A fatal weekend shooting in Cornwall, Ont., is shedding a stark spotlight on a segment of the population whose experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) has only recently been recognized for what it is, a local women’s shelter says.
According to Cornwall police, an 81-year-old man shot his 80-year-old former partner and her 83-year-old male friend before dying by suicide on Saturday. The 83-year-old was fatally wounded and the woman continued to be treated for serious injuries as of Monday.
Police are not releasing the identity of the victims or the shooter but have declared the incident a tragic case of IPV.
Danielle McCormick, the public educator at Baldwin House, a women’s shelter in Cornwall, said the shooting has left her reeling.
“There’s always that feeling of, you know, maybe if she was in danger and she had reached out, we could have been a safe place for her,” McCormick said.
McCormick said the shelter has seen an uptick in calls over the last decade from elderly women experiencing IPV. The majority of those calls involved inquiries about what falls within the parameters of IPV.
“What we get a lot of is ‘Does this count?’” McCormick said, explaining that verbal, emotional, financial and physical abuse are all forms of intimate partner violence.
“There’s definitely this mindset, especially within that elderly population, that once you’re married, it’s almost as though the wife belongs to the husband.”
Detective Staff Sgt. Tracey Pilon, Cornwall Police Service’s inspector of field operations, said the force has noticed a slight increase in calls from older people related to IPV – from 19 in 2021 to 27 in 2025.
Pilon said IPV cases often go unreported and that four out of five survivors never contact police.
“The alarming rise we are seeing is really only a fraction of the true picture,” she said.
There are a lot of reasons IPV goes unreported, according to Pilon, including the fear of losing family connections or housing.
Erin Lee, the executive director of Lanark County Interval House in Carleton Place, says older generations may not recognize the abuse they were subjected to, or may feel it’s “taboo” to discuss it.
“Generations of women have endured, have lived through and survived and haven’t always recognized that there was violence going on in their home or in their family or in their relationship,” she said.
Lee has seen an increase in calls for service from seniors in her community too, even though “we don’t always see any signs of potential risk for violence in those relationships.”
Lee is a member of Ontario’s Domestic Violence Death Review Committee (DVDRC). In 2023, the group’s annual report examined six intimate partner homicides involving people aged 55 and older. It found that older couples face unique risk factors for intimate partner homicide, including declining mental and physical health, as well as increased isolation.
According to the report, one in four victims of intimate partner homicide in Ontario from 2017 to 2023 was aged 55 and older, with 86 per cent of them being women.
Lee says the solution needs to encompass all aspects elderly care, from healthcare settings to the communities people live in and their family and friends who support them.
“Rarely do we say, ‘And what’s your experience with violence? What’s your historical experience with violence? Is there any current risk that you could identify?’ Rarely do we do that in any of the systems that engage with aging folks,” she said.
Lee says resources like Elder Abuse Prevention Ontario and the Seniors Safety Line are a good start for offering support to victims.
McCormick is hopeful the increase in calls the shelter has been getting means more women are recognizing abuse in their old age and realizing “this is not okay.”
She encourages women to reach out to Baldwin House through its crisis lines or by dropping by to talk to a counsellor, something she says anyone can do, even if they aren’t staying at the shelter.
Pilon also encourages survivors of intimate partner violence to seek help, noting that Cornwall police works closely with services in the community, including Baldwin House, and has a dedicated domestic violence coordinator and a trauma support specialist.
“Silence is never the answer,” she said.
