Hello from Montreal. I will definitely try to be within my time, but I also have a lot of notes.
My presentation will be slightly different because we stress a lot of prevention at the organization. We have a network of services that provide services and activities in up to 15 languages presently in Montreal, Quebec, including two day centres, a shelter, and a community outreach department. We deal only with victims of conjugal and/or family violence.
I'd like to say that 85% of our clients come from various ethno-cultural backgrounds. Last year, 62% of the residents at the shelter were born outside of Canada, and on an average, between the centres and the shelter, we see over 700 cases annually. So this is quite a lot of cases.
My presentation today will be on what it is that we can do in terms of recommendations that have been given to me by both the caseworkers and our cultural intermediaries. Our cultural intermediaries are community workers who are trained in conjugal violence and who deal with matters coming from communities. They do interpretation, but they also provide us with a cultural insight as to how the communities work.
Now, on the issue of sponsorship as it applies to our daily work with victims, particularly regarding vulnerable clientele who present linguistic and other difficulties, last year at the shelter approximately 30% of the women who passed through were women who had been and who were in a vulnerable and precarious position because of their sponsorship or immigration status. Over half of these women had problems communicating in English or French. Their knowledge of basic information as well as their understanding of their immigration and sponsorship status were therefore extremely limited by these linguistic difficulties.
Their situation of isolation was also very high since the women had taken a decision to leave the abusive relationship or were taken out by the police and transferred to our services. Many did not have the support of either their family or their community, and of course, all these factors impacted their vulnerability, making this clientele very prone to being diminished, unemployed, and effectively without recourse or choice of action.
Within our present statistical period—and again I revert to this because for us language is a very, very important issue here in Quebec—severe language difficulties are present in 45% of our new long-term files at the centres, to the extent that intervention has to be done in the language of origin.
In a study we did with McGill University on ex-residents who had left the shelter, we found that in most of the cases where the women were sponsored, it was the husband who was controlling their whole sponsorship and immigration process. We therefore feel it is important that the sponsored spouse be part of the ongoing immigration process from the beginning. A recommendation that we therefore have is that in order to break this isolation and to provide basic information regarding the impacts, obligations, and consequences of the sponsorship, such information should be given to women in the language of origin when the sponsorship or immigration process has begun.
Upon consultation both with our social workers, who work with the clientele, and with our cultural intermediaries, we have decided to give the following observations regarding when and how this should be done. Before the woman arrives in Canada, she should be informed on the Canadian legal system, gender equality, the time it takes to process her sponsorship—as the gentleman before me quite aptly said—her right to access the specialized organizations, her right to free language courses, and also her right to have her documents.
At the community level, because we work with victims and we work with communities, the same information should be largely posted and very visible in the language of origin, in areas that these messages could be reinforced.
When immigrants come to Canada, they should all receive a welcome package in the language of origin that includes the above information and other issues, such as a definition of what “conjugal and family violence” is, the police procedure, Canadian laws, and what resources are available. A potential victim who does not speak English or French would not understand the information given. We are therefore suggesting to have the information readily available in different languages.
This information should also be dispersed in the different community areas in Canada—in religious areas, community centres, and wherever the women and members of the community frequent, including the para-public clinics we have here in Quebec, the CSSSs.
Another solution, particularly for women who are illiterate, is to have this information relayed to them through an audio or a video tool that she would receive as part of a session with immigration.
If a case of conjugal and/or family violence is observed, then the worker should be mandated to immediately refer the woman to the appropriate resources, and help the woman to navigate through the system. This is for a number of reasons: so that she can know what to expect in her situation, to ease her fears, and to provide important information that she may not know, for example, that she has a right to have her important documents, such as her passport, her visa, her medicare card, or any other important papers she needs.
Once the sponsorship papers are withdrawn the immigration agent should question the measure for the withdrawal of the sponsorship papers by the spouse or partner if the violence is not evident. Then the agent should be able to ask more pertinent questions. We highly recommend that the agents be trained on conjugal violence and also on cultural sensitivity. It is also important to note that several types of violence, such as emotional or financial abuse, may not be immediately apparent and this is why the agents should be trained further. They can also refer to the appropriate resources where the agents and the social workers are already trained and can discern the presence of such abuse.
How can we provide better protection to vulnerable women so as to prevent them from being victimized by an abusive sponsor? Of course the training of the agent is very important and again, the agent should be able to refer to a multilingual, multicultural organization that specializes in this.
How can we empower the women?