Currently there can be a breakdown of the relationship and they are expected to give a stack of documentation of cohabitation, experience of abuse, how the abuse was experienced. “How did you experience this abuse? If there was no reporting, who did you report to?” We basically have to put together an information binder for the officer to look at for this experience. At the end of the day, in spite of submitting all of that, there might be a negative report coming her way because the person being complained against, in retaliation for her reporting, is also submitting documentation.
So in our submission, what we are trying to say is that, once she says that she has been abused, the burden of proof should be relaxed a bit. She should not be expected to prove that abuse in so many evidentiary formats. The cohabitation right now for us has been a problem. If she is saying she is living there but her family didn't let her have access to any paperwork, her family didn't let her open a bank account, didn't let her actually have the PR card when it came to her, how would she prove that she was cohabiting?