LETTER TO THE EDITOR – Re: Jennifer Hillier-Penney

The Gateway Status of Women looks forward to justice being served in the case of Jennifer Hillier-Penney’s disappearance in St. Anthony’s seven years ago. Her estranged husband, Dean Penney of St. Anthony, is charged with first degree murder in her death. The feminist organization is relieved that the investigation has led to a murder charge. “It sends a message to perpetrators of intimate partner violence that criminal investigations don’t always run cold; that people who choose to abuse and kill their intimate partners will have to face the legal and justice systems,” said Haley Osmond, Executive Director of the local Women Centre. Osmond says intimate partner violence is far too common in our society, including here on the Southwest Coast and it needs to stop. The women’s centre is calling for more action to protect women against intimate partner violence, and that protection can come from society in the way it thinks about domestic violence and how it responds to signs of that violence. Isolation is the one of the biggest tools that perpetrators use to keep victims of intimate partner violence under their thumb. Osmond says the government can help as well by providing funding for programs that support education to women and girls and funding to provide services to women who are surviving violence in their relationships. Haley Osmond, BA (She/her) Executive Director, Gateway Status of Women Council in PAB

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