Evidence of meeting #20 for Justice and Human Rights in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was witnesses.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Mike Kelloway Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
Okay. I'll try to make this one quick.
Chief, it's an “in your opinion” question.
Beyond what you just mentioned, what would be the best way to change the frontline approach to domestic violence, apart from introducing a new offence of coercive control in the Criminal Code?
Chief, Peel Regional Police
In the way we respond to mental health, for some reason police officers are still the 24-7 go-to for mental health, but we're not mental health professionals.
If you apply the same concept to intimate partner familial violence, if we showed up at a doorstep with a community service provider or a specialist who had nothing to do with policing and had the ability to engage somebody, even for us to be the secondary, that's thinking outside the box, where we just don't own that space. That would be a brilliant pilot to be able to see, somebody who is a gateway to a variety of services, because here we're very diverse, right from settlement services to transitional housing, or whatever it might be, instead of an officer trying to broker that and trying to discern that.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Iqra Khalid
Thanks very much, Mr. Kelloway.
We'll go now to Monsieur Fortin for two and a half minutes.
Go ahead.
Bloc
Rhéal Fortin Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
My thanks to Ms. Youssef and Ms. Neto for the clarifications they made earlier in the definition of what would be considered controlling or coercive conduct. The clarifications were interesting and helpful.
I will now turn to you, Chief Duraiappah.
In your last response, you spoke of the possibility of working together with social workers and psychologists. I am interested.
First, how are police officers equipped to respond to such situations? I am not talking about weapons, but rather response tools.
Second, working collaboratively with social workers could help police officers, but could steps be taken in advance to prevent individuals from engaging in controlling or coercive conduct?
Chief, Peel Regional Police
Tools right now are very limited to law enforcement-related abilities, enhanced interviewing skills. We have about six or seven risk assessment tools that our intimate partner violence investigators would utilize. Then we shift and lean on our service partners.
To roll into your next question, for example we might be at somebody's house five times over a period of four months and we might resolve the dispute, but there's no case management during the week with us sitting with settlement services, supports for survivors, in order to triage and maybe do a door knock mid-week where we could not only provide the victim support but even come alongside the perpetrator in a way that gets them off track.
That concept doesn't exist, and that would be an upstream one before we're at a 911 call.
We have the data. I have loads and loads of data about how many times I've been to Chief Nishan's, for example, but that never gets shared with other providers to see how we could take it off-ramp and get the right services to the right people at the right time.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Iqra Khalid
Thank you.
Thank you, Monsieur Fortin.
We'll go to Mr. Garrison now for our final round, for two and a half minutes.
Go ahead, sir.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I thank the chief for his testimony, but I want to take the last few minutes here to go back to the three witnesses who are frontline service providers.
I was going to ask them about how we increase trust in the system, but I'd like to give each of them 30 or 45 seconds just to re-emphasize anything from their presentation or anything they think we have missed in this panel.
Maybe we could start with Ms. Vanza, then go Ms. Youssef, and finally Ms. Neto.
Counsellor and Mental Health Promoter, Nisa Homes
Mr. Garrison and Madam Chair, thank you so much for this.
I think the panel is great. The one thing I do want to drive home, and I raised my hand earlier, is that this bill is very important because we talk about physical harm, physical abuse, but as a registered psychotherapist who works directly with trauma, I can tell you that victims or survivors are quite resilient in getting over the physical abuse. It's the coercion, the power, and the control; it's that aspect that takes over their life for the rest of their lives and also impacts the children.
That is why I'm here today, to drive that home, so thank you for giving me the time to clarify that point.
National Manager, Nisa Homes
Thank you so much again for giving us this chance.
I echo what I said earlier. I think it really does come down to training first responders and providing them with the tools, as mentioned, so that they can correctly identify, when they go into a home, and can see whether or not there is...even if they have a doubt, they can see the red flags, and then in accordance with that, can respond.
I do love the idea of having, along with a police officer, someone who comes from this background—a subject matter expert in domestic violence, in intimate partner violence, who can give a 360 view, basically, and assess what's going on, something a police officer may not be able to do, given their limited training.
As mentioned earlier, there are many examples. One example I want to quickly mention is this. We had a client whose partner refused to let her breastfeed at certain times. He would control when and how she would breastfeed. That just compounded the trauma that she was experiencing. I'll leave it at that.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
Thank you, Ms. Youssef.
With the chair's indulgence, maybe we can give 30 seconds to Ms. Neto.
Community Programs Manager, Women's Habitat of Etobicoke
Ditto to everything that has been said. I want to just emphasize that coercion, domestic violence, is not an issue that happens to other races; it's a human race issue. When police show up at a particular door, police come in realizing that this is not “these people's” issue. They come in with a full understanding of what coercion and abuse and control are and engage in interference skills—as the chief said, engage in paying attention to the behaviours.
Thank you so very much.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Iqra Khalid
Thank you.
With that, we conclude our questioning.
I'd like to thank our witnesses for a very informative discussion. I really appreciate all the work you do. If you have any information or clarifications that you'd like to follow up on, please send us written submissions through the clerk.
Thank you once again. I really appreciate it, and I think I echo all members of our committee.
We'll suspend now for a minute as we let in our next panel and do their sound checks really quickly.
