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Unifor brought members, workers, advocates and frontline service providers from the community together in Charlottetown, P.E.I., on April 28, for an urgent day of education, organizing and action on intimate partner violence.
Unifor’s Atlantic Regional Council in partnership with the national union’s Women’s Department, hosted an Intimate Partner Violence Symposium at the Delta Hotel Convention Centre in Charlottetown. The event was the third in a series of regional Atlantic forums aimed at strengthening the movement to end gender-based violence.
“Declaring intimate partner violence an epidemic is not an exaggeration. It is a call to action. A call for people to stop looking away,” said Unifor Atlantic Regional Director Jennifer Murray in her remarks.
“We must move from awareness to action. We must create a world where love doesn’t hurt.”
The symposium comes amid stark national statistics. In 2025 alone, 187 women in Canada were killed in acts of femicide, while nearly half (44%) of Canadian women reported experiencing some form of intimate partner violence. It’s an epidemic that thrives in silence, said Murray.
Murray noted the day is about more than raising awareness. It is about building pressure, sharing tools and creating a coordinated response among unions, service providers, elected leaders and community advocates. And rising towards a future of hope.
“How do I know that a better world is coming? I can already see it. Like the work that has been done on IPV across this country,” she said.
“Now, it is hard to talk about hope without talking about courage. Like the incredible courage that women for decades have shown speaking out against gender-based violence. The courage it takes to share your story, even when it is so very difficult, but you do it to let others know that they too will be okay and they are worth it and never alone.”
Participants heard from experts in the sector, engaged in interactive workshops and connected directly with organizations working in prevention, survivor support and intervention. The symposium also heard a presentation from Danya O’Malley, Executive Director of PEI Family Violence Prevention Services, on a national action plan to end gender-based violence.
Carl Pursey, President of the PEI Federation of Labour and Karla Bernard, the Green Party MLA for Charlottetown-Victoria Park, also spoke at the event.
“Too many women are carrying the invisible weight of intimate partner violence,” said Unifor Women's Director Tracey Ramsey.
“They are navigating fear, instability and trauma. By bringing women’s advocates, frontline service providers and union activists together, we are strengthening the network of support survivors need and pushing governments to act with the urgency this epidemic demands.”
Unifor has been at the forefront of that advocacy, helping secure legislative recognition of intimate partner violence as an epidemic in Nova Scotia and advancing the same in New Brunswick. The union continues to lobby governments across the region to improve laws, funding and survivor supports.
