Madam Chair and honourable committee members, thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee.
I speak for the Canadian Centre for Elder Law. We conduct research and develop reports and educational tools on legal and policy issues related to aging. You will find many elder abuse resources on our website. Last month, we completed a study paper on elder abuse for the B.C. Council to Reduce Elder Abuse. We are presently updating our “Practical Guide to Elder Abuse and Neglect Law in Canada”, with funding from the Department of Justice victims fund.
We commend the committee for setting aside time to study elder abuse in Canada.
I will first speak briefly to the sufficiency of existing Criminal Code provisions and then comment on some other prevention and response issues within the federal jurisdiction.
First, elder abuse includes different kinds of victimization, which require different policy and legal responses. Roughly, elder abuse includes interpersonal family violence and neglect; financial abuse under a power of attorney or another legal document; fraud, scams and professional cons; and then, finally, abuse and neglect in institutional settings.
In terms of interpersonal violence, older people are mostly harmed by people they care about—often, dependent family members. Most seniors do not want their child or grandchild to go to jail; they just want the abuse to stop. When they are harmed by con artists, they are more supportive of prosecution. Family members want corporations penalized for neglecting older adults living in long-term care.
We concur with previous comments that the existing age-neutral Criminal Code provisions are largely adequate for responding to elder abuse in Canada. That said, the proposal by Mr. Webb, from the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, for a Criminal Code provision on criminal endangerment to facilitate the prosecution of neglect in long-term care merits study.
Further, we recommend legal research into, one, the effectiveness of existing Criminal Code provisions for addressing violence against other populations, such as women and children and, two, the U.S. experience with criminal law responses to elder abuse.
We are part of a law reform agency at the Canadian Centre for Elder Law. We believe that law reform is ideally informed by robust comparative research that allows us to learn from the mistakes and the victories of others. Many states in the U.S. penalize elder abuse criminally. We need a better understanding of these experiences before we follow their lead. We recommend that the Government of Canada fund this research.
Although Criminal Code enforcement falls largely to the provinces and the territories, the Government of Canada has a significant role to play. For example, law enforcement in smaller communities across Canada is by the RCMP, which requires funding for better outreach and response. Much of the police response to elder abuse is attending on site to provide information and referral. Social worker/counsellor and police detective pairings make for great on-site support for older adults.
Most jurisdictions do not have a Crown counsel policy regarding how to work with victims and witnesses who have mental capacity issues, including, for example, dementia. The Government of Canada can provide leadership in supporting research and policy development in this area, perhaps by bringing back the federal elder abuse initiative, which has funded some excellent resource development in Canada. The government could also support interjurisdictional knowledge exchange on this topic, possibly through the federal-provincial-territorial working group on seniors issues.
While punishment can be very important, we encourage the committee to apply a victim-and-survivor-centred lens that gives attention to the unique needs of different vulnerable populations in Canada. This approach highlights many responsibilities that are within the federal jurisdiction, beyond the Criminal Code.
First, a number of populations that are particularly vulnerable to abuse fall under the federal jurisdiction, for example, indigenous peoples and immigrants and refugees. Both groups require better support when they experience abuse and neglect, and you can imagine some unique vulnerability here.
Second, and my final point, the recently passed National Housing Strategy Act codified a human right to housing in Canada. It requires the minister responsible to develop and maintain a national housing strategy that addresses persons most in need of housing, which includes, according to Canada’s national housing strategy, both seniors and people fleeing violence.
There is only one transition house in Canada developed to meet the needs of older women. In many communities, the only emergency housing for older men is a homeless shelter.
The Atira report, “Promising Practices across Canada for Housing Women who are Older and Fleeing Violence or Abuse”, identified a significant lack of appropriate temporary housing for older women. More recently, the UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing called for national-level leadership in realizing the right to housing for vulnerable populations in Canada.
Thank you very much.