Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good afternoon. As has been mentioned, my name is Pam Hrick. I'm the executive director and general counsel of the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, or LEAF. We use litigation, law reform and public legal education to advance the equality of women, girls, trans and non-binary people. We've been at this since 1985.
I'd like to thank you for inviting me here to speak with you today about Bill S-12. I was pleased to also have the opportunity to appear before the Senate committee studying this bill earlier this year. I am going to focus my remarks today as I did before the Senate committee on the publication ban portion of Bill S-12.
We were very encouraged to see the willingness of parliamentarians to improve how publication bans are imposed, varied and revoked. This work has been driven to the forefront of public attention by sexual assault survivors, including those involved with My Voice, My Choice, with support from feminist lawyers, advocates and organizations like LEAF who echo the calls for change to centre survivor choice.
LEAF was very glad to see the Senate amend the legislation in response to concerns that were raised at committee. We had several overarching recommendations for amendments to strengthen the bill in the Senate. These included, first, ensuring victims are not criminalized for failing to comply with a publication ban on their own identity; second, ensuring that people whose identities are protected by a publication ban can still disclose their identity in contexts such as with a therapist or a support group; and third, clarifying and simplifying the process for revoking or varying a publication ban.
These recommendations were put forward by a coalition of organizations and individuals with deep expertise on sexual violence and the legal system. They included LEAF, the National Association of Women and the Law, the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, the Ending Violence Association of Canada, Legal Advocates Against Sexual Violence, Possibility Seeds, Megan Stephens, Pamela Cross and Robin Parker.
Of course, I'm here today speaking for LEAF. We would urge you, by and large, to maintain the amendments to the legislation that were adopted by the Senate, which were responsive to our recommendations.
One modification we would encourage you to consider at this stage was spoken to by Ms. Stephens on October 5, and it was just spoken to by Ms. Parker today. That concerns the requirements the bill places on prosecutors. As you've heard, the current version of the bill requires prosecutors to inform complainants of the existence of a publication ban and their right to apply to revoke or vary it. These are practical and important information requirements that should be maintained. However, the bill goes further and requires prosecutors to share information about the publication ban's effects, and when and how the complainant can disclose information without violating the order. That verges on putting the prosecutor in a position of giving legal advice.
I agree with Ms. Stephens' and Ms. Parker's submissions that the bill should impose a more narrow requirement to inform a complainant of the ban's existence, that they can seek to have it varied or revoked, and that they are also entitled to get independent legal advice to make an informed decision about whether they wish to do so.
As I said before the Senate standing committee, we need investments in independent legal advice and education to ensure that survivors fully understand what a publication ban does, how it can be imposed and how it can be removed. We need these investments to ensure that survivors can make informed choices about what's best for them in their circumstances.
We've heard loud and clear from survivors that they want the ability to speak about their own experiences—or at least some of them do. We also know that some survivors wish to avail themselves of the privacy protections provided by a publication ban. As one expert, Anu Dugal of the Canadian Women's Foundation, said earlier this year, publication bans can serve as “one layer of support and protection for racialized women in a system that does nothing to actually support them or protect them—and in fact goes out of its way to blame them”.
I want to highlight that, unfortunately, it seems like the committee may be moving into clause-by-clause without having heard directly from any racialized survivors or legal experts concerning the impact of the proposed amendments.
I'll conclude though by stressing that both choices are valid—to have a publication ban in place or not. The important thing for this committee to keep in mind is that amendments related to publication bans must seek to give effect to survivors' choices and make it as easy as possible to exercise agency in making those choices.
Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.