Justice Committee on Feb. 16th, 2021

[Prof. Simon Lapierre]

Earlier, someone mentioned a paradigm shift. I feel that a paradigm shift is also necessary in understanding the reality of children living in a situation of domestic violence. It must be understood that those children are not just witnesses of domestic violence or exposed to it, they are victims of it. They are its victims even when they are not actually in the house or the room where the acts of violence, the criminal acts, are being committed, because they are exposed to controlling and coercive conduct on a daily basis. Unfortunately, those children are living in a tense and terrifying climate and they are walking on eggshells day after day. They are not affected simply by being exposed to violence or criminal acts. Being exposed to a climate of tension and terror on a daily basis has an impact in the short, medium and long term on those children and on the ability of the victimized parents to meet the needs of their children.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much.

We'll go to Mr. Virani. Please go ahead, sir.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Thank you very much to everyone. It's been a really engaging conversation.

I have one comment and one question, Madam Chair.

The comment is that Ms. Illingworth's letter to the minister actually called for a task force comprised of experts to look at the design of an offence more closely. I gather from what I'm hearing today that there is some consensus and that it should involve victims' groups and women's groups—not just people in the justice system, for example.

Happy belated birthday to Ms. Stephens, who I know personally. I'm going to direct my questions to her.

Ms. Stephens, it's a double-barrelled question. Could you talk a bit about the coercive and controlling behaviour from the perspective of what we're seeing with text messages, as raised by Ms. Fedida, and things like online control?

Secondly, could you talk about the use of firearms—whether those are legal or illegal firearms—in terms of coercive and controlling behaviour when men are controlling women?

Thank you.

[Megan Stephens]

I think the ever-changing use of technology in the context of intimate partner violence should definitely be on everyone's radar. Any Criminal Code offence that would be enacted should cover coercive conduct. I would think that would be a key part. Again, I'm wearing my former prosecutor hat, not just my LEAF hat. That is definitely going to be the kind of evidence you'll want to have here. It's not just the text messages. It's installing software on your partner's phone so that you can track them.

The ways that technology allows us to come together in meetings like this from across the country is great, but it also has an incredibly pernicious impact on those who want to get away from their partners and cannot. I think it's a core part of this.

There have been moves, obviously, to criminalize things such as the non-consensual distribution of intimate images. Those prosecutions don't happen that frequently; those charges don't get laid that frequently. That's all part of controlling and holding people under one's thumb, so that they cannot emerge into the world.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much for that.

We'll now go to Monsieur Fortin. Your previous colleagues have gone for under two minutes. I hope you'll keep to that standard.

Go ahead, sir.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Lapierre, could you tell us more about the situation of the children? From your testimony, I gather that they are not only witnesses to the violence, but they are also victims of it. You used the example of a mother, a victim of controlling and coercive conduct, who may not be able to take care of her children as well as she would like. In those situations, neither the father nor the mother, regardless of who is the victim and who is the abuser, is able to provide their children with an upbringing that could be described as normal or adequate.

Here is my question. Should we not be working more in advance, by which I mean educating and training people to prevent such things from happening, rather than adding another criminal offence?

Once again, I hasten to add that I am not against the idea. I just want us to look at the possibilities outside the traditional system, as Ms. Lemay was proposing just now. Aren't we aiming at the wrong target? Should we not be working in advance to help the children, the victims and the abusers?

[Prof. Simon Lapierre]

There is no quick and easy solution. No single measure will improve the system; it will take a series of measures. Yes, prevention, intervention and training must play a role. But I feel that legal tools are also needed in order to get this work done.

Let me give you a very quick and specific example that involves children. Consider the case of a child and a woman living in a situation of coercive control. Currently, the perpetrator of the violence would be charged with assault. Even if that were part of a series of strategies—

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

We have about 10 seconds left, Mr. Lapierre.

[Prof. Simon Lapierre]

…assault charges are going to be laid. In addition, the accused will be issued an order prohibiting any communication with the mother, but he will still be allowed to be in contact with the child. Because the child was not there when the assaults were committed, he is actually not seen as a victim of that violence, even if, on a daily basis, he is exposed to all kinds of controlling strategies that deprive the mother of her freedom.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you so much for that.

