Status of Women Committee on Nov. 20th, 2014

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Welcome to the 36th meeting of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. Today is a great day for us because we are starting a new study as a result of a motion passed in the House of Commons.

Together, we are going to examine promising practices to prevent violence against women. In order to prevent violence against women, we want to include both the practices that are already in place and promising new ones. The title, in fact, allows us not only to examine all the practices in place, but also those that could be put in place in the future.

Today, we are pleased to welcome Linda Savoie, from Status of Women Canada. She is the Senior Director General, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate.

From the Public Health Agency of Canada, we welcome Kimberly Elmslie, Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Branch.

From the Department of Justice, we welcome Pamela Arnott, Director and Senior Counsel, Policy Centre for Victim Issues, and Gillian Blackwell, Senior Counsel and Coordinator, Children's Law and Family Violence Policy Unit.

From Statistics Canada, we have with us Kathy AuCoin, Chief, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, and Cathy Connors, Director, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.

Thanks to all of you for coming here and for preparing the documents that all the committee members already have in their possession. The analysts have not prepared briefing notes, given that we have people from the departments with us. The same will be true for the next meeting. For the third meeting, the analysts will prepare documentation to assist committee members.

I extend an official welcome to John Barlow, who today becomes a member of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. Welcome and thank you for being here.

[Voices]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

We are very pleased to have you as one of us.

Each presentation will last 10 minutes and will be followed by a period for questions.

I would like to start with Ms. Savoie, from Status of Women Canada. Ms. Savoie, you have 10 minutes.

[Linda Savoie, Senior Director General, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate, Status of Women Canada]

Madam Chair, with your permission, I would like to suggest that we start with the officials from Statistics Canada so that we have all the data that provide information on our different areas of activity. Would that be acceptable to you?

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

I think that the members are in agreement.

So, let us start with the Statistics Canada officials. They have 10 minutes.

Ms. Savoie, I am going to follow the agenda that the clerk has so nicely prepared for me but that I had not yet seen. Ms. Connors, the floor is yours.

[Cathy Connors, Director, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada]

Thank you for the opportunity to present to the committee on the issue of violence against women in Canada.

In this presentation we use two complementary sources of national data on victimization. The first is administrative data that are collected from police services across the country and include information on all criminals code offences that are reported to and substantiated by the police. The second source is self-reported data that are collected from Canadians age 15 years and older through the 2009 general social survey on victimization. This survey provides contextual information on victimization in Canada and highlights that many crimes are not reported to the police.

This presentation contains the most recent Statistics Canada data on violence against women in Canada with the important caveat that these data have limitations. All data sources are clearly indicated on the slides, as are any pertinent notes.

My colleague, Kathy AuCoin, is here to help answer any questions.

If you would please turn to the next slide in the deck, first we'll look at police-reported violence against women. Police-reported surveys provide an indicator of the extent and nature of all Criminal Code offences that come to the attention of the police.

Slide 3 shows the prevalence of violent incidents reported to police in Canada in 2013. We see that there were more than 300, 000 victims of violent crimes. Slightly more than half of these victims were women 15 years of age and older. The rate of violent victimization for women was 1,090 female victims for every 100,000 women in the population, slightly higher than the rate for men.

Slide 4 shows the types of violence that were most frequently reported to police in 2013. Regardless of sex, the most frequently occurring forms of violence experienced by both men and women were physical assault and uttering threats. Six in ten female victims 15 years and over experienced a physical assault. A similar proportion of male victims experienced this type of violence. About 13% of female victims and 16% of male victims were victims of uttering threats.

There are some notable differences between men and women in the types of violence they reported to police. Women were almost 10 times more likely to be sexually victimized and they were three times as likely as men to be a victim of criminal harassment. Women were twice as likely to be the victim of indecent or harassing phone calls. On the other hand, men were twice as likely to be the victim of robbery.

