Justice committee  Thank you so much again for giving us this chance. I echo what I said earlier. I think it really does come down to training first responders and providing them with the tools, as mentioned, so that they can correctly identify, when they go into a home, and can see whether or not there is...even if they have a doubt, they can see the red flags, and then in accordance with that, can respond.

Justice committee  Yes, I do think so, if it is combined with the training necessary and the awareness. I think that's the part that ends up being missed. A lot of times when we have women come to us, they don't realize it until we tell them: this, this and this—it's abuse. With that awareness piece, I think it would definitely help women recognize it sooner, hopefully not get to the point where physical abuse is taking place, and hopefully get the help they need before that.

Justice committee  Thank you so much, Madam Chair and MP Garrison. I did want to clarify some issues with regard to how we can see whether coercive or controlling behaviour is taking place. We've seen it through a lot of our clients, who come to us having no access to finances, as the chief mentioned, no access to any means of communicating with friends, family or even resources, no access to phones, no access to computers, and no access to even being able to leave the home.

Justice committee  In addition to what was said, that's exactly what we have witnessed, too. We've seen a huge increase in the number of calls that we've received since the start of the pandemic—more than double the number of calls we normally get—but we haven't seen as many women come to us because of that fear of living in a communal space where they might be exposed to the virus themselves—or their children—or simply because they can't reach out to us.

Justice committee  We believe this bill can be incredibly helpful for our clientele, as many don't realize that coercive and controlling behaviour does qualify as abuse. Like Aisha, women who flee abuse often wait for things to get physically violent before they seek help. Even then, the burden still remains on them to prove that abuse did indeed take place.

Justice committee  Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for inviting us here today and for the work everyone is doing to ensure the safety of men, women and children across Canada. As the Nisa Homes national manager, and with my colleague Reena, who is a mental health promoter, we appreciate speaking here today in support of Bill C-247.