Mr. Garrison, please go ahead, sir.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Thanks very much.

In the remaining two minutes here, one of the things that I heard when I called around to police forces during the early stages of the pandemic was the increase in calls for domestic violence assistance. One of the frustrations expressed by those police was that they felt the current Criminal Code did not allow them to intervene early enough. I'm going to direct my question to the alliance of second-stage housing representatives. Could criminalizing coercive and controlling behaviour provide a tool for earlier intervention in these problematic and violent relationships?

[Maud Pontel]

Yes, giving the police and even lawyers better tools could certainly improve their ability to respond. In terms of the police response, if the officers are better trained when gathering evidence, they will be able to gather enough to make it clear that the women are being controlled, coerced and dominated where they live. If we can train police officers, we can also train lawyers. That would result in a much more comprehensive approach to coercive violence.

Our goal here in Quebec is specifically for courts dealing with civil cases to communicate with those dealing with criminal cases. That's why we support the idea of unified courts. It must be understood that coercive control is a series of techniques used by abusers to maintain their hold on women and children.

So, yes, it would be an appropriate tool for law enforcement.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Thank you once again to the witnesses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much. Just before I let our witnesses go, one thing that has come to my attention is the link between violence towards pets living within the home and violence towards significant others, intimate partners, as well as children.

If any of you have any comments on that, can you please make submissions in writing to our committee, given that we are running out of time here? We would definitely like to hear your feedback on that link and how we can address that in whatever recommendations we put forward as a committee.

I'll say thank you to each and every one of you for your contributions today. I look forward to continuing to engage with you on this very important topic.

I'll suspend the meeting as we let in our next panel of witnesses. Thanks, everyone.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

I'd like to welcome all of the witnesses before us today.

When you are speaking, please make sure your microphone is unmuted. When you're done speaking, mute your microphone. All of your submissions should be addressed through the chair. We'll try to make sure that we maintain an orderly speakers list.

I'd like to introduce the witnesses. They are Kamal Dhillon, author, appearing as an individual on this topic; the London Abused Women's Centre, represented by Megan Walker, who is here to make a submission; and the Sussex Vale Transition House, represented by Julie Matthews, who is also here to make a submission.

Each of you will have five minutes for your submission.

We'll start with you, Ms. Dhillon. Please go ahead.

[Kamal Dhillon, Author, As an Individual]

Madam Chair, thank you for your kind invitation to speak.

Today I will be referring to the victim as “she” and the abuser as “he”.

I wonder how many times we have heard these words spoken to us: “If it was that bad, why didn't you just leave?” Today I feel compelled to share my story in order to break down the walls of secrecy and shame that perpetuate abuse. Due to cultural taboos, domestic violence is rarely described. Unfairly, it is the victims who are blamed for the abuse. With increased sensitivity to the problem, I hope that instead of asking the victim why she didn't leave, people will begin to ask the abuser why he hurt her and will hold him accountable.

I invite you to journey with me as I share my story. At times you will feel pain. At times you will get angry. I want to show you the fear that the abuser instills in the victim. I want to describe to you the harrowing details that unfolded from the day I was married to a supposedly respectable, warm and charming man. I was subjected to emotional, physical and sexual abuse almost daily. He tried to kill me on many occasions. As a result of my husband's beatings and his rage, I now live with an artificial jaw after having gone through 10 major jaw surgeries. I live with ongoing excruciating pain. I have lost all the nerves in my face.

I was a victim of domestic violence. I was brutally tortured for over 12 years. It didn't happen in a third world country. It happened right here in Canada. In fact, it happened in Vancouver. My marriage was arranged. My abuse began within hours of getting married. For the first time in my life, I was asked by someone if I had been raped. Yes, I was raped brutally on my wedding night. From that day on, my abuser instilled fear in me. The failure of my family members and bystanders empowered him. The system that should have protected me seemed to protect him.