On slide 5, we look at some of the most severe forms of violence and how they've changed over time. From this table we can see that for the most severe forms of violence, namely homicide and attempted murder, there's been a decline in rates over the five-year period for both male and female victims. Similarly, for the most frequently occurring form of violence, that is physical assault, we also see a decline in the rate over this time period. However, for sexual assault we do not see a similar decline in rates over time.

On slide 6, we look at the relationship between the victim and the accused. For the most part, female victims of violence knew their perpetrator and most, eight in ten, were victimized by a male.

Intimate partner violence, which includes both spousal and dating relationships, was three times higher for women than for men, with more than four in ten women being victimized by an intimate partner. Men are less likely than women to be victimized by an intimate partner and are more likely to be victimized by a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.

On slide 7 we see that consistent with patterns for violence overall, being young was a risk factor for all forms of police-reported violence against women, both within and outside the context of intimate partner relationships.

In 2013, females aged 15 to 24 generally experienced the highest rates of violence, with rates subsequently decreasing with age.

Slide 8 shows the rates of police-reported sexual victimization by age and sex of child and youth victims. In 2013, there were more than 14,000 victims of a sexual offence who were under 18. More than 80% of these young victims were female. Girls of all ages were more likely than boys to be the victim of a sexual offence, particularly during the teenage years. That being said, it's important to acknowledge that incidents of sexual violence often go unreported to police.

Turning now to slide 9, self-reported data from the general social survey complement police-reported data by providing information on self-reported incidents of victimization that are both reported and unreported to police. The survey captures eight offence types, three of which are violent offences: physical assault, sexual assault, and robbery.

The following slides show provincial results from the 2009 survey.

The first is slide 10. Looking at self-reported data, we find that most victims of violence choose not to report the incident to police. This is true for both spousal and non-spousal forms of violence. In 2009, among incidents of both spousal and non-spousal violence, more than two-thirds of female victims did not report the incident to police. Men were less likely than women to report the incident to police. Rates of reporting to police differ, depending on the type of crime. Among violent crimes, robberies were the most likely to be reported to police, followed by physical assaults. However, the majority of sexual assaults were not reported to the police.

Slide 11 shows the reasons given by victims for not reporting spousal violence to police. The most common reasons women gave for not reporting spousal violence to police were that they dealt with it in another way and that it was a personal matter. As you can see, women and men sometimes differ in their reasons for not reporting spousal violence. Women were six times more likely than men to say that the incident was not reported out of fear of their spouses. Women were almost twice as likely as men to say that they didn't want anyone to find out about the incident. While not shown in this chart, for non-spousal violence similar reasons were given for not reporting to police.

Looking at slide 12, victimization data suggest that certain factors are associated with the risk of violent victimization for women even when other factors are taken into account. For spousal violence, these factors include being young, having an activity limitation, and being emotionally or financially abused by a spouse. Women most at risk for non-spousal violence included those who were young, single, participated in many evening activities, used drugs, identified as an aboriginal person, or lived in a community with such social disorders as vandalism, noisy neighbours, and people using or dealing drugs.

On slide 13 we examine further the issue of spousal violence. When we refer to spousal relationships, we include both legally married and common-law relationships, both current and former. In 2009, 6% of women currently or previously living in a spousal relationship experienced spousal violence in the previous five years, similar to the rates reported for men. On this slide we see that women are more likely than men to experience the most severe forms of spousal violence. While not shown, just under half of female victims of spousal violence reported that the violence had occurred on more than one occasion in the previous five years.

Looking at slide 14, most women, eight in ten, who had been victimized by their spouse told family, friends, or another person about the incident, compared with only 56% of men. As well, 38% of women who had been victimized by their spouse used a social service. That's two times higher than for male victims. The most common services used by female victims of spousal violence were counsellors or psychologists, crisis centres or lines, and community or family centres.

