Thank you. Good morning. I'm privileged to be here as an advocate for human rights, specifically the rights of women. So for us, this is an extremely important bill.
There's an important factor in discussing this bill. In my opinion, it applies not just to a particular segment of society but to all women because as we are well aware, violence against women takes many forms and exists in many cultures. According to Statistics Canada data in catalogue number 85-002, half of all Canadian women have experienced physical or sexual violence. If we consider women and girls from communities influenced by religion and submissive traditions, as Canadians do, then there is an expectation that they should be treated the same.
My focus in this very short presentation today is honour-based violence. This is the field in which I have been working most recently, and I might mention here that in our understanding, domestic violence is separate from honour-based violence. The fact that the bill uses the word “barbaric” is extremely important because the abuse that is perpetuated against women under the banner of honour-based violence is nothing less than barbaric. Therefore, my organization totally supports the bill in its intent to eradicate barbaric practices.
However, we must keep in mind that honour-based violence also finds men as its victims, specifically in the case of honour killings. Honour-based violence addresses three main issues: honour killings; forced and under-age marriage; and female genital mutilation, which I will refer to as FGM. There have been 24 recorded cases of honour killings in Canada since 2009, which is one too many. These are only the reported cases. How many remain underground, we don't know. So there needs to be an awareness in educational institutions, law enforcement agencies, and the judicial system about the background and triggers that lead to honour killings.
I also believe it's important to get more statistics on honour killings, FGM, and forced and under-age marriage because when we are passing a law, it's very important to have numbers. In particular, female genital mutilation has not been tracked fully in Canada. In terms of forced and under-age marriage, the red flag is the minimum age of marriage for young girls. I suggest that the age be raised to 18, which will give girls more time to be aware of their rights and fight back against forced marriage.
This bill does not ban or put any restriction on bride price, which is a price paid by the groom to the bride, and dowry, the property goals or goods given to the groom by the bride's family. Both these traditional acts have already claimed the life of several women in several communities in Canada. By not mentioning bride price and dowry, it means that it's not a harmful practice, even though people in Canada and elsewhere are witnessing bride burnings or bride suicide rates rising.
Bill S-7does not place any supportive bodies for women and young girls who have been victims of arranged and forced marriage outside of Canadian borders and within. So it's extremely important to have some form of a distress line for issues related specifically to honour-based violence. We know from the experience in Britain of young girls born in Britain and taken to South Asia. It is unknown to them why they are going to their ancestral homes. Once they arrive, they're forcefully contracted out in marriages without their permission.
But Britain has set up special cells in their foreign ministry and their embassies in countries where such incidents are high to intercept such forced marriages, and in many cases bring back the abused girls and prosecute their parents or those responsible in this trafficking. They also have a forced marriage unit that works in conjunction with the immigration department and law enforcement agencies to track girls who have been forced to go to other countries.
One of the most interesting ways that they are able to intercept some of these forced cases is that the social agencies in England have advised girls who have been forceably taken against their will to put some metal object inside their clothes so that when they go through the security barrier, it will ding, and they will be taken aside. But that's only because there is an awareness that this problem exists.
We need to know why Britain's experience was not taken into account in Bill S-7, and how we must address the real concern when we know this is happening in our communities. Bill S-7 also fails to recognize that girls over the age of 18 need protection as well from forced and arranged marriages. According to a survey, about 31% of forced marriages were girls and women aged 19 to 24, and 25% of them were aged 25 to 34. Putting an age limit on the abused women who are supported leaves about 56% of women totally without protection.
finally, I want to speak about FGM, the most barbaric act. Recently the United Nations published a report showing a rise in the practice of female genital mutilation. I was at a Civitas conference this Sunday where there was a panel of two medical doctors. I asked them about FGM and how they would deal with it if a family brought in a young girl who had had female genital cutting. They both looked at me and said, “Isn't that just like having a tattoo, or isn't that like male circumcision”?
I'm offering a copy of Honor Diaries to all of you, if I may, for your awareness, because our mandate is to expose, educate, and eradicate barbaric practices. Along with Bill S-7 there needs to be much greater awareness of what we are facing.
Thank you so much.