I don't think so.
Evidence of meeting #47 for Health in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was sex.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #47 for Health in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was sex.
A recording is available from Parliament.
March 23rd, 2017 / 12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to all witnesses.
My question is to Professor Gahagan.
As you know, education and curriculum decisions are made by the provinces. In your experience, what is the public health role, specifically for the government to play—I know you addressed the GBA policy—in terms of the awareness? What do you think are the specifics that the federal government should do on awareness or any other policies?
12:50 p.m.
Professor, Interim Director, Assistant Dean, Faculty of Health Professions, Dalhousie University, As an Individual
Thank you. That's a really important question.
As I alluded to in my opening comments, I think we need to look at what kind of sexual health education is being offered, not just on paper—the approved curriculum—but how it gets enacted in the classroom. We know, for example, that there are instances where particular individuals who are tasked with teaching a component of sexual health education might morally or otherwise feel opposed to teaching, for example, condom use. We know the variability from coast to coast is quite striking.
It's actually looking at how the curriculum decisions are being made at the provincial level and maybe mirroring that against a federal standard. If the federal standard is that all kids by Grade X should know about safer sex, including the use of condoms, I think that's a place to start. If I'm not mistaken, there has not been a whole lot of evaluation in terms of what's actually happening in the classroom relative to changing attitudes, behaviours, and beliefs of youth.
Unless we get at those kinds of questions, I'm afraid we're going to keep having this debate in perpetuity. I think we need to get some concrete actions in looking at how well our sexual health curriculum is serving the needs of youth and young adults in Canada.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
Also, do you want to give a tip to the parents as well, for the young kids?
12:50 p.m.
Professor, Interim Director, Assistant Dean, Faculty of Health Professions, Dalhousie University, As an Individual
It's a bit of a difficult question to weigh in on because, as your colleague has alluded to, what parents feel uncomfortable with is probably something they are not going to talk about in their homes.
So how do we make that information more available? The suggestion I have put forward is that a national sexual health promotion strategy would not just be aimed at children, it would be talking to teachers and to parents. This is a conversation that everybody needs to be aware of. If a kid comes home from a party and says to their parent, “I took these pictures of us doing nudies in the backyard”, etc., there's an opportunity for parents to weigh in on that conversation.
I think right now—and the evidence would suggest—parents feel that they are not well equipped to answer those questions. They either never talk about it, or if they do talk about it, it's not in a particularly helpful information-giving sense, if you understand what I mean. It may be, “Go to your room. We're not having that conversation. You're too young for that.”
I think it's a multipronged approach that involves parents, teachers, and the kids themselves. Absolutely.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
Also, you published a piece on impactethics.ca three days ago about the issue, where you called for a national strategy.
Why do you think a national strategy is necessary, as opposed to one created province by province? Can you point to other international contacts that have such a strategy and which you would recommend that this committee look at?
12:50 p.m.
Professor, Interim Director, Assistant Dean, Faculty of Health Professions, Dalhousie University, As an Individual
I think the idea behind proposing a national health promotion strategy is to look at and address those gaps. If we look at the U.K. and at Australia, we see great examples of best practices in terms of how to offer sexual health promotion and education to youth in schools, and it's a multipronged approach. It's, again, not just lecturing to kids about the importance of safer sex, it's looking at a shared responsibility to make sure that kids and adults and teachers are getting the same appropriate, accurate, and up-to-date information.
I have a paper that I would love to share with you. It's produced by Dr. Julia Bailey, who is a professor at the University College London. It's a very comprehensive paper, and I think you will find some very helpful information in there.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
Thank you.
Ms. Hare, what do you feel is the most urgent matter for your study to address? What prior experience has led you to seeking this line of study?
12:55 p.m.
Doctoral Student, Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, As an Individual
Very much along the lines of what we have already been saying, the idea for this study originated out of hearing a lot of anecdotal evidence about how youth were using pornography as a kind of mode for education, in an alternative where they didn't see any other area to learn about the positive aspects of sexuality. They found pornography very troublesome to use as this for these reasons, and it was discussing what impact this has on sexual health.
