Thank you.
My name is Avvy Go. I'm the clinic director of the Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic. We're a non-profit community organization that provides free legal services to low-income immigrants and refugees from the communities in Toronto.
We've been around since 1987, and over the 27 or so years, we have served tens of thousands of clients, many of whom are immigrant women, refugee women, and non-status women.
I would like to start by thanking the committee for giving me this opportunity to comment on this important issue as to how the government should strengthen the protection of women in our immigration system.
As mentioned in my written submission, I had the privilege of participating in a round table discussion that was hosted by Minister Alexander and Minister Leitch, so I'm somewhat familiar with some of the ideas they have proposed. I have only eight minutes to speak today, so I'm going to focus on just two of them. I will also add some recommendations of my own, which I would like you to consider.
I would like to start by giving an overview of the scope of the issue that we're talking about, which is violence against women in Canada. Obviously it's an issue that affects all women in Canada, whether they are Canadian-born or foreign-born.
Some of the stats I've cited—