Slide 15 presents information from the transition home survey. The data in this slide refer to the snapshot day of April 18, 2012. On that day, there were over 8,000 women and children staying in shelters across Canada for reasons of abuse and otherwise. Of these residents, 56% were women and 44% were their dependent children. Almost three-quarters of these women were living in shelters primarily because of abuse. Approximately one-third of women living in a shelter on snapshot day had stayed at that shelter before. In 2010 there were 593 shelters servicing the needs of abused women in Canada, which represents an increase of 17% since 2000.

I'll now turn to slide 16. The 2014 general social survey introduced new questions on dating violence, and expanded the set of questions on physical and sexual victimization in childhood and children witnessing spousal violence. It also added a new question on sexual violence to capture those incidents in which the person was not able to consent to sexual activity because of being drugged, intoxicated, manipulated, or forced in ways other than physical.

This survey is currently in collection, and the data are expected to be available in the fall of 2015.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much.

The floor now goes to Ms. Savoie.

You have 10 minutes for your presentation.

[Linda Savoie]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I wish to first thank the committee for the opportunity to appear here today. We truly welcome your committee's study of best practices in education programs, social programs, and policies that can prevent violence against women in Canada.

It's especially timely that the committee launches this important study as Canada prepares to mark the 16 days of activism against gender violence from November 25 to December 10. This includes, as you all know, December 6, Canada's National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. This year will mark the 25th anniversary of the tragedy at l'École Polytechnique de Montréal, where 14 young women lost their lives.

Each year, commemorative events such as the 16 days of activism, and others such as the International Day of the Girl, which took place on October 11, provide us with the opportunity to raise awareness among Canadians of ways to reduce and prevent violence against women and girls.

These commemorative dates are part of the comprehensive approach that Status of Women Canada takes to promoting gender equality between men and women. We do this by addressing three distinct but interconnected priorities: first, ending violence against women and girls; second, increasing women's economic security and prosperity; third, encouraging increased representation of women in leadership and decision-making roles.

Through this approach, reducing and preventing violence against women and girls is a key building block for success in other aspects of their lives.

In Canada, addressing violence against women and girls is a responsibility that is shared quite widely. This includes a number of federal departments and agencies, some with representatives here with me today, other levels of government, and many organizations at the national, regional and local level. I hope that I can talk you into wanting to hear from a number of them.

The approach of the Women's Program at Status of Women Canada is to partner with groups and organizations across the country that in turn engage local communities in reducing and preventing violence against women and girls.

This includes projects to end violence against women and girls in rural and remote communities, violence committed in the name of so-called “honour”, and working to prevent the trafficking of women and girls. We are also helping communities engage youth in preventing or eliminating cyberviolence and sexual violence against young women and girls.

And while the Women's Program does not fund projects directly with schools, the organizations we partner with provide a variety of learning opportunities in the community, which can include schools. I will talk to you about this again later.

For example, Status of Women Canada is funding the white ribbon campaign to deliver the project Huddle Up and Make the Call. Those of you who are football fans may recognize this. It is done in partnership with the Toronto Argonauts Football Club. The project utilizes the power of student-led initiatives and athlete testimonials to address gender-based violence in high schools in the greater Toronto area. It promotes and supports equitable, healthy relationships and safe environments for all students, and it inspires students to engage their peers and their communities in ending all forms of violence against women and girls.

Another example is our support to the Canadian Red Cross and Respect Group Inc., which are working together on a project to prevent relationship violence among Canadian teens. As part of this project, an online educational workshop is being created to raise awareness about relationship violence and to promote healthy relationships among young Canadians aged 14 to 18 years.

These are just sample projects. We also undertake calls for proposals that reflect our very deliberate efforts to invite stakeholders to come forward with new ideas that address different forms of violence.

For example, a recent call for proposals was aiming to engage communities to end violence against women and girls. It included themes of engaging men and boys in ending violence against women and girls. The projects that are being supported through this call are developing and strengthening the skills of men and boys, working in partnership of course with women and girls to identify and respond to the issues of gender-based violence in their communities.

