Report from the inquest into the death of 8 year old Jared Osidacz by his father, Andrew Osidacz. Julie Craven, the boy's mother, was also threatened during the incident, but police arrived and killed Andrew Osidacz. Andrew Osidacz had been an abusive husband to Julie Craven but was allowed unsupervised visits with Jared after they divorced.
This report is from Phase 3 of a larger multi-phase system-change initiative of YWCA Canada launched in 2001 Beyond Shelter Walls. This phase focused on dialogue among key stakeholders at the national, provincial/territorial and community levels to identify concrete workable solutions towards real and lasting change. The report describes the emerging themes from these consultations, looking at key themes, starting with issues impacting women beyond shelter such as poverty, housing, legal issues, northern communities, and marginalized women.The main body of the report examines supports for women beyond shelters, including advocacy, training and prevention initiatives, promising practices in custody and access, healthy families, and mental health protocols. Recommendations for long term change are included based on the findings.
In this analysis of the impacts of the Progressive Conservative government's budget cuts and policy initiatives on women and their children, OAITH raises several key points, including that the scope of core services for abused women has become too narrow, access to legal aid and other essential supports for women in the criminal and family justice systems has been significanlty reduced, supports and benefits like social assistance, housing and child care are even lower than prior inadequate levels, and programs and advances in training, anti-racims and anti-discrimination work, pay equity and other positive changes will suffer under the cuts. Women's access to shelters and the full range of services they need from them will be severely limited.