Evidence of meeting #28 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was women.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Shahin Mehdizadeh  Superintendent, Manitoba, "D" Division, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, As an Individual
Raheel Raza  President, Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow
Makai Aref  President, Afghan Women’s Centre of Montreal
Patmeena Sabit  Program Assistant, Afghan Women’s Centre of Montreal

3:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Tilson

We'll start, ladies and gentlemen. This is the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, on Monday, May 26, and in our orders of the day, we're studying the strengthening of the protection of women in our immigration system.

This meeting is televised. We have three guests visiting us today, two here in Ottawa and one by teleconference from Montreal.

I'm going to mess up on the pronunciation of your names, and I don't mind at all if you reprimand me.

We have with us today Mr. Shahin Mehdizadeh—

3:30 p.m.

Superintendent Shahin Mehdizadeh Superintendent, Manitoba, "D" Division, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, As an Individual

That's an excellent try.

3:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Tilson

Well, it's a try.

He's the superintendent in Manitoba of “D” Division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

We also have with us, from Muslims Facing Tomorrow, Ms. Raheel Raza, president.

3:30 p.m.

Raheel Raza President, Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow

That's perfect.

3:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Tilson

By teleconference in Montreal, we have, from the Afghan Women's Centre, Makai Aref, who is the president.

Can you hear me, Madam?

3:30 p.m.

Makai Aref President, Afghan Women’s Centre of Montreal

Yes. Hello.

3:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Tilson

I'm going to let you go first, Ms. Aref. You have up to eight minutes to make a presentation to the committee.

3:30 p.m.

President, Afghan Women’s Centre of Montreal

Makai Aref

I am ready to read my statement. Okay?

3:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Tilson

Yes, absolutely.

3:30 p.m.

President, Afghan Women’s Centre of Montreal

Makai Aref

But I am not sure. It may be eight minutes or it may be 10 minutes.

3:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Tilson

The floor is yours.

3:30 p.m.

President, Afghan Women’s Centre of Montreal

Makai Aref

Thank you.

3:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Tilson

Thank you for coming to us.

3:30 p.m.

President, Afghan Women’s Centre of Montreal

Makai Aref

Okay. First of all, good afternoon to all of you. I am here, and I'm Makai Aref. I would like to thank the committee on citizenship and immigration for allowing me the opportunity to come here today to talk about the immigrant spousal sponsorship program.

I am here today not to express my personal views on this issue but to talk about the experiences of the community of immigrant women and families that I have been working with for the last 13 years at the Afghan Women’s Centre in Montreal.

My hope today is to communicate to you their concerns and their experiences on this topic. As there is a question period during which I will be happy to address any topic, I will just touch very briefly now on some of the major issues that women face, both when they are sponsored by a spouse here and when they sponsor spouses from other countries.

I would first like to note that while the majority of our clients at the Afghan Women’s Centre are from Afghanistan, we do aid women from many other immigrant communities, for example, from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, and India. All of the issues that I raise here, in talking about Afghanistan, apply to them as well.

From the cases and clients that I have worked with in the last 13 years, I know that the victimization of women who have been sponsored by spouses living in Canada arises from the following sponsorship situations. Almost all of the women who are sponsored from Afghanistan by spouses are financially dependent upon their husbands. They cannot speak French or English and they lack the skills needed to get a job in Canada. As newcomers, these women do not have social support systems outside of their husbands and in-laws in Canada.

Men travel to Afghanistan and marry girls much younger than they are. Within our immigrant community we have many cases of men in their fifties, sixties, and seventies travelling to Afghanistan and marrying teenaged girls. Unfortunately, this is a conscious decision by these individuals, who marry girls this young with the belief that once they come to Canada, they can be easily controlled.

Women are pressured and forced into marriages with men in Canada by their families. Afghanistan is a war-torn country where many people suffer from poverty. There is a belief there that if a daughter married a man who lives in Canada or the United States or Europe, the daughter can help the family financially later on.