We also have a number of other projects underway. Their specific aim is to engage young people in preventing violence against women on university and college campuses. These projects are addressing institutional barriers and other factors, such as institutional policies and programs, social dynamics, security provisions and physical safety issues, that limit the efforts of campus communities to address the issue of violence against their young female students.

These projects are building partnerships in order to respond to the specific issues of gender violence on campus, and to meet the needs of their female students. At Status of Women Canada, we feel that the best way to define local needs and to develop the strategies, tools and resources to meet those needs is to work with skilled partners. Each of the initiatives I have spoken about today reflects that approach. I hope that I will have the opportunity to tell you about other initiatives in the next hour.

We share the results of these projects widely through our website and we hold knowledge-sharing events to ensure that best practices and sustainable solutions can be encouraged and replicated across the country.

I hope this information I've provided will be useful for your committee's study. I would be very pleased to answer any questions you may have.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much, Ms. Savoie.

We now move to Ms. Elmslie, from the Public Health Agency of Canada.

[Kimberly Elmslie, Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Thank you for the invitation to address this Committee about best practices in education programs, social programs and policies in Canada that prevent violence against women.

Violence against women is a significant public health issue affecting Canadians, their families and communities. It can have significant and long-term impacts on physical and mental health.

Women abused by their intimate partners experience high rates of injury, chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance use problems. Children who have been abused or exposed to abuse in the family have a higher risk of developing chronic illnesses later in life, such as heart disease and mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, and self-harm.

Boys raised in violent homes are at increased risk of becoming perpetrators of violent behaviour when they reach adulthood, thus continuing the cycle of violence. Girls exposed to violence in the home are at increased risk of being victimized as adults.

The Public Health Agency of Canada focuses on preventing and addressing family violence. This is defined as any form of abuse, mistreatment, neglect that a child or adult experiences from a family member, or from someone with whom they have an intimate relationship. As you know, family violence takes many forms, and includes abusive behaviours that are physical, sexual, emotional, and financial in nature.

Violence against women, the focus of your study, deserves particular attention within this context. As our colleagues from Statistics Canada have indicated, violence accounts for one-quarter of police-reported violent crime in Canada. Almost 70% of family violence victims are women and girls, and 80% of intimate partner violence is against women.

Of course we know that certain populations in Canada are more affected. Aboriginal women experience spousal violence at a rate nearly three times higher than non-aboriginal women.

Female victims of spousal violence are twice as likely as male victims to be physically injured, three times as likely to experience disruptions to their daily lives, and almost seven times as likely to fear for their life.

At the Public Health Agency of Canada we address family violence from a public health perspective, meaning that we put a focus on supporting prevention at the community level and working with our partners to address those conditions that put women and families at risk of being in violent situations.

Under the leadership of the Minister of Health, the agency has engaged with national health professional organizations to discuss their particular role in responding to family violence. Health professionals recognize very specifically the importance of this issue. They are committed to working with us to ensure the health sector is well-equipped to address this problem.

Within the agency we are working in four areas to prevent and address family violence. We have the honour of coordinating the federal family violence initiative. We conduct surveillance and research. We compile and share information to help health professionals and community groups effectively respond to violence. We support community-based children's programs that promote healthy relationships and positive parenting.

Let me expand for a moment on each of those four areas.

The first area of agency action is our leadership and coordination of the family violence initiative, working with 15 federal departments collaborating to address family violence in Canada, including my colleagues here today. This approach ensures that violence is addressed from multiple perspectives, including promoting healthy relationships and empowering women and girls, supporting victims, ensuring that the justice response is appropriate to deter offenders and is sensitive to the needs of victims, and tracking and analyzing data on the nature and extent of family violence. This initiative is our federal forum to ensure that these activities complement each other.

