Haliburton Highlands OPP Const. Joel Imbeau shared a personal story at this year’s Take Back the Night event in Minden Sept. 18.
He said that when he was a teenager, his older sister was sexually assaulted.
“Not only did I have the saddened opportunity to live that through my sister’s experience, but also as a brother, and seeing my parents suffer. And, seeing the level of depression she went through for years, and the fact we had to slowly try to develop and rebuild our house and make it somewhat of a suitable living situation given my sister’s trauma,” Imbeau said.
He added, “experiencing that firsthand, I dedicated and devoted my life at that point to get into a position of authority where I could, hopefully, lock some of these people up and make sure that this doesn’t continue.
“We can end this situation once and for all. It is going to be a struggle, but we need everyone on board to help fight it. When it comes to being an advocate against intimate partner violence, I have no time for this type of violence; none of us do at our office; we take it extremely seriously and so does the province.”
Imbeau noted he has a “wonderful” working relationship with the YWCA Peterborough Haliburton, and mental health providers in the community, to help people recover, and “try to bear their traumatic incidents.”
Nycole Duncan, the YWCA’s women’s centre and HERS manager, told the audience they have two spaces in the County for women fleeing domestic violence.
Addressing the crowd that would go on to stroll the Minder Riverwalk, she said, “there’s strength in numbers. It’s only through community strength that we can find solutions to community problems. The first step is showing up with compassion and excitement like you all have tonight.”
Duncan said Haliburton County and Minden Hills had declared intimate partner violence an epidemic. Statistically she said the highest number of incidents occur in northern rural centres, “where we are … so this is us.”