Women and their families are given false information by men and their families before the marriage. They are given false information about the ages of men, their marital state, their physical health, their economic situation, and even their characters. We have many clients at the centre who came to Canada and found out that the man they had married already had other wives and children. Some found out that their husbands had psychological or physical illnesses that they were not aware of.

The results of these situations are that many women face social isolation, economic difficulties, and verbal and/or physical abuse, and because of their lack of job skills and knowledge of their rights and the resources available to them, they are trapped in these situations.

Some women refuse to seek help, even if help is offered, because of cultural issues. Others may refuse to leave abusive situations because they know that they do not have the economic means to support themselves and their children. There is also a great gap in services available to them in their language. They cannot communicate their situation to social workers, lawyers, and the police in English and French, and are thus barred from those avenues of aid.

While the immigration spousal sponsorship program is used by many people to sponsor spouses whom they live with very happily, I know, through my work, that it can also be used to create marriages, the results of which are too many women and young girls living in unspeakably horrific conditions of mental and physical abuse and economic and social oppression. It is my great hope that the result of our discussions today will lead to progress in helping them reclaim their voices, their hopes and dreams, and their lives.

Thank you.

3:40 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Tilson

Thank you, Ms. Aref.

We have two more witnesses, and then, I expect, members of the committee will have questions for you and our two other guests. Thank you for your presentation.

I'm going to try it again, Mr. Mehdizadeh.

3:40 p.m.

Supt Shahin Mehdizadeh

Thank you.

3:40 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Tilson

Thank you for coming, sir. You have up to eight minutes as well.

3:40 p.m.

Supt Shahin Mehdizadeh

Thank you.

Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee, my name is Shahin Mehdizadeh. I was born in Iran and left that country during the revolution in the late seventies. I lived in India for five years before immigrating to Canada in 1984. I have been a member of the RCMP for over 25 years, serving in several communities in four provinces, performing my duties in many disciplines of policing.

Today, Mr. Chair, I do not speak to this committee on behalf of the RCMP. I speak as an immigrant and a Canadian citizen, and Mr. Chair, although I am not wearing my blue serge, I will provide testimony based on the experience and knowledge I have gathered through my years as a police officer.

My goal is to provide you with some of the efforts from the policing community, non-government organizations, and most important, our citizens in support of making this country more secure for female immigrants. I will also provide my observations on some gaps. This may assist the committee.

As an immigrant, I can advise that the first few years for anyone immigrating to Canada are the most challenging and risky years. New immigrants are exposed to an environment that might be somewhat foreign to them and they need to make adjustments in a short time to fit in. These adjustments can be much harder for some compared to others.

Inasmuch as the new immigrants experience a sense of joy and accomplishment, they are also filled with other feelings such as fear and uncertainty, which naturally add to their level of stress. In the case of female immigrants, due to potential gaps in their language and other skills, they may tend to hide and choose to stay only with their own cultural groups and family as that's their comfort zone. These women may also choose to accept mistreatment by their spouses as they feel they have no other choice.

Newcomers to this country go to great lengths to achieve this goal. Conditions in some regions of the world are such that immigrating to Canada, even if it means being mistreated, outweighs what some of these women had before. In some cases the notion of leaving their families is not supported by their own relatives and friends as it may bring shame to them. That's why at times the only support offered from their close relatives is to keep relationships together at all cost.

As the honourable members of this committee have heard, there have been many cases of homicide in Canada where the family's honour has been ruled as the motive behind those despicable acts of violence. The latest of these cases, the Shafia case, attracted extensive media attention. l took part in that investigation and supported the lead agency, Kingston Police Force.

This has been the saddest case l have ever had to work on. It opened my eyes to the gaps and the need to bring more cultural awareness to the police and other supporting agencies in Canada. Increased awareness could provide them with a better vantage point when faced with situations, and allow them to execute their duties more effectively. After all, everyone's common goal is to provide security and protection to all our citizens.

