Absolutely, the conditional permanent residence rules that we have disadvantage women. While the government has listened to our concerns around violence against women and has put in an exemption, we know that immigrant women do not have the kinds of information in terms of how it is that they find the kinds of support if violence is happening. Even when it isn't explicit violence, we know that the threat of deportation often keeps women in relationships that are not healthy for them, so we really have to seriously reconsider this whole notion of conditional permanent residency.
It all speaks to the whole temporariness of status that we've been seeing more and more as we've made changes in our immigration program. It means that women are not able to exercise their agency if they need to be dependent on a spouse who has sponsored them and they're having to do everything the spouse says because of fear of deportation if they were to leave the relationship before two years of conjugal cohabitation. It means that we are putting women in unnecessarily vulnerable positions when, in fact, we want women who immigrate to Canada to also meet their full potential to be able to access services when and where they choose, to be able to do the kind of upgrading they may require, or not, to be able to enter the labour market, the job market, as soon as they are able to do that. When you have a system that says, “If I sponsor you to Canada you must stay with me for at least two years or else your status is in jeopardy”, that puts an undue burden on the spouse, especially on women who tend to be vulnerable anyway.