Justice Committee on Feb. 18th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Good morning, everybody. I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 20 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

Today, as the clerk has indicated, Ms. Dabrusin will be replacing our colleague Mr. Maloney. Welcome. Also, Ms. Wagantall will be replacing Mr. Cooper. Welcome to you, as well. It promises to be a good meeting.

To ensure that we have an orderly meeting today, I'll just outline a few of the rules.

I'll just note to all the witnesses that interpretation services are available. At the bottom of your screen, please select the language you want to listen to; you don't have to select the language you are speaking. When you would like to speak, either raise your hand or just alert me or the clerk.

Before speaking, I will ask that you please wait until I recognize you by name. Please unmute yourself when you speak, and then mute yourself again once you are done speaking. When you are not speaking, please ensure that you are on mute. As a reminder, all comments by members and witnesses should be addressed through the chair. With regard to the speakers list, the clerk and I will do our best to maintain an orderly speaking list for all members.

To our witnesses, I have a one-minute card, and a 30-second card. These will indicate how much time you have remaining for your opening remarks, which will be five minutes. Then, as members ask questions, we'll also indicate to them how much time they have remaining, using these two cards.

With that, I would like to welcome our witnesses.

From Nisa Homes, we have Reena Vanza, who is a counsellor and mental health promoter, and Yasmine Youssef, who is the national manager. Welcome.

From Peel Regional Police, we have Chief Nishan Duraiappah. Welcome, Chief Duraiappah. It is so good to have you here. From the Women's Habitat of Etobicoke, we have Carla Neto, community programs manager.

Thank you very much to the witnesses for being here today.

We'll start with Nisa Homes. You have five minutes collectively to make your presentation, and I will be keeping time.

Please go ahead.

[Yasmine Youssef, National Manager, Nisa Homes]

Good morning, everyone.

Thank you so much for inviting us here today and for the work everyone is doing to ensure the safety of men, women and children across Canada.

As the Nisa Homes national manager, and with my colleague Reena, who is a mental health promoter, we appreciate speaking here today in support of Bill C-247.

[Reena Vanza, Counsellor and Mental Health Promoter, Nisa Homes]

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for having us.

Nisa Homes is a group of transitional homes serving women and children who are immigrants and refugees.

We have seven homes across the country, from B.C. to Ontario. We have supported more than 700 women and children to restart their lives. Nisa Homes recognizes that housing is necessary but not sufficient for overall well-being. As such, we also provide case management, counselling, activities, child care and financial assistance.

In April 2018, Aisha came to Nisa Homes with her three young children. Although Aisha had come to Canada 10 years earlier, she was barely able to communicate in English, had none of her documents with her, had no bank account, no phone and no friends or family here in Canada.

For years, Aisha endured financial, emotional and psychological abuse, not thinking it was serious enough to seek help. Aisha told us that the only reason she left was that a neighbour called the police and her husband was finally arrested. She feared he would retaliate with even more violence and knew she could no longer live with him. Aisha told us that she'd been hospitalized in the past. However, at this point, her partner had threatened to kill her family abroad, stopping her from reaching out or accepting help.

This is a story that we often hear at Nisa Homes. These are women whose partners have coerced them to stay in unsafe homes using tactics such as isolation, threatening to harm their children or family, threatening to deport them, not giving them access to finances and not allowing them to work. These tactics result in women not only living in fear on a daily basis but also in fear of being unable to survive on their own if they were to leave.

Our clientele at Nisa Homes are not only experiencing abuse. As we know, due to their cultural or religious affiliations, as well as their immigration status, they face additional barriers that hinder their ability to find safety and security. Such barriers include things like limitations to resources, culture shock, language limitations, limited information about their rights in Canada, no support system, fear and distrust of authorities, as well as precarious living or working conditions.

[Yasmine Youssef]

We believe this bill can be incredibly helpful for our clientele, as many don't realize that coercive and controlling behaviour does qualify as abuse. Like Aisha, women who flee abuse often wait for things to get physically violent before they seek help. Even then, the burden still remains on them to prove that abuse did indeed take place.

We believe that in order for this bill to be effective, investments need to be made towards knowledge mobilization campaigns. These campaigns can help increase the community's understanding of what coercive and controlling behaviour is, what intimate partner violence in general is, and how this bill can help them.

This will also require training for first responders, such as police, doctors, nurses and social service providers. This training can help them identify and respond effectively to cases of coercive and controlling behaviour, because we know that often that first response can make it or break it for a survivor.

This must also be done from an intersectional lens that takes into account the different lived experiences of marginalized women, since statistics show that these women have a higher chance of experiencing violence.

We believe an inclusive approach can be achieved through investing in capacity building for community-based organizations, as well as cultural sensitivity training for service providers. Like Aisha, the majority of women who come to Nisa Homes come to us because they know we speak their language and because we provide that culturally sensitive care that is so important when they're in such a vulnerable situation.