Thanks again, everyone.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Iqra Khalid
I call the meeting back to order.
I have a few comments for our witnesses before we get started.
Please wait until I recognize you by name. When you are ready to speak, please click on your microphone icon to activate the mike. Ensure that your language is selected to the language that you would like to hear, not the language you would like to speak, so you can get proper translation of what is being said in both official languages.
When you are speaking, please speak slowly and clearly into the mike. When you are not speaking, please ensure that your microphone is on mute. I have a one-minute card and a 30-second card, which I will be using to monitor the time as we go through this.
Without further ado, I'll introduce our witnesses today.
We start with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, represented by Kimberley Greenwood, who is vice-president of the board of directors, and Francis Lanouette, who is the co-chair of the crime prevention, community safety and well-being committee. Welcome.
We also have the National Association of Friendship Centres, represented by Christopher Sheppard, who is the president, and Jocelyn Formsma, who is the executive director.
Lastly, we have The Redwood, represented by Abimbola Ajibolade, executive director, and Raheena Dahya, who is a lawyer and family law mediator.
With that, we'll go into our opening statements by witnesses, starting with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.
You'll have five minutes collectively to make your remarks. Please go ahead.
Chief Francis Lanouette Co-Chair of the Crime Prevention, Community Safety and Well-being Committee, Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police
Good afternoon.
Thank you to the members for the opportunity to appear before this committee.
My presentation today will be delivered in two parts. The first will present the position of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) on the proposed legislative amendment. The second will support the CACP's position by demonstrating the limitations currently imposed by the Criminal Code when it comes to intervening in cases of intimate partner violence.
Chief Greenwood will address the prevalence of intimate partner violence in Canada and how the addition of a coercive control law could interrupt violent assaults, therefore protecting our victims sooner, before physical or visible harm comes to them.
Let me begin by stating that the CACP supports the creation of a new Criminal Code offence for coercive control between intimate partners. With this action, Canada reaffirms its commitment to do everything possible to make gender equality a reality.
As we focus on the new offence being proposed by Bill C-247, we would like to draw your attention to recommendations 1 to 4, found on page 10, of a brief prepared by the University of New Brunswick: support for the creation of a new criminal offence of coercive control; ensure the inclusion of former intimate partners regardless of living arrangements; a comprehensive description of coercive control behaviours; the implementation of a risk assessment tool for police officers so they can clearly identify the elements that constitute coercive control behaviours.
The University of New Brunswick conducted a workshop in Quebec last November, with the active participation of the CACP, as part of a research project on coercive control behaviours. I would like to share an excerpt of the testimony of a female police officer, a team sergeant, that clearly demonstrates the current limitations for police intervention:
The problem I see at our level is when there is no criminal offence. For example, there is no assault, no threat, no harassment, just to name a few, but there are clearly coercive control behaviours. We find ourselves in a kind of fog. We do not have concrete tools at our disposal, nor do we have many possible intervention options. This means that we often go back to the station with a case of family dispute or of assistance to the public when we know full well that something unhealthy was going on. However, our authority under the Criminal Code of Canada did not provide us with a legislative option to intervene. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for us to tell ourselves that we will be back to that address, with the hope that, at that time, there might be a legal reason to take concrete action and that it is not too late.
As you can see, our police officers have the victims' best interests at heart, but in the absence of a clearly established criminal offence for coercive behaviour between intimate partners, they cannot intervene adequately. This testimony clearly outlines the current limitations of the Criminal Code and the importance of implementing legislation in this area.
I now turn the presentation over to my colleague, Chief Kimberley Greenwood.
Chief Kimberley Greenwood Vice-President of the Board of Directors, Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police
Good afternoon.
In Canada, it is reported that intimate partner violence accounts for one quarter of all police-related....
My apologies, I'm having some problems here.
Vice-President of the Board of Directors, Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police
I think we're fine now. I'm sorry about that.
Vice-President of the Board of Directors, Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police
As police officers, we know that by the time a domestic violence charge is warranted, it is likely that the victim has been experiencing some form of violence or controlling behaviours at the hands of their partner for a significant period. Those who are charged with domestic violence usually engage in a variety of negative behaviours designed to exert control over their victims. We are advocating for the inclusion of coercive conduct as a criminal offence, because we have seen first-hand what happens to those who experience this type of sustained behaviour.
Victims may not understand that their partner's actions can lead to aggressive and assaultive behaviours and may seem withdrawn when police respond by coming to their homes. It is imperative that we provide officers with the tools and the training to recognize coercive and controlling tactics to support and assist the victims.
While this type of behaviour is seen as unacceptable, there is not a wide awareness of what constitutes coercive control, what the warning signs are and what options victims have available to them. Coercive control is not a single event that can be witnessed or documented with photographs and medical evidence. It is a variety of tactics carried out over a period of time and designed to deprive, humiliate, isolate and dominate. It is the kind of behaviour that chips away at victims and makes them more and more susceptible as it continues. A risk assessment tool for police officers would help to ensure that all aspects of coercive control are recognized and acknowledged.
We are also advocating to ensure that former intimate partners, regardless of their living arrangements, fall within the scope of this offence. For many victims, the proliferation of technology and social media means that even though they have taken steps to end a relationship, they may never be free from the controlling behaviour of their—