Wonderful. Thank you.
Deepa and I are going to divide up our comments, so bear with us.
Honourable chair and committee members, we're very honoured to be able to speak with you today about the proposed legislation dealing with sexual assault law, specifically clause 10 and clauses 19 to 25 of Bill C-51.
The clinic's submission will focus on three broad areas.
First, it will focus on the need for the implementation of trauma-informed training for all actors in the justice system who interact with sexual assault complainants.
Second, based on our experience of delivering such a program in Ontario, we recommend that sexual assault complainants be provided with government-funded legal representation. This will especially be true for the new sexual history applications that are contemplated in the legislation, but also from the time of first disclosure. Federal funding for non-compellable community support from the federal government means better support for provincial legal aid programs and community-based centres.
Finally, the clinic asserts that there must be some form of accountability for the new mechanisms proposed that is based on the expertise of the community advocates who work with the women who we are hoping will come forward.
As a brief background to the clinic, for those of you who don't know, the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic was named for a promising young lawyer who lost her life to sexual violence the night of her call to the bar in 1980. It's the only clinic of its kind in Canada. We are independent of the provincial legal aid systems.
Since 1985 the clinic has provided legal representation, counselling, and language interpretation to over 60,000 women who have experienced all forms of violence. Currently we assist more than 4,000 women a year, and we work in over 200 languages. We provide a variety of innovative counselling services and public legal education as well as legal representation. We are also engaged in law reform.
The clinic consults broadly with all levels of government on policy or legislative initiatives, and we are a public voice on the experiences of women engaging with the law when they have been sexually assaulted. We are also part of landmark cases regarding sexual assault law.
We are in broad support of the changes to sexual assault law that are proposed in this bill. Specifically, we believe the expanded rape shield provisions provide for judicial screening of communications between the accused and the complainant, and this is consistent with the truth-seeking function of the court. However, while these changes will further clarify the law, they do not change the attitude of the justice system actors.
Unfortunately, the clinic's experience over the last 30 years tells us that the proposed legislation needs broader support in place in community to operationalize these changes to make a difference in the lives of women so that those who we would like to bring into the fold of reporting to the law will actually feel the trust to be able to do so.
Deepa.