That was the impetus for it, hearing this anecdotal evidence and wanting to turn it into more credible evidence.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
Thank you very much.
I'll frame these questions using the three questions I started off with, because for me, as I said, it really is important when we focus on our kids and our youth.
I was wondering if any public health interventions have been proven to be effective, and why. Could we frame it as what should we do as a government, what can we do, and what do we need to do?
12:55 p.m.
Professor, Interim Director, Assistant Dean, Faculty of Health Professions, Dalhousie University, As an Individual
Again, I will make a copy of Dr. Julia Bailey's paper available to people. It's a very comprehensive scoping review that looks at the effectiveness of certain types of interventions. In relation to this conversation about online access, it actually tackles that particular issue directly.
They have proven interventions outlined in that paper, and I think it's definitely worth looking at in relation to what the Government of Canada ought to consider implementing.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
Is it just one paper, or are there a few papers out there right now?
12:55 p.m.
Professor, Interim Director, Assistant Dean, Faculty of Health Professions, Dalhousie University, As an Individual
There are quite a few papers. The good news about a scoping review is that essentially they've done your homework for you. They've looked at all the papers that fit within a particular framework, and they've included those in the scoping review. They've looked specifically at things like cost-effectiveness and whether it's changing attitudes and/or behaviours. We know there's a disconnect between attitudinal shifts and actual behavioural shifts.
It's a brilliant paper, because they've looked at the evidence globally over a 10-year period. It was published in 2015. It's an excellent paper. I'd be happy to give you the reference to that paper.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
12:55 p.m.
Doctoral Student, Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, As an Individual
No, thank you.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
12:55 p.m.
Director, Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, As an Individual
I think it's very important to look at programs and at programmatic research to see if the programs work. I'm glad to hear the recommendation of this paper, because it does look at both the programs and what actually makes a difference—not just what's predicted to make a difference but what actually makes a difference.
I'm sorry, I'm going to have to leave. My time is up right now. If there's another quick question before I leave, I would be glad to take one, but I'm short on time at the moment.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
Thank you very much.
Mr. Chair, I have another question. I don't know how quick it's going to be to answer, though.
Going back, Ms. Hare, to your research and what you found, it still seems that youth are using pornography as part of the educational process. Specifically, do you think more scrutiny should be applied to the industry producing it, especially since the industry is making more of this violent sexually explicit material? It's basically their goal. Like any industry, it's a profit-driven industry. It's not really made for education.
What would be your viewpoint on that?
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
I want to thank Dr. Layden for coming. I want to thank you very much for participating. We appreciate it. We apologize for the time delay and our process here. We hope to hear from you again.
12:55 p.m.
Doctoral Student, Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, As an Individual
In terms of focusing on the industry, I think the main message for me that came out of this research is that there is certainly an industry that is producing certain types of videos, or, I would say, an overwhelming proportion of one type of video. The connection is that they aren't being produced in isolation. The reason these videos are constantly being produced is really tied to larger ideas about gender inequity in society.
The porn industry isn't the only source of these types of messages. These types of messages are prevalent in advertisements and popular discourse. Yes, you can focus a little bit on the industry, but I think it's more important to recognize that this is very much embedded in a wider system of inequity.
The other way to approach it would be to look at how we can educate people to start making sense of these images, making meaning of them, and maybe coming to a counter conclusion, a more equitable conclusion, than what they're seeing. That happens at a societal level, not just at an industry level.
1 p.m.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
Maybe just as a comment, I remember I was listening to radio on the Fifty Shades of Grey. Have you ever heard of that? I think most people have.
I think it was one of the most popular novels out there, and it was mostly women buying it. I didn't read it, but I think maybe my wife and her friends did. I can't comment.
Again, if you're looking at that type of written material too, it does seem to be some of the S & M culture and things like that. I think it is a societal thing.
Thank you very much for your opinion. It's very well respected here.