Following the trial I led an initiative whereby the RCMP, in partnership with the Department of Justice, developed online introductory training on honour-based violence and forced marriages. This training is in its final audit stage and will be made available in both official languages to all RCMP officers through the RCMP's internal web-based training. This course will also be made available to other police departments through the Canadian Police Knowledge Network.

I am also aware of the other efforts being taken to develop training, one being a similar type of training on honour-based violence and forced marriage at the Ontario Police College.

I am hoping that providing more awareness to the front-line police officers on this issue will provide them with the ability to recognize and assess risks to female immigrants more effectively when responding to situations of alleged family violence and forced marriage. More importantly, an understanding of these issues will provide them with the tools to activate support systems and keep the victims safe.

Many other government departments and agencies, both federal and provincial, such as status of women, immigration, and justice have been very active in bringing more awareness to their employees and others on the topic.

In regard to the other organizations, I can advise the committee of efforts by the Alberta crime prevention program to develop some training on honour-based violence and forced marriages for members of different support agencies, such as nurses, social services, and teachers. I am very excited about this initiative, and hope that once the training has been developed it can be shared with similar agencies in other provinces.

Awareness is the key to helping these victims, as such crimes are grossly unreported. In most cases, the only way to detect them is through having trained individuals looking through a wider lens and knowing how to communicate effectively with the victims. These organizations' roles are critical in increasing the overall safety of women in Canada, including our immigrants.

On the third front, I am aware of several influential women's groups in Canada who are holding information sessions and conferences to discuss this important topic and bring more awareness to community members. In my opinion, this is where the real positive change can come about, which can ultimately provide a safer environment for women in Canada and within our immigration system. Such efforts will have to be supported by our organization.

Ultimately, the goal is to prevent the crimes before they are committed, as by the time the police are called to respond, it may already be too late for the victims.

All of these efforts promote a common theme, and that is to have individuals who are victims of any sort of abuse know their rights, but more important, to know what to do when they are or feel they might be victimized in the future. More education to our newcomers in this area will be extremely useful. However, language barriers make it very difficult to provide necessary information to everyone.

This gap also makes it difficult for victims to step forward and ask for help. Of course, there are many other reasons for a victim to refuse to come forward, such as fear of family, shame, and financial dependency on the abuser. There may also be fear and/or lack of trust in authorities.

Different agencies continue their efforts to build more trusting relationships with immigrants. After all, that's what we do in Canada. The key is to continue tirelessly with these efforts and to ensure that we are there for the victims when they do reach out for help. That takes a lot of collaboration and teamwork between different agencies, and I stress the “s” in agencies, as one can't do it alone.

Over the years, organizations have become much better in this area. However, there is always room for improvement. The United Kingdom has been studying the topic of forced marriages for several years and has developed many useful processes and subject matter experts in many different organizations, to combat the issue of forced marriage and honour-based violence. A closer look at the efforts in the United Kingdom might be useful to see how we can adopt some of these measures here in Canada.

Mr. Chair, and honourable members of the committee, in conclusion, I would like to thank you for allowing me to participate in your committee's important study of strengthening the security of vulnerable female immigrants in Canada. I hope the information I've provided and the responses I may have to your questions will be of some assistance.

Thank you.

3:45 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Tilson

Thank you, sir, for your presentation. I know members of the committee will have some questions for you after our final witness. Thank you for coming as well.

Ms. Raza, last but not least, you may begin.

3:45 p.m.

President, Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow

Raheel Raza

Good afternoon. I thank this committee for the opportunity to speak on a very important issue, and I commend the Government of Canada for making it a priority to protect women and strengthen their rights.

As president of the Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow, and a lifelong activist for women's rights, I wish to focus on the South Asian community where many of these problems occur, and where I've had the most interaction with victims of polygamy, proxy marriages, and forced and underage marriages, all at a grassroots level.