The beatings were relentless. I had unceasing pain. He kicked me, beat me and punched me until he was tired. The emotional, mental and sexual abuse was constant. He was so charming outside, fooling even the doctors, the professionals, the police and the community. He hung me by my sari. He doused me with kerosene. He unsuccessfully tried to push me into an ocean. He hoped that all of this would look like a suicide. He even forced me to drink poison.

By sharing my story, especially the unspeakable accounts of rape and abuse, the so-called “(dis)honour”-based violence, depression, murder attempts, and constantly being urged to take my own life, I hope to let other victims know they're not alone in their suffering. I want to give the victims the courage to speak out and stop the cycle of abuse. I sincerely hope that by my describing the many forms of abuse I suffered, and recounting it as a survivor's trauma, I am also able to reveal how I dealt with this pain and the memories and how I found strength to move on.

My four children were so terrified of him they made a secret bed and tried to hide under it. They covered their heads with pillows so that they couldn't see the abuse.

There are so many abusers who live among us, hiding in plain sight, never publicly identified despite abusing multiple victims over decades. This is possibly due to the existence of a broken system that causes the victims to remain silent.

Without knowing it, my husband and his equally abusive family gave me a very public platform. Now I can speak on behalf of victims who cannot speak for themselves, who are imprisoned by fear and abuse. This time I have a louder voice, one that will change the misconception around domestic violence.

Being a survivor requires great courage. I am unmasking my story, but I refuse to be defined by the history of violence I left behind. This abuse isn't my identity. I fought hard to acquire the skills to cope, to survive, to recover, to combat cultural labels, and to thrive.

We continue to see victims failed over and over. The punishment for the abuser does not fit the crime. Domestic violence is still looked at as a private matter. Most of the time we're looking at evidence of abuse. What about the abuse that has no visible signs?

If there was a victim—

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you, Ms. Dhillon. We've hit that five-minute mark. I'm hoping the rest of your comments can come out through our questioning.

We'll now go to the London Abused Women's Centre and Megan Walker, for five minutes.

[Megan Walker, Executive Director, London Abused Women's Centre]

Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge the incredible strength and courage that it takes for survivors to come forward and share their experiences. Thank you for doing that today. We should always be listening to the voices of survivors.

I want to thank Mr. Garrison for initiating this study, because it gives us the opportunity to really make it a bigger issue than is currently presented by our legislation.

In 2020, the London Abused Women's Centre provided service to 8,177 women and girls. Of that number, 6,701 of those women and girls were abused by an intimate partner, and 1,300 were being trafficked and also abused by their trafficker and sex purchaser.

In 1998, a coroner's inquest was held into the murder of Arlene May by her ex-partner, Randy Iles, who killed himself following the murder. In its opening remarks, the jury said:

The myths attached to family violence must be dispelled. Domestic violence is a criminal offence and must never be viewed as a 'private matter'.

The jury further wrote:

Domestic violence cases are different than other criminal cases. In most situations the accused and the victim would normally never meet again. With domestic violence, the accused often must have contact with the victim due to property, support and child issues. The criminal justice system will have to be changed to deal effectively with these differences.

That was in 1998, and we are still calling for the criminal justice system to be changed.

We know that many of the activities surrounding domestic violence are criminal offences. However, there is no specific domestic violence offence in the Canadian Criminal Code. Instead, domestic violence-related crimes are spread out among at least 35 different sections in the Criminal Code, making it difficult to connect them to a pattern of behaviour by the male abuser to gain and maintain power and control over his partner.

Criminalizing controlling or coercive conduct absolutely adds another tool in the tool box but once again, it will be lost as a stand-alone section in the Criminal Code. Without understanding coercive control as a pattern of behaviour used by abusers, it will be difficult to enforce.

I have worked to end male violence against women for more than 25 years, and I have seen the confusion created by the multiple stand-alone sections in the Criminal Code. The courts regularly reduce multiple charges against abusive men to one single charge, usually assault. That charge is then often withdrawn in exchange for a peace bond.