The second area of agency action is research and surveillance. The agency contributes an important piece of the picture of family violence in Canada by conducting national surveillance on child abuse and neglect, including children's exposure to intimate partner violence.

We support research into effective practices to prevent violence against women and their children. Currently we are supporting two multi-year research projects to test the effectiveness of the nurse-family partnership, a specific program to prevent violence from happening in the homes of at-risk young mothers.

We also work to share effective approaches for family violence prevention. We have supported a systematic review of violence prevention programs from around the world to identify those that show evidence of effectiveness. We share information about these programs through the Canadian best practices portal. More than 80 violence prevention interventions are currently posted on the portal, helping professionals and organizations to learn and to implement what works.

The third area of agency action is sharing information across sectors with health professionals and communities. Through the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence, the agency plays the role of knowledge broker, providing resources on family violence to help professionals, community groups, academia, and the general public.

Another important contribution to family violence prevention is our community-based maternal and child health programs. We recognize the crucial importance of creating positive environments at the earliest age. Positive parenting, parental involvement, attachment, resilience, and healthy relationships are all factors that are associated with reduced risk of violence later in life.

That's why we invest more than $112 million each year in our children's programs. These programs reach 250,000 at-risk children and their parents in more than 3,000 communities across the country. Many women served by our programs have had exposure to violence in the past, and 77 of our projects are currently delivered out of shelters for women and children leaving abusive situations. These programs serve as important points of access whereby women living in situations of abuse and violence may be referred to more specialized intervention services.

Earlier this year, we invested a $3-million fund in projects to train community workers to deliver parenting programs that build coping skills and promote the mental health of mothers to address the needs of survivors of violence in a safe and sensitive way.

I'd like to point out to members of the committee that there is growing international recognition of violence as a health issue. Canada sponsored and contributed to a historic resolution at the World Health Organization's World Health Assembly last spring on the specific role of the health sector in addressing violence against women and children.

I had the opportunity to speak about this issue recently at the Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organization. There is a strong interest internationally and in the Americas region and strong momentum to address this issue as a global health problem.

In closing, by continuing to bring attention to the issue, as this Committee is doing, we can continue to make progress towards achieving a world where violence against women is not acceptable.

Thank you for your attention. I would be pleased to answer any questions you have.

Hot off the press, members of the committee, I would like to let you know that The Lancet, one of the world's pre-eminent journals, will release online tomorrow a series on violence against women and girls. This I'm sure will provide the members of this committee with some very important evidence from the research of a very esteemed group of Canadian and international researchers.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much. That is very timely. Thank you for providing us with that information.

I now invite Ms. Arnott, from the Department of Justice, to make her presentation. Ms. Arnott, you have 10 minutes.

[Pamela Arnott, Director and Senior Counsel, Policy Centre for Victim Issues, Department of Justice]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

My name is Pamela Arnott. I work at the Department of Justice, more specifically at the Policy Centre for Victim Issues. I am accompanied by my colleague, Gillian Blackwell, who works in the area of family violence.

Gillian will speak about the Department of Justice's contribution to the family violence initiative. I would like to speak to you about the federal victims strategy, and particularly about two components within that strategy.

The federal victims strategy is led by the Department of Justice. Its objective is to give victims a more effective voice in the criminal justice and federal corrections system. While the strategy focuses on all forms of victimization, there are a number of components of its work that are particularly relevant to violence against women. I'd like to speak to you about the work we do with the victims fund as well as the work we do in criminal law reform.

The Victims Fund currently has $11.6 million per year available to fund projects and activities. Although prevention is not one of the objectives of the fund, its provisions can allow projects to be funded that establish exemplary practices in service delivery.

I would like to spend a few minutes on two areas of funding that are particularly relevant in fighting violence against women.

The first group of projects that I would bring to the committee's attention is the work we've done for child advocacy centres. Since 2010, more than $10 million has been made available for child advocacy centres, and we have financed more than 20 locations across Canada.

