Thank you.
I came here to talk to you very briefly about the experience with the immigration holding centre and about alternatives to detention.
For 21 years I've worked with women who've come out of detention. When we see them coming out of detention, they're in trauma, in part. They had to flee from their country because they were in a traumatic situation. They had to flee from persecution because of their gender.
I can tell you about what is happening right now with the immigration holding centre. In my organization, for example, we receive referrals of women, those who are pregnant or who have children, to our organization without bond or any bail. Sometimes we do receive referrals from the Toronto bail program. What happens is that when they're out, they start to integrate into the community and into the society.
One of the things we are looking at is inviting the committee.... I know you have in your package a study by Janet Cleveland, dated April 2012. The suggestion is that perhaps you can look at some of the alternatives to detention. One in Sweden, especially, is managed by case workers.
What we are doing right now in Toronto—the Toronto bail program with the immigration holding centre—is a kind of pilot project. We are looking to see if we can formalize it and have it as more of a national process for people who don't need to be detained, including women and children and pregnant women.
I can give you an example of a woman who was pregnant. She had contractions because she was detained. When she arrived at Toronto Pearson airport, I was called by the immigration holding centre, and she was released to us. With her, after that, we complied with doing all the paperwork. She was there every time they required her to be there. After eight months, she was accepted as a real convention refugee, and she had her baby outside of detention.
That's one of the things we're looking at and are recommending as an alternative to detention: have an agreement that it is not necessary to detain women and children, and if it is necessary to have more supervision, use the bail programs. They can be present, and we in the community can be involved and help people become integrated into the community.
That's it.