As police investigate the killing of a 71-year-old woman in Nova Scotia by her male partner, the head of an Ontario research group on violence against women says the situation is all too familiar.

Homicides involving older couples are among the fastest-rising rates of intimate partner killings in Canada, said Katreena Scott, who runs the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children at Western University in London, Ont.

"It makes me feel all the more determined to do so…