Status of Women committee  Can you repeat that? I'm sorry. I want to make sure I understand what you're saying.

Status of Women committee  Okay. I will write the answer.

Status of Women committee  Okay. Coercive control is a whole other issue that I would love to speak to you about. I'm also eager to hear about this recommendation from Quebec. I think there's a lot to learn.

Status of Women committee  In my initial remarks, I used the example of mandatory charging as an unintended legislative reform that has ended up harming the people we work with. I'm sure you've heard multiple stories. I used to be a defence counsel. I represented someone who used a toy that was characterized as a weapon.

Status of Women committee  The voices of—

Status of Women committee  We bring the voices of people with lived experience.

Status of Women committee  I want to say that we are on the same side. We are a 100% on the same side, and it is shameful that there is an epidemic of intimate partner violence in this country, and we all want to do something about it. I simply bring the voices of the criminalized women and gender-diverse people that I work with to these tables, because they're often forgotten and they are the most victimized vulnerable people in our community.

Status of Women committee  What comes to mind is this: If you don't have a house, if you don't have anywhere to go, is this electronic monitoring bracelet going to help you in any way?

Status of Women committee  I want to remind everyone, before I answer, that I come here bringing the voices of people who are often forgotten in these conversations, so—

Status of Women committee  Oh, my goodness. Okay. Well, we need social workers. We need universal basic income. We need robust mental health care. We need accessible counselling and legal, drug and alcohol services. The list goes on. I'll stop. I'm sorry.

Status of Women committee  I concur with everything that everyone else has said. Thank you.

Status of Women committee  It's very simple: It is among one of the criticisms that I have of this particular tool.

Status of Women committee  In my remarks, what I said was what we witness every time there is an attempt to address really critical issues in our society by utilizing carceral responses like dual or mandatory charging, or potentially the electronic monitoring bracelet, is how that is utilized, because we have bias in our system.

Status of Women committee  You would see, for example, that this could be utilized against the very vulnerable people we work with, the more susceptible people.

Status of Women committee  Right. That's what I'm worried about. Exactly. We looked at another bill, for example, that was looking at bail reform recently. It looked at the reverse onus provision for people who had a discharge for intimate partner violence. We see women and gender diverse people whom we work with often going to domestic violence courts and receiving a discharge because they are told, “This is going to let you get back to your family faster, because you are the main caregiver.”