS technology must be thoroughly considered.
“What if I’m a woman who gets up to some illicit activity in my day-to-day life? Say I’m a sex worker or buying or selling drugs. … I just want to feel like before we jump holus-bolus into this, we’ve had some of those deep discussions about … those kinds of possibilities and responses to those possibilities,” she said.
She believes Ontario is in the fortunate position of being able to take its time and learn from Quebec’s rollout.
“I’m not minimizing the value of keeping him away from her. If he can’t get physically close to her, he probably can’t kill her – and that’s worth a lot to women where that’s been a threat throughout the relationship, for sure,” she said. But “let’s not make the mistake of thinking that one new idea solves the whole problem.”
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