Child advocacy centres reduce the trauma that child victims and their families may experience in dealing with the criminal justice system, often including children who have witnessed or experienced violence, including violence against women or against themselves.

Second, the victims fund has been instrumental in advancing culturally sensitive services for aboriginal victims of crime and for families of missing and murdered aboriginal women. Early reports from those projects indicate that the projects have been quite successful in advancing dedicated services for families of missing and murdered aboriginal women.

In the area of criminal law, Canadian legislation provides for basic procedural or sentencing measures that together provide an overall response to violence against women, girls or other vulnerable groups.

Testimonial aids and other protection tools facilitate meaningful participation by women and girls who have suffered acts of violence. These include the fact that, in sentencing, courts are required to deal more severely with offences in which there is evidence that the crimes were motivated by age or gender or when the offence involves a breach of trust or the abuse of someone in a vulnerable situation.

The Government of Canada has pursued a robust criminal law agenda in the past few years that strengthens the criminal law's response to all forms of violence, including violence against women and girls. Some of its initiatives include increasing penalties for sexual offences committed against children—this was done in Bill C-10 in 2010—targeting the exploitation inherent in prostitution in 2014, and strengthening responses to child sexual abuse in the Protecting Victims From Sex Offenders Act in 2012.

More recently, Bill C-32, the victims bill of rights act, proposes rights for victims of crime, many of which will benefit women and girls who have been victims of violence. The bill proposes to give victims several rights, including the right to have their security and privacy considered, the right to be protected from intimidation and retaliation, the right to request the protection of their identity if they are a complainant or a witness in proceedings, and the right to request testimonial aids.

Related amendments to the Criminal Code support these rights. For example, amendments to the administration of rights to records held by third parties would require that a court consider the plaintiff's right to security of the person when determining whether it is appropriate to produce or examine a file. Testimonial aids should be more easily accessible to vulnerable victims and the security of the victims should be considered when making parole orders.

I will ask my colleague Gillian to continue the presentation.

[Gillian Blackell, Senior Counsel and Coordinator, Children's Law and Family Violence Policy Unit, Department of Justice]

Thank you, Pamela

Thank you for inviting us to appear today.

I would like to talk to you about the justice component of the family violence initiative. The initiative has several components, including legal policy, research, professional training, public awareness and project funding.

Most of our work has to do with violence against women.

The justice family violence initiative, or FVI, supports policy development aimed at strengthening legal frameworks.

The “justice” component also funds various research projects, including a revolutionary report on the economic repercussions of domestic violence in Canada. Using data from Statistics Canada, the report estimates that the cost of domestic violence rose to $7.4 billion in 2009, or $220 per person.

This study is available on the Justice Canada website.

Justice Canada also funded a report by the Aboriginal Research Institute entitled “Compendium of Promising Practices to Reduce Violence and Increase Safety of Aboriginal Women in Canada”, which provides key information on promising practices that respond to issues that communities face with respect to reducing violence and improving safety for aboriginal women and girls.

We are also working with our governmental partner and our non-governmental partners to implement projects designed to prevent and reduce family violence. For example, in 2012, we released our document entitled A Handbook for Police and Crown Prosecutors on Criminal Harassment. The offence of criminal harassment was created in 1993 to respond directly to the problem of violence against women, especially in intimate relationships.

We also co-chair with our colleagues from Status of Women Canada an interdepartmental working group on early and forced marriage and honour-based violence as well as female genital mutilation and cutting. This is a subset of family violence. Since 2009 we have held seven sector-specific workshops with police, crown prosecutors, child protection officials, shelter workers, front-line community service providers, and academics on preventing and responding to these forms of gender-based family violence.

