Clare's Law in Alberta

By Teagan Rasche

Clare's Law

Law that examines domestic abuse risk already having an impact in the city

Oct 26, 2021 | 5:09 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Clare’s Law helps people at risk of domestic violence get information about potentially harmful partners.

It’s already made a difference within our community. Only seven months after becoming a law, 11 people have already taken advantage of it.

“Clare’s Law is a tool that is used for police and individuals to determine if their partner has any history of risk, domestic violence history,” Kinsi Steiger, who’s on the Safe Families Intervention Team with the Medicine Hat Police Service, said.

Clare’s Law was named after a young woman who was killed in 2009 by an ex-boyfriend with a history of domestic violence. It came into effect in Alberta on April 1, 2021.

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Steiger works directly with people who have applied for Clare’s Law, or The Disclosure to Protect Against Domestic Violence Act.

“You go online, you make the application, it gets sent to the Clare’s Law coordinator in Edmonton,” Steiger said. “They do a comprehensive risk assessment, they gather all the information and once that is gathered, they send it back to me, and then I will either sit down and meet with you if it’s high risk and if it’s a low risk I can do it over the phone.”

Regardless of the outcome, the police still refer every application they receive to the Medicine Hat Women’s Shelter Society.

Outreach manager Leanne Biem says their role is to provide support.

“We would want to talk to them about the services that we provide, do safety planning with them,” Biem said. “Get a feel for what they need in terms of other community agencies, connect them with agencies that could help them if housing is a problem if they need to be in a safe place we can get them into our shelter, if they need to leave the community we can help them with that as well.”

Since the program is new, Biem and Steiger say many people don’t know about it yet, but expect applications to increase as time goes on.

As for the applications now, police say people are always surprised by results.

“Some people it just confirms that what they felt was correct and there is some risk there and other people, it’s a sigh of relief because there is no risk,” Steiger said.

But it’s important to note the information is strictly for safety and to help make informed choices.

“You can’t use the information for anything else,” Biem said. “So if someone was going to want to take that information to court, if they were wanting it for a custody battle or anything like that, it’s not allowed for that.”

Applications are filled out online and can take four weeks to process. It’s completely confidential and the person you’re requesting information on will not know.