Let me begin with forced marriages. You must all be aware of the report by the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario, which found that parents, siblings, extended family, grandparents, and religious leaders were all involved in pushing individuals into forced marriages. I will not repeat the statistics, because they have been documented, but I will share that this is a document that came alive for me when I met a young girl at a conference in Kingston a few months ago. When she saw my card, she took me aside, and she spoke to me in my language to tell me her story, which was shocking and sad.

She came here at 16, although her age was forged on her passport to show that she was 18. She was forced by her parents to marry a Canadian citizen, whom she had never met. This was done through a mediator who took a lot of money for this arrangement, promising her a wonderful life with a wonderful man, along with instant Canadian immigration. Once here, the sponsor, who turned out to be not so wonderful, kept forcing her family to send money to him, ostensibly for her upkeep. When they refused, because they had no more to give, he physically abused her and abandoned her, keeping all her papers. She told me that she was literally on the streets, with only the clothes on her back. She did not know where to go, what to do, or where to live.

Some kind neighbours took her in and helped her find her way. They helped her start some education and apply for new documentation, which, as you know—and she told me—is extremely hard. She is still in limbo, facing depression, isolation, and fear. Her complaint, to me, was that the system did not step up to help her, when she is actually the victim. If she had known about the legal system earlier, she would not have felt so powerless.

There are many other cases like hers, and I am here because I don't want to see this happen to a single person, ever again.

With regard to polygamy, the Canadian law regarding polygamy obviously needs to be revisited. In the case of the Muslim community—and I speak of that because I am from the Muslim community—religious leaders are licensed to perform a nikah, which is a Muslim marriage. But they're not obligated to check and see if the woman has been forced into that marriage, or whether polygamy is involved. So I believe there needs to be stronger checks and balances, as well as much more accountability by the religious leadership.

May I point out here that some religious leaders believe that they are justified, by aspects of their faith, to perform polygamous marriages, while violating Canadian law. Therefore, the impact of sharia laws must also be examined by looking at polygamy.

In terms of forced marriages, the question is: how are we tracking forced marriages? I refer to what was mentioned by Shahin, and bring your attention to the U.K., where forced marriage was such a huge challenge. The British government's Home Office has a forced marriage unit, FMU, which has tracked that more than 5,000 people from the U.K. are forced into marriage every year. Eighty-two per cent of the cases involve female victims, and 74% of the cases involve South Asians. Last year, in September, the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act was enforced, making forced marriages a criminal offence. There is also a helpline for women, and law enforcement agencies are trained to look for signs of abuse.

In Canada, we need such a law. We need a helpline and training for our officials, which I believe has just started.

I would also recommend that when potential spouses go to the Canadian consulates outside of Canada for their paperwork, before coming to Canada, they must be made aware of their legal rights. They should be given the contact of a specific helpline, or Canadian organization, that should oversee their progress in this country and track their safety, until such time as their paperwork is complete, or they're able to stand on their own feet.

Upon arrival they should be given orientation with the sponsor present so that both parties are aware of Canadian laws and the rights of individuals.

I stress here both parties, because I believe it's really important, in cases where the sponsor may be a Canadian man, that he should understand that if he's sponsoring a woman to come here, she may want to be educated, she may want to work, and his cultural upbringing or background should not get in the way of her achieving these things that she has the right to do.

Furthermore, I believe the sponsor should also be made to put aside some financial support for the spouse. None of this should be left to the family or the community, which are sometimes partners in crime. Those sponsors found abusing the system should face harsh penalities as a deterrent to potential fraudsters.

I support the idea that people coming to Canada should have language ability, because that is the only way that potential victims will be able to know their rights, and more importantly, to access them.

All of this being said, there is obviously a very fine line between fraud and genuine cases of spousal sponsorship. I don't want to be seen as coming between people in a marriage, but I would like to say that while the spousal sponsorship program is being tightened up, there should be a genuine effort not to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Thank you very much.

3:55 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Tilson

Thank you.