As part of the family violence initiative, Justice Canada has produced a series of public legal, education, and information materials that help raise awareness of the legal frameworks to respond to family violence. For example, the multilingual “Abuse is Wrong in Any Language” brochure is used by newcomer services across Canada and includes information about gender equality in Canada. This was recently updated and is available in 12 languages. I have some samples here. Similarly, “Abuse is Wrong in Any Culture” is specifically addressed to Inuit women and girls who experience violence in their relationships or in their families and is available in five languages.

Finally, Justice Canada's family violence initiative supports non-governmental organizations and other levels of government through funding of more than half a million dollars annually for projects to improve the justice system's response to family violence, including violence against women. Similarly, at Status of Women Canada we hold calls for proposals. The most recent one, last year, was on forced marriage.

In conclusion the “justice” component of the family violence initiative continues to play a crucial role in supporting a range of measures designed to prevent violence against women in Canada.

We will be pleased to answer your questions.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much.

We will now move to questions.

Mrs. Truppe, the floor is yours. You have seven minutes.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

I'd like to welcome everyone. Thank you for coming today.

It's the beginning of our new study. We're really looking for promising practices, as we said, or best practices, so we really appreciate some of the information you've given us.

I'd like to start with Kimberly. You had a wealth of information that you were giving. One thing you touched on was, I think you said, a best practices portal. I think you said there were 80 best practices there.

Could you tell us a bit more about that? This might be something we'd like to include if you have best practices there already.

[Kimberly Elmslie]

Yes, absolutely. The Canadian Best Practices Portal is a mechanism we use at the Public Health Agency of Canada to fulfill our mandate in sharing what we know about the evidence on best practices. We receive submissions from organizations both nationally and internationally to have their programs reviewed as a best practice. They're put through a rigorous methodology, and at the end of that process we determine whether or not they can be designated as a best practice.

One of the key criteria is that a fulsome evaluation be done of the intervention, because as you will well know, oftentimes organizations are finding it difficult to determine which programs are most likely to be effective. Once they start to implement programs, even if they're not effective, it's sometimes hard for them to stop.

What we're trying to do is, up front, give organizations evidence-based practices that they can look at, adapt, and go to the research community to talk about further as to how they apply in their context. Through that process, we have programs that cover a wide range of violence prevention practices that have been determined through a rigorous process to be effective.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

How does one know about this portal in order to give you the information to evaluate and make it number 81 on there?

[Kimberly Elmslie]

Through the public health community, we make the portal well known through that network. We rely on our public health colleagues to spread the word beyond to others. We also interact with academic institutions. They're almost always involved in some way in the evaluation of these programs. They also are aware of the Canadian Best Practices Portal.

We're always looking for new ways to bring greater visibility to this work. We are right now in the process of evaluating the portal and we will, through that process, find better and more effective ways, hopefully using social media, to reach out further and ensure that those who need to know about these interventions know.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

That's a great idea. Thank you.

You probably don't remember everything that's on there, but is there anything that stands out as a best practice, something that you think was just a great idea?

[Kimberly Elmslie]

Let me tell you about one of our children's programs that is offered in Toronto. It is called Connections. The program in Toronto that runs this is called Breaking the Cycle. Under that program they have put in place opportunity for women experiencing violence to receive services and counselling and to come to a safe place to discuss their issues and get the support they need, and also to get the referrals in the community to sustain support that will help them break the cycle of violence and hopefully not be re-victimized.

That's one example. There are many. I know that as you do the study you're going to be very impressed as you look across the country by the number of dedicated community organizations that are leveraging funding and expertise to make a difference in violence against women and children.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Great. Thank you.

I think you also said that maternal child health programs are funded with $112 million per year and reach 250,000 at-risk...is it families?

[Kimberly Elmslie]

It's families, yes.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Is there a good program or something you'd like to share in regard to this particular initiative?

[Kimberly Elmslie]

I'd like to take a look at that, because I want to give you the best programs we have in terms of relevance to what you're doing in this study. If you don't mind, I'll take that back—

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

No, that's fine.