You have good reason to be proud of the child advocacy centre in your region. This is groundbreaking in terms of the approach because it is tailor made to be child-friendly and parent-friendly. It recognizes the extremely deleterious, debilitating impact that child sexual abuse can have. There is much more clear understanding of the necessity for early intervention and breaking down some of these intimidating barriers for children in particular. The fact that we are seeing such a positive response is quite instructive for the broader criminal justice system.
We have brilliant people in mental health services, victim services, now working directly with all of the major players—participants in the system, from police at the earliest stages of investigation, to the parents, to the education system—and it is all done in a very coordinated fashion to break down some of the barriers that were there previously.
I mentioned we have 22 now in operation or in development. I'd be pleased to leave this with the committee, which sets out in some detail where these are currently operating and where they will be operating, with more in the works.
People like Sheldon Kennedy, Dr. Amy Ornstein, and many others who have invested personally of their time, effort, and leadership in making the success in our system, really deserve all the credit. They can speak to this with far more passion and understanding than I can, although I do feel very motivated and inspired when I visit these child advocacy centres and see the improvements that are being made: multidisciplinary teams, child psychologists, those who are deeply familiar with how to treat and how to help children overcome all of this, including the stigma that is still there.
I think I mentioned the last time I was here, something as simple as allowing a child to take a personal item, their pet, to an interview or to a court process so lessens the trauma of that experience and helps to do away with what is commonly known as “re-victimization.” I can't say enough about these child advocacy centres. It's my hope that we can continue to make them available to more communities and more children in the country.