Those were three excellent presentations, and now my colleagues will have some questions of clarification regarding some of the issues you've raised.

Mr. Menegakis is first.

3:55 p.m.

Conservative

Costas Menegakis Conservative Richmond Hill, ON

Thank you, sir.

Thank you to all three of our witnesses for appearing before us today. I listened with great attention to your testimonies, and I find them to be very informative and very well thought out. So thank you for that.

Mr. Mehdizadeh, you mentioned in your presentation the words “honour-based killings” or “honour killings”, and those are very disturbing to all Canadians. Certainly the Shafia trial brought that idea dangerously close to home as we all know. That was something nobody expected would be of concern to Canadians, but we found out otherwise of course.

Could you elaborate a little bit on your experience in the force with training on honour-based killing? In your opinion, is there sufficient knowledge within police services across the country to look out for that specifically?

3:55 p.m.

Supt Shahin Mehdizadeh

I obviously followed the Shafia case. As I have talked to different police officers across the country—and believe me I have worked right across the country—throughout my years of service, I have found that there is a lack of cultural knowledge. Because Canada is such a multicultural country—there are 6.8 million immigrants in this country—it's practically impossible for police departments to actually build a perfect capacity to serve each and every community and its challenges overnight.

When I looked at the gaps, especially in relation to how the accused or the people who were committing the acts were trying to justify their actions based on family honour—which is a very despicable act but their justification for what they were doing—I felt that more education was needed. The training I spoke about is not to make people subject matter experts, because we have to walk before we start driving. It's introductory training to provide basic knowledge. The training is done online so it is available to everyone in a very simple fashion. From there we can make more strides towards developing more expertise among those specific individuals who actually have a keen interest, and we can build up that capacity within the police departments.

One good thing in Canada is that we have many police departments but they all work together, and we have really closed those gaps amongst police services. The Kingston trial was a perfect example in which we had many different agencies participating to assist Kingston police on that file. So as we build up more capacity in Canada—not just within the RCMP—I think we are going to see better results in being able to identify these kinds of cases and maybe actually get ahead of them before it's too late.

May 26th, 2014 / 4 p.m.

Conservative

Costas Menegakis Conservative Richmond Hill, ON

The main reason we decided to do this study is because we found that there was abuse in Canada's immigration system of women primarily. It does go the other way as well with men.

We found that it was very important to focus a specific study on this issue to ensure that we close those gaps where people can use the system so they can abuse a person. For example, somebody meets a lovely young lady from another country around the world—and I'm not going to mention a country—and brings her here with the condition of PR and they get married and move forward. One of the conditions of course is that she stays in that marriage and doesn't use the system to fly from the country. But that sort of almost mis-balances it in some situations as some people can abuse that and we use that as an abuse of the person they are bringing over. The person being brought over doesn't have an avenue—where do I go? I'm here because my husband brought me here and now he's abusing me. I need to go out there. I need some help.

I'm going to ask you this question. We thought that one of the ways we can reach people is to focus a little bit on those who come to Canada. We are focusing on those who are being abused but we want to focus on some of the women who came here and succeeded. I'm wondering if in your opinion, sir, you feel that these people who have come here, these women who have come primarily and thrived in our country, got jobs here, they integrated and raised their children with Canadian family values and good strong contributing Canadians, if you feel that they can be useful in a mentor capacity to women, to newcomers in Canada?

4 p.m.

Supt Shahin Mehdizadeh

Absolutely. I believe the mentorship program would be an excellent idea. I know that these abuses are taking place but a lot of women are actually coming to this country and making an extremely good life for themselves, really succeeding in life.

One thing I want to say about the abuse of our immigrant women coming into the country is that some of the challenges and issues are very similar to those of any other woman in Canada who is being abused by somebody, by their partner. The gap is that their situation is compounded by other things such as the cultural side, lack of education maybe, language skills, etc. So if there are mentors who can actually assist them and provide them with the right information and show them a way I believe that would be very helpful.