Finally, funding needs to be allocated towards ensuring that this bill can practically assist those experiencing or escaping coercive and controlling behaviours. Examples include improved and affordable legal assistance and awareness, additional shelter beds, additional gender-based violence services and additional affordable housing.

Once again, thank you for bringing our voice to the forefront in this discussion. We hope that we have done some justice in capturing the experiences of the populations we work with.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much, Ms. Youssef. I appreciate that. You were right under time.

We'll now go to Chief Duraiappah.

Please go ahead, Chief. You have five minutes.

[Chief Nishan Duraiappah, Chief, Peel Regional Police]

Good day, Chair Khalid and committee members. I'm very thankful for the invitation to participate in this discussion on controlling and coercive conduct within intimate partner relationships.

As you know, my name is Nishan Duraiappah. For the past 14 months, I've had the pleasure of being chief of Peel Regional Police here in Ontario, and previous to that I policed in another jurisdiction. For context, Peel region contains 1.4 million people and has the highest percentage of visible minorities within the greater Toronto area. It is inclusive of the cities of Brampton and Mississauga, and we are also responsible for policing Canada's largest international airport, which is Toronto Pearson.

In Peel region, our officers respond to over 1,000 calls for family violence and intimate partner violence per month. Family and intimate partner violence, collectively, remain the number one call for service for us. In 2020, this equated to over 19,000 calls for help.

Tragically, despite our best efforts, some of these calls result in homicides and serious assaults. Roughly 40% of all homicides in Peel region over the last two years have been because of family and intimate partner violence. This is a priority affecting communities in Peel and across this country.

Power and control are essential to the cycle of family and intimate partner violence. Peel police support the need to pursue additional mechanisms that interrupt that cycle. The new offence proposed by Bill C-247 is an opportunity to do so. We know that there are many incidents where the ability to intervene in controlling behaviour will be an added tool to prevent future loss of life and harm to a victim.

I understand that the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, who support the establishment of this offence, will be providing remarks later.

Our goal here in Peel police is to find every possible way to mitigate risk, and the enforcement of coercive control can be a valuable tool. I'll briefly speak to risk mitigation tools, but I would like to emphasize that, despite the best offences being available to us, we continue to be concerned that repeat intimate partner violence creates the greatest challenge for us. The need for reform as it pertains to high-risk, repeat offenders is of importance to me.

On Tuesday, July 28 of last year, my officers responded to a shooting in the city of Brampton. Officers located a 25-year-old female deceased of a gunshot wound and a male with self-inflicted injuries. This young woman was Darian Henderson-Bellman. She and the accused male, Darnell Reid, had a relationship for about three years. During those three previous years, Reid was initially charged with domestic assault against her. He was released on bail with no-contact conditions and would go on to breach those conditions three additional times and be re-released on each occasion.

On his fourth arrest, police located a loaded handgun on his person. As a result, in May 2020 the Crown attempted to detain Reid based on secondary and tertiary grounds. He had continually threatened the safety of the public and had a history that he would not abide by any release plan or surety. The Crown, however, was unsuccessful and he was again released with a GPS monitoring device and two sureties.

For Mr. Reid, power and control were central to how he coerced the victim back into a position of risk, ultimately killing her on July 28, for which he was charged. This was despite all best efforts of police and the Crown and the prosecution of his existing offences. The release of high-risk repeat offenders who demonstrate an element of control and manipulate the vulnerable is of significant concern. I highlight this as a concurrent priority for many police leaders.

As it pertains to the newly proposed offence itself, as you know there are existing Criminal Code sections where it is an offence to use words or acts short of violence in very confined contexts. Police officers, no doubt, are optimistic that the new offence will provide proof of clear offence so that it is articulable and prosecuted.

Family and intimate partner violence and the outcomes we see are the result of complex circumstances that are as complex as the community we police. Peel police have developed a new comprehensive strategy of an integrated community safety plan built on programming and community development. It will comprise 48 officers working from a community-driven collaborative space. They will be working from a community hub to ensure that we integrate with community services and have immediate integration with service partners.

Through programs like this, enhanced legislation and the continuous pursuit of solutions that address family and intimate partner violence, we will be better equipped to make a difference in people's lives and save lives.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much for that, Chief. It was five minutes on the dot. That is awesome.

We will now go to Women's Habitat of Etobicoke, represented by Carla Neto.

Please go ahead. You have five minutes.

[Carla Neto, Community Programs Manager, Women's Habitat of Etobicoke]

Good morning, Madam Chair.

My name is Carla Neto, and I appear before this committee representing Women's Habitat of Etobicoke, a feminist organization serving victims and survivors of gender-based violence, and their children or dependants, since 1978.

