Why grieving families say adding femicide to the Criminal Code could help serve justice for women killed by men [Video]

Jennifer Edmonds could never find a heel high enough. The 47-year-old was a fashion enthusiast who also loved motorsports, singing in the family band and planning weddings as a side business. She doted on her two kids, Kaitlin, 20, and Dylan, 18, and considered her colleagues at the Department of National Defence to be family.

In August, she was killed at her suburban home in west Ottawa. Police have charged Ms. Edmonds’s husband, Michael Zabarylo, 55, with second-degree murder; he has yet to be tried. Friends and family say she had been trying to leave him.

In a news release, Ottawa Police did not provide many details. But one word stood out: Her death was described as a “femicide,” which was defined as “the killing of women and girls because of their gender.” The statement said her death occurred in the context of intimate partner violence, which “is one of …