When charges are withdrawn, women and their children remain at serious risk of increased torture, abuse and murder. Men use the withdrawal charges to present women as liars, while at the same time, presenting themselves as blameless. The absence of any consequence to male abusers for their crimes against intimate partners sends a clear message to victims: help is not on the way.

Domestic violence cases are different from other criminal cases. The present laws in Canada, under which perpetrators are charged, are simply not adequate for responding to the distinct dynamics present in domestic violence cases. We worked, in 2016-17, with former MP Irene Mathyssen whose office helped write specific domestic violence legislation for a private member's bill. Unfortunately, it stalled when the election was called.

The London Abused Women's Centre recommends the committee expand its area of study to include amending the Criminal Code to create a domestic violence offence. It further recommends that the committee seek the permission to review Ms. Mathyssen's confidential act to amend the Criminal Code for domestic violence.

To be clear, and in ending, there is a need, Mr. Garrison, for your amendment. However, LAWC proposes that it be included as one section of a much larger piece of legislation, a much-needed piece of legislation, specifically, a domestic violence bill.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much for that, Ms. Walker.

I will now go to the Sussex Vale Transition House for five minutes.

Go ahead, Ms. Matthews.

[Julie Matthews, Executive Director, Sussex Vale Transition House]

Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to speak to this valuable committee.

My name is Julie Matthews, and I am the executive director of the Sussex Vale Transition House, which is an emergency shelter for women leaving domestic abuse in rural New Brunswick.

It is encouraging to me, as a worker in the domestic violence field, to see this motion to add controlling or coercive conduct within intimate relationships to the Criminal Code. Domestic abuse is a pervasive, life-threatening crime affecting people in all of our communities, regardless of gender, age, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, social standing or immigration status.

Domestic violence takes many forms: physical, emotional, economic, stalking and harassment, spiritual and sexual.

Controlling and coercive behaviour may include threats of harm to the victim, the victim’s children, pets—including large farm animals—and other family members and threats of suicide if she leaves or does something undesired by the abuser or refuses to comply with the abuser’s demands.

The abuser's owning or keeping of guns in the household not only increases the risk of homicide, but the guns can be used as psychological tools to control or coerce behaviour simply because they are present. This circumstance may be more likely in rural areas given higher volumes of hunters within the population.

Other examples include withholding or controlling finances or bank accounts or stealing the victim’s income, continuously sending unwanted communications and forcing or withholding the practising of religion.

In 2020, almost 25% of our clients here reported suffering either physical or sexual abuse, while more than 75% of our clients reported emotional, financial or psychological abuse, all of which fall under controlling or coercive behaviour. These results are very similar to our 2019 statistics.

While we know the current pandemic has seen a sharp increase in demand for services, our rural transition house has seen a decrease in both support calls and total days of care provided, when comparing statistics from 2019 to 2020. The one service that did see an increase was assisting clients with completing emergency intervention orders.

Victims living in rural areas may also have limited access to transportation. If she is not permitted to have a driver’s licence, for example, or if she has no access to a car, living outside of the town makes it extremely difficult for the victim to leave the home on her own.

Being in isolation at home with one’s abusive partner with a mandated order to stay at home exponentially increases the difficulty and danger of attempting to access any help given the abuser's monitoring of devices, such as phones or computers, and not allowing the victim to leave the home. This problem may be amplified by the lack of Internet access in many parts of our rural community.

Living in a rural area where everyone knows everyone else makes it difficult for a victim to find a safe place to stay where the abuser can’t find her. However, safe housing is only the first step for a person living with domestic violence. In order to get out of that situation, she needs to regain self-confidence to be able to be financially independent, find permanent housing—which is a great challenge for someone in ideal circumstances, never mind a difficult one like this—and start anew, still knowing that the abusive partner may be living and working in the same town where she is. This is just the beginning of her journey.

Adding controlling or coercive behaviour to the Criminal Code could greatly decrease the suffering of hundreds of thousands of domestic abuse victims. A well-known expert in the domestic violence field, Lundy Bancroft, states that the impetus to change from abusers controlling behaviour is always extrinsic and rarely occurs when it is self-motivated. Additionally, he notes that if the legal system does not hold the abuser accountable, he will escalate to more serious violations under the assumption that the system does not mean what it says.

