Status of Women Committee on Dec. 4th, 2014

[Lynn Ward]

I believe there is. It's still in its early stages, but we know it is working. In terms of safety, how do children keep themselves safe?

Access to the Internet is huge. Children are accessing the Internet. They're on chat lines, Facebook, Instagram, and so on. We're intertwining teaching them how to be safe when they're accessing the World Wide Web.

Also, it is about their personal safety. They're no longer in the family unit. They're going to visitations, so to speak, to see their father. We're giving them the tools on how they can be safe when they're visiting with dad because sometimes issues come up. For example, they could be asked where they are living and what they're doing, and the child should be self-confident and empowered to be strong in their response.

Another is still in its infancy, and that is healthy relationships. That can start at a young age, at school: what does a healthy relationship look like?

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Okay.

Sharlene, thank you.

[Sharlene Tygesen]

There are some different things we're doing. There's a project we started with child protection agencies a couple of years ago as a pilot that looks as though it's going to.... Again, that's going to be based on whether or not there's funding available to do it. We took VAW shelter workers. A couple of shelters participated.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

It's very interesting, but we're running out of time.

Continue.

[Sharlene Tygesen]

We put workers from the violence against women shelters into the CAS offices, working with their DV team but going out on the very first call with the CAS child protection workers. They identify that they are a violence against women worker. For all intents and purposes, we have found this to be wonderful—if I can use the words “wonderful” and “child protection” in the same sentence. That partnership and that collaboration have really helped the woman and helped support her and her kids during the process of an investigation. It provides child protection and it provides the mother with some other options around her safety, such as whether she needs to go into a shelter or whether the father is going to go into a Caring Dads program.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Barlow, you have the floor.

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Can the third witness not answer?

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Sorry, Mrs. Crockatt. You know I've been very.... But that's good.

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Could you send us in something?

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

If you have anything you would like to add, you're always welcome to send it to the clerk and then we can distribute it to members.

Mr. Barlow, go ahead for five minutes, please.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

Thank you.

Lise, for my first minute, would you mind answering Ms. Crockatt's question, now that we have some time?

[Lise Martin]

I will. I'm not sure what you'll think of my response, because I feel—

[John Barlow, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

I think all the responses are good.

[Lise Martin]

Well, I think we have to talk about the root cause of violence against women. Basically, that's men exercising power over women, whether it's intimate partners, colleagues, or strangers on the street. Also, it's about inequality, and if we're going to really address that, basically men have to give up some power. That's neither comfortable nor easy, but I think, in terms of our long-range plan, that definitely has to be integral to it.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

That was perfect timing for my question. That's good.

If you don't mind staying on that theme, Sharlene, you mentioned in your testimony that you're doing some programs to engage men.

To all three of you—and this is from my perspective—I think our focus here, as some of my colleagues have said, is on how to break the cycle. It's one thing to address it today, but we need to address this for future generations. I think a big part of that, obviously, is men and boys.

Sharlene, you kind of mentioned that you do have some programs that are educating men. Can you talk about that a little?

[Sharlene Tygesen]

Actually, no. I said that we're at a place now where we're ready, and I think the landscape is changing in terms of doing work with men and engaging them in the work we do. We have not moved on doing that, other than in the schools, obviously, through working with young boys on prevention.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

If you don't mind staying on that theme, then, if you say you're ready to take that on or move to that level, what would you see as that step? What can we do to look at the male side, and how do we educate men and boys? I agree with you. I think the fact that we are having this discussion today.... But we see it in the media every day. What would you see as an approach we can take in educating? I would ask all three of you.

[Sharlene Tygesen]

I think the biggest thing would be to suggest that stuff be implemented to help men hold other men accountable so that they take some responsibility in addressing male violence with men. That's kind of what I'm thinking in terms of that stuff. I think there's a lot we can be doing, but right now I feel that there's a readiness within the sector to engage men in a very different way, a very hands-on way.

I don't want to take up a lot of time, because clearly I keep doing that. So I will let them go ahead.

[Lise Martin]

There definitely is agreement that we need to engage men and boys. However, violence against women is still very much a reality for far too many women, and the problem more recently has been that the pie has not been expanded. A lot of resources are going to engaging men and boys, but a lot of those resources are taken out of that same pie that was to provide services for the women. We need to enlarge the pie, I think, to bring in.... Again, as I said, to me it's really a societal project, and we have to put that importance on it. We have to say this is something we want to make a difference on.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

Lynn, did you have anything?

[Lynn Ward]

÷I do. I can share something with you that we are actively in the process of. For example, we have men on our board of directors, and part of our practice in this upcoming year is having a speaker's bureau and training this board of directors to go out there and engage them in public speaking when we're asked to speak about our services and support. Included in part of that speaker's bureau we will make sure to include Bill 168, which is in line with the law on harassment in the workplace.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

Toronto and the B.C. Lions, the two CFL football teams, both have programs that they're working on, where the football players go and speak to boys in school to talk about violence against women. Also, Calgary has a very successful speaker series called Magnificent Men!, where we have some very prominent men from across Canada who speak about violence against women, but also violence against children.

I think this is a step in the right direction. We're having prominent people talk about these issues and we're bringing it out from the shadows.

[Lynn Ward]

I believe that engaging men to be part of this process will—

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you.

Thank very much, Monsieur Barlow.

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Madam Chair, a point of order here. I think when we have a witness who's answering the question and she is in the middle of a sentence she should be allowed to finish her sentence. She was saying engaging men and boys—