Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to all of the witnesses for being here with us today on this very important topic.
As part of my law practice, I practised family law for many years, so I'm well aware of these issues. We should all know that physical and verbal violence in intimate partnerships negatively effects all genders and all children whether they are the victims or witnesses.
I'm glad to see that the best interest of the child test remains. We know through medical procedures like brain scans—things we never had available when I was first practising law—that being victimized or witnessing violence can be detrimental throughout one's life. This is something that the courts did not really recognize when I first started practising in this area. They thought once the separation happened between couples it just all went away, which is not the case at all.
One of my concerns with COVID-19 and the lockdowns and from what I'm hearing within my own riding is that people—and I'm thinking specifically of a couple of women at the moment—who are caught in these relationships are not really aware of what is available to them. In other words, they're not sure what is locked down. Are safe houses locked down? Are women's centres locked down? Can they go? Are they safe?
I'm not sure that between our federal and provincial governments there's been enough done to let them know that there are options. I'm wondering if the witnesses can comment on how COVID may be being used by abusers to exploit the inability of women to call for help or to escape their situation due to lockdown. Can they comment on what they feel the awareness is generally among those who are victims, as to what supports are available?