This bill could potentially result in actual impactful consequences for offenders resulting, hopefully, in their improved and changed behaviour patterns. It could give police and RCMP members tools to intervene more effectively and empower victims of abuse to reach out for help with the knowledge that help can actually be given.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much for that, Ms. Matthews. You are well under time. I really appreciate that, given the time crunch we continue to face with our committee.

We'll go into our first round of questions, starting with Mr. Moore for six minutes.

Go ahead, sir.

[Rob Moore, Conservative, Fundy Royal, NB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

My sincere thanks to all of our witnesses in this panel. There is some really strong, powerful and moving testimony, and we appreciate all your input into this study that we're having today.

I want to ask Julie Matthews, executive director of Sussex Vale Transition House, about some things in her opening remarks. Sussex is in my riding of Fundy Royal. You talked about different challenges faced. Canada's a big, diverse country with urban and rural communities. Representing a rural region, I'd like some more comments from you on some of the things we should be particularly attuned to when it comes to domestic violence situations in rural areas.

One thing you mentioned that really struck me was that everyone knows everyone else, and that hadn't come up yet in our committee study, but that's so true in many small towns and villages. Everyone knows everybody.

Could you make some further commentary on that? Thank you for all the work that you're doing in our community.

[Julie Matthews]

Yes, thank you. I can answer that with pleasure.

Being as small as you know our town is, Rob, it can be as difficult as even using a taxi service, for example. We have one or two here in our town and it's happened that one of our clients knows the taxi driver who knows the abuser who.... It's difficult to move around the community without somebody seeing you and communicating with others. It's something we run into with getting to work or providing child care. It's not very hard for someone to find you. We find a lot of people living in our community may not want to actually stay in our community due to that. However, this is where all the support is. If it's where your family is, you don't want to go away from that, so it's really a catch-22 to know what's going to be the safest, best solution for you to start a fresh life or at least to be safe with your children, and everything that goes along with that.

[Rob Moore, Conservative, Fundy Royal, NB]

Obviously for all of us, including the way we're conducting this meeting over Zoom—many of us a year ago had never heard of Zoom—so much has changed during this COVID crisis and the response to it. One thing is that Canadians are saying, “Stay home where you're safe. Be home and be safe and protect your community.” Yet we have many in our community for whom home is not a safe place.

Ms. Matthews or Ms. Walker, could either of you comment on things that we should be particularly aware of during this crisis when people are being told to stay home? It's been called a “shadow crisis” because it's happening behind closed doors, but is there any special thing that we should be aware of, as Canadians are being told by provincial governments and the federal government that they should stay home?

[Megan Walker]

We know that a woman's home is the most dangerous place for her and that one in three women is abused in this country and that every six days a woman is murdered by her partner. These are the lives of women we are talking about. Yes, they are currently isolated in their homes, where they are exposed to ongoing and relentless tactics utilized by their partner to continue to control them. That sometimes may mean killing animals in the home. Sometimes it may mean killing her.

We need to understand that this is a crisis in this country. It's a crisis globally. Mr. Garrison has opened the gates now for us to do something truly meaningful to save women's lives. That's why we need to recognize that male violence against women is a pandemic. We need to make sure that we have proper legislation that is named “domestic violence legislation” or another name that indicates what is actually happening in the lives of these women, where all the sections can be added into that area.

I don't think people really understand that we're not talking about men who are out of control. We're talking about abusers who are very much in control. They don't just all of a sudden explode and abuse and assault the grocery store clerk. They wait until they're home. They wait and utilize the tactics from a power-and-control wheel to make sure that women are pieces of property and are there to obey. If they do not obey and he loses control over that woman, he will shift his tactics. Ultimately, she is at risk of being murdered.

All the while—this is happening right now during COVID—we have children home from school who are exposed to this high level of violence in their homes every single day. Their anxiety would be through the roof. This is a very difficult time in the lives of women and children.