We operate two distinct services, a 25-bed shelter for women and children escaping violence, and an outreach centre that works with women and children living in the community who are impacted by violence and poverty, many of whom are still residing with abusive intimate partners. Both sides support women to assess risk, develop safety plans, offer counselling to address the impact of abuse and trauma, and offer referrals to essential services such as housing, health care and legal services, parenting programs, as well as prevention and leadership programming for boys and girls.

I have worked in this sector for almost 30 years, working with children and women, victims and survivors of intimate partner violence, in which coercion and control are very much part of the dynamic of the abuse and terror they are subjected to.

We thank you for inviting us and commend you on your efforts in the study of this topic and the proposed creation of a new criminal offence of controlling or coercive conduct as outlined in the private member's bill, Bill C-247.

Historically, much emphasis has been placed on physically aggressive acts in intimate partner violence. In doing so, we often lacked the broader context of the relationship and missed the opportunity to see the role and impact of non-physical violence. Although we can't say that coercive control will always eventually result in physical abuse, it is fair to say that in our experience and work with victims and survivors of abuse, all physical abuse was preceded by and will continue to include coercive control.

Coercive control occurs within the context of complex dynamics in intimate partner relationships where one partner exerts power and control over the other. Coercive control is a pattern of controlling behaviours that create an unequal power dynamic in a relationship, making it difficult for the victims of such behaviour to leave the relationship, because it's less visible and therefore often seen as having lesser effect. It is also harder to identify by family and friends, but, certainly, it is equally damaging to the women and children subjected to it in the relationship.

Victims and survivors of coercive control describe their experiences as living under a constant, never-ending threat. Others describe feeling like captives trapped in plain sight. Those of us who are survivors of war recognize some of the same psychological effects and impacts in the victims and survivors of coercive control.

Coercive control in intimate partner violence has two main components, coercion and control. Coercion can be the use of force or threats of physical aggression to alter the victim's behaviour. Control is used to compel obedience by the victim by monopolizing vital resources, dictating preferred choices, limiting options and depriving the victim of essential supports needed to exercise a level of independence.

Coercive control is so effective because the victims see threats of punishment by abusers as credible, and they should. Many of the women we serve shared being stalked by their abusive partners. They also shared that threats included death, the abusive partner threatening suicide, disfigurement, removal or harm to their children, pets and family members, deportation and defamation, just to name a few.

The control victims experience at the hands of their abusive partners includes the removal of choice of decisions about their own reproductive health and rights, because the more children a woman has with the abusive partner, the greater control the abuser exercises in all spheres of her life, including using state-sanctioned structures such as the legal and family law systems to continue to coerce and control women through custody of and access to the children. Additionally, abusive partners use the manipulation of children, including threatening to kill their other parent, in this case the victim, if the children choose to reside with the victim in situations of child custody. It is common that children will even refuse to go to the shelters.

Isolation is another tactic, and, sadly, statistics show that in many of these cases where coercive control is coupled with physical violence, it leads to lethality.

Finally, we suggest that the strategies and efforts to address violence in intimate relationships and gender-based violence must be multipronged to address its complexity and dynamics: prevention through education, provision of supports for victims and survivors, supports for organizations that support the victims, meaningful investments and funding, and legislative changes.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much for that, Ms. Neto.

We'll go into our round of questions. I will remind members and witnesses to speak slowly and clearly so that our interpreters are able to interpret in a good fashion. We'll start with Mr. Lewis.

Mr. Lewis, you have six minutes. Go ahead, sir.

[Chris Lewis, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Thank you so much, Madam Chair. I certainly appreciate this opportunity. What a fantastic panel of witnesses.

Thank you to each and every one of you for coming here today. It's really important that we hear from you to make these very important decisions going forward. The testimony reminded me a lot of the woman from Hiatus House in Windsor, who was on our first panel of witnesses.

With regard to Nisa Homes and Women's Habitat of Etobicoke, thank you very much for your service in protecting those who need the most protection.

This question is specifically for anyone on the panel, except for the chief—I will get to you shortly, sir. Can you comment on the impact of COVID-19 on instances of domestic violence over the past year, and are there recommendations that you have on how the government could ensure that better support is provided to the survivors?

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Is there somebody specific you want to hear from, Mr. Lewis?

[Chris Lewis, Conservative, Essex, ON]

It's open to the three witnesses.

[Carla Neto]

Do you mean, specific to the pandemic?

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Yes, Ms. Neto. Go ahead.

[Carla Neto]

The pandemic came only to shed the light on the existing issues and problems. Certainly for the women we work with in our outreach centre, as I said, many of whom are still living with abusive partners, now the pandemic has created even more challenges. We have women who are not able to access our services. Although we are not having in-person services, we do have virtual services. We provide support via the phone. These women, they can't. They often call us from the washroom. They often call us from the laundry room. The level of vulnerability has increased to the degree where they're really afraid for their lives now.

