Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I agree entirely. However, I would like to add one thing. I'll switch to English, if you will excuse me. The services and service providers should be culturally sensitive and it's better if you have someone who speaks their language or is from the same community. But that

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's an interesting case, because she had internalized the violence, and she was not reporting it. She was talking to her doctor on the phone when her husband started abusing her, and the doctor heard her and sent the social workers. They said that they believed there was abuse g

Citizenship and Immigration committee  She had no idea of the rights that she had or the status. She didn't have her passport. It was with her in-laws. So she had no idea what would happen, and they were always threatening her.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We don't have a number, but I said that we have a network of about 340 member groups that work across Canada. About two-thirds of them are working with immigrant or racialized communities.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would strongly agree to that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think that 16 is too young an age to get married in any case, and it's a young age for sponsorship. I think universally, across the world, 16 should be too young to get married.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We haven't really seen any cases of forced marriage in my work with Girls Action Foundation. We do see girls who mention in the programs that their parents are the ones who would find a spouse for them from their country of origin. We do have such things, but there hasn't been an

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think there's a—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Forced would be against a person's will. Often girls growing up in immigrant families grow up with the idea that their families will choose a spouse for them, and it's something that's quite natural to them that they might not be opposed to. It depends. Usually a family does want

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Personally, I have. I had a friend who went through that situation. She came in through an arranged marriage, not a forced marriage. She had never met her husband before, but she had agreed with her family to get into this marriage and come to Canada. When she came here, she went

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I agree with that, and add that such a condition would not prevent violence.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Definitely, I would agree with that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Coming from a human rights and social justice background, I would be against such a test.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Are you asking me?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm not equipped with a legal background. I'm not a lawyer. I am working for an NGO that supports girls and young women's empowerment, but I can see there could be problems with proxy marriages. I have seen that there are cases which are totally valid, but again, there is a possi