Man faces murder charge in alleged case of intimate partner violence: Ottawa police

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A 47-year-old woman was found dead in her home Sunday and a 55-year-old man was charged with second-degree murder, in what police described as a “femicide.”

Police were called to a home on Lady Slipper Way, west of Stittsville, at about 6:40 p.m. on Sunday to investigate the death of Jennifer Zabarylo, 47. Michael Zabarylo was charged with second-degree murder

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“In the context of police investigations, we consider this death to be a femicide as it occurred in the context of intimate partner violence, which is one of the many forms of misogynist killings,” police said in a statement. This is the first time the Ottawa police have used the term “femicide” to describe a homicide.

Appearing virtually in court from a room at the Montfort Hospital on Monday afternoon, the 55-year-old Zabarylo said he was aware of the charge against him.

Zabarylo said he was in the hospital because “they’re checking my knee and hand.” He had not yet retained a lawyer as of Monday afternoon.

Justice of the Peace Jocelyne St Jean detained Zabarylo in custody and imposed a non-contact order to five people. Zabarylo is expected in court again Wednesday.

On Monday morning, a dark blue cooler and a small light blue pail sat on the front porch of the two-storey white house in the quiet west-end neighbourhood marked by other large houses and lots. Many residents travel the neighbourhood in golf carts and ATVs.

Two police cruisers were in the driveway, surrounded by three other cars, a truck and a covered boat. Another truck was parked on the road in front of the house.

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Kevin Upper, a recently retired ParaTranspo driver who lives around the corner, said there was an unusual commotion late Sunday, as police blocked access to the house. Fire trucks and paramedics were also on the scene.

“I saw they had a trailer there when they moved in a few years ago and they were fixing it up, but I never really knew them,” he said.

Upper says it’s a relatively busy house. “There are always two or three vehicles parked there.”

Ottawa police defined femicide as “the killing of women and girls because of their gender,” often driven by stereotyped gender roles, discrimination towards women or unequal power relations between women and men.

“The Ottawa Police Service also builds on the definition recommended by our VAW (violence against women) community partners as ‘the misogynist killing of women and girls because of their gender, overwhelmingly committed by men,’ ” the force said.

The Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability defines femicide as “the killing of all women and girls primarily by, but not exclusively, men.”

The observatory, a feminist-led initiative at the University of Guelph, began documenting killings of women and girls in Canada in 2018. So far, more than 850 women and girls have lost their lives, mostly at the hands of men, according to the observatory’s statistics.

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The observatory’s 2023 statistics showed 187 femicides in Canada in 2023, compared to 184 femicides in 2022, 173 in 2021 and 160 in 2020. The 2024 numbers have not yet been released.

The term “femicide” has been used for decades. Advocates have argued that having a common understanding of the term will permit data collection by police and Statistics Canada.

The Ottawa Police Service started using the term “femicide” in its public statements in 2022.

However, discussions continue globally as to how femicide should be defined, why and how it is distinct from other homicides, and how these differences can be measured to better identify sex/gender-related killings of women and girls,” the Canadian Femicide Observatory said.

In June 2022, an inquest probing the 2015 murders of Carol Culleton, 66, Anastasia Kuzyk, 36, and Nathalie Warmerdam, 48, at the hands of Basil Borutski made 86 recommendations aimed at preventing intimate partner violence, including asking Ontario to formally declare intimate partner violence (IPV) as an epidemic.

Lanark became the first municipality to make the declaration in December 2022. In March 2023, Ottawa city council declared intimate partner violence to be an epidemic. Ottawa police made a statement in support of council’s decision.

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However, the province has declined to call IPV an epidemic.

In a 53-page response, released in June 2023, the province rejected the idea of formally declaring IPV an epidemic, the first recommendation made by the inquest jury. At the time, Ottawa was one of 32 Ontario municipalities, to do so.

The term “epidemic” is used for the spread of disease, specifically an outbreak of infection that spreads rapidly and affects many individuals in a given area or population at the same time, the province’s response said.

“In this regard, intimate partner violence (IPV) would not be considered an epidemic as it is not an infectious or communicable disease.”

Harmony House Women’s Shelter offered its sympathies, saying in a statement that “we are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Jennifer, another woman who has fallen victim to femicide.”

“What we see on the outside often hides the painful realities happening behind closed doors,” the statement continued. “Harmony House is committed to helping close those doors on violence and opening them to a brighter, safer future for women and children.”

— With files from Marlo Glass

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