Thank you for inviting me to speak on Bill S-7, the zero tolerance for barbaric cultural practices act.
I commend the government for its leadership in taking a stand on a very difficult issue and for defending the human rights of vulnerable women who are unable to speak for themselves. I'm thrilled to support this bill. In many ways, it is a result of my work with new immigrants and a response to the voices unheard in the past.
My career in community development and public policy was unexpected. For the past 35 years, I have been working as a front-line service provider with women who are victims of abuse perpetrated by their family. I have founded three organizations that assist immigrant women who are victims of domestic violence. During these three and a half decades, I have spoken with hundreds of women whose pleas for help have propelled me to become their advocate. For the past 10 years, I have been conducting training for front-line service providers on how honour-based violence differs from other forms of violence against women.
I was born and raised in India. I am the oldest of seven siblings, six girls and one boy. I was forced into an arranged marriage as a teenager. I endured abuse in this marriage for 18 years, unable to leave for fear of bringing shame and dishonour to my family. This abuse has impacted every aspect of my life to this day, and I am 64.
Like thousands of immigrant women, I came to Canada believing that in this country—this country, whose foundation is built on values such as security, freedom, and respect for all—“all” included my daughters and me. I believed that section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms would guarantee men and women equal rights to life, liberty, and security of all persons, and would allow my daughters to have the same opportunities that were being offered to their peers from non-immigrant families. I was wrong. As a new immigrant, I was soon introduced to a new philosophy that was to become the hallmark of Canadian society: multiculturalism.
Then prime minister Pierre Trudeau had decreed that Canada's guiding principle for a just society would be that judging the behaviour of people from cultures other than western Christian ones was patronizing and elitist. Multiculturalism seemed to tell me that I should continue to live exactly as I always had. Inequality of values between men and women was part of my culture, and in Canada all cultures were respected equally.
While violence against women is a global phenomenon, there are a great deal of cultural variations, patterns, and manifestations of violence. The triggers, the responses to the consequences, and violence towards women differ across cultures. For example, South Asian culture is characterized by various norms that serve not only to maintain violence against women, but also to silence those who experience it. In the South Asian culture, girls learn early in life that they are less valued than boys. They are duty bound to service, sacrificing themselves, and devoting their lives to protecting family honour. The culture emphasizes duty and service, and these values are pounded into the girls through tools such as guilt, shame, and acceptance of severe and inhuman punishment. In their early childhood, they learn that they are the property of their parents, who will hand them over to their husbands at marriage. They can only leave at death.
In 2010, my paper, “Culturally Driven Violence Against Women”, listed 14 recommendations. Six of these recommendations are now included in the new government guide called Discover Canada, which is used by new Canadians to learn about Canada and to prepare for the mandatory citizenship test. We now have a tool that new immigrants and those preparing for the tests can use.
Many Canadians want to remove the words “culturally barbaric” from Bill S-7. The term culturally barbaric was first used in my paper “Culturally-Driven Violence Against Women”. Many people were offended.
Some of these people were the same people who, three decades earlier, told the media that there is no domestic violence in the south Asian community. They said, “We have female goddesses. We respect our mothers very highly and women are celebrated in our culture for their virtue and their purity”. They did not, however, say, “When we decide that certain women are not virtuous, we will kill them in the name of family honour”.
Those who object to these words, culturally barbaric, are individuals who have never witnessed a nine-year-old screaming in pain, her genitals cut off and infected, with a puss filled boil as large as a honeydew melon. I did at Centenary Hospital. This is something I will never forget. These are culturally barbaric practices and there should be no defence of this kind of violence. After 35 years of pleading with those in power to strengthen the laws, we finally have Bill S-7, the zero tolerance for barbaric cultural practices act.
This act is not perfect, but these amendments will improve protection and support for vulnerable individuals in a number of different ways, especially for the women that I know. For those who are outside these communities, these culturally barbaric practices appear to be well-hidden, but in the communities where they occur, many people are aware and supportive of these occurrences.
The bill states that anyone who celebrates, aids, or participates in a marriage rite, for example, or any ceremony knowing that one of these people is being forced into this relationship is guilty of a crime and liable to punishment. This thrills my heart. The bill also states that anyone being lawfully authorized to solemnize the marriage and knowingly does so breaks the federal or provincial law and is guilty of imprisonment. I am pleased to support this bill.
We now have tools under Bill S-7 to take action against those who choose to practice culturally barbaric practices in Canada and to educate those who are ignorant. For me, the zero tolerance for barbaric cultural practices act demonstrates that Canada's openness and generosity does not extend to those whose cultural practices violate human rights. Canada does not tolerate any type of violence against women or girls. Those found guilty of these crimes will be severely punished under Canada's law.
Personally, Bill S-7 says to me that women who have been silenced by their families and communities have now been heard by this government and that the government includes us in its laws, and protects us just like the rest of the women in Canada.