In terms of what needs to be happening, violence against women is an issue that impacts...and it requires multiple solutions and the involvement of multiple members of society, the involvement of men. There has to be more than interventions. There has to be prevention. We need to be connecting with men who use violence and providing supports because they're now quarantined in the same house. The supports that women are receiving won't do much if the perpetrator himself is not receiving any support.

When it comes to the pandemic, we are seeing a lot of vulnerabilities for the women. We're seeing a lot of food insecurity, a lot of increased economic dependency on the abusive partner. Again, the solutions have to be multipronged. They have to include multiple levels of intervention and engagement.

[Chris Lewis, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Thank you so very much for that answer; that was excellent.

I do see a hand raised. Perhaps I will give her one minute, and then I do have one question for the chief, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Ms. Youssef, go ahead.

[Yasmine Youssef]

In addition to what was said, that's exactly what we have witnessed, too. We've seen a huge increase in the number of calls that we've received since the start of the pandemic—more than double the number of calls we normally get—but we haven't seen as many women come to us because of that fear of living in a communal space where they might be exposed to the virus themselves—or their children—or simply because they can't reach out to us.

We've received so many random methods of reaching out to us that are not the usual. Usually, we just get calls. Now we're getting Facebook messages, Instagram messages, messages on our web chat, different ways of trying to approach us because they can't find the safety to be able to do it normally.

In addition to that, obviously the times when they do come to us, we see that the cases are much more violent than they normally are. We're seeing cases of guns being involved. We're seeing cases of children being harmed and things like that, which are not usually what we see every day, I would say, outside of the pandemic.

To echo what was also said in terms of what can be done, I do think that a wider scope of application needs to be approached. We can't just look at providing support for these women. We have to look at the overall structure in which this takes place. We have the police here looking at how they approach these situations, looking at how the legislation also affects these women.

[Chris Lewis, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Thank you so much. I appreciate this very much.

Chief, first and foremost, thank you for your service, sir, and thanks also to your entire force. I have two cousins who are OPP officers and some dear friends who are as well. I can only imagine the frustration, but thank you very much for your service.

Very quickly, Chief, what would be the main frustration officers have when trying to provide help or support for survivors of domestic violence?

[Chief Nishan Duraiappah]

The main frustration, I think, in our context when we are coming upon survivors is.... It's all part and parcel, like the chicken and the egg. There is a fear of reporting, because there is a lack of confidence that the system will actually provide them the protection they're seeking. What I think goes through everybody's mind is this: Is this phone call to the police actually going to compound my situation and make it worse? I think our ability to provide the confidence to survivors that we will do our best and the Crown attorneys will do their best....

We have realized—and this is why the other witnesses here are really doing yeoman's work—is that the ability to do service provider advocacy to strengthen their ability to fill those spaces that we can't is really where it is, Mr. Lewis.

[Chris Lewis, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much for that.

We'll now go to Mr. Sarai.

Mr. Sarai, you have six minutes. Please go ahead.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Thank you to all the witnesses. All of you do work that is very important in our communities, with some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

I have a Nisa Homes in my riding. They do great work and I'm very proud of them. Thank you for doing that work in a very niche community where cultural sensitivity is paramount and knowing that culture is very important. Working with those vulnerable women in a very discreet way when they come to you is even more paramount.

I am going to ask this question of either of the Nisa Homes witnesses.

How are you seeing children who live in households with controlling and coercive behaviour being impacted, especially during the time of COVID? Are they experiencing controlling or coercive behaviour in their households, and are you able to help them through your organization? Can you elaborate on that?

[Reena Vanza]

Thank you for the question. I may step in for this one.

As the counsellor at Nisa Homes, I work directly with the women and children who come into our home, and I must say yes, absolutely, I do see the effects on the children. We know that psychological or physical abuse or any sort of abuse towards a mother does not stop at the mom. It obviously goes through the entire family system into the children.

What we're seeing with COVID right now is that the children who come in are also living in fear. Usually the children go to school, so the mom endures things, and the children come home, and moms are very good at covering things. Now, with the pandemic, everyone is in the house, everyone is in each other's face, so the children who are coming in are more prone to fear responses. I am seeing things such as nightmares. I had some children come in who bed-wet because of the fear. Many children have mistrust of authority. Many children don't want to go to school, because they're afraid they're going to be taken from their moms.

Yes, the compounding effect upon children is huge. This pertains to Nisa Homes as well as to other shelters and transitional homes. We talk and we try to collaborate to come up with best practice approaches. I can say that this is universal throughout the pandemic right now; children are being affected more than ever. Or maybe we're just seeing it more than ever because the circumstances are different right now.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

In your opinion, will Bill C-247 help children who are living in these abusive situations? Also, what more can we do to ensure that children are protected?