Special Committee on Violence Against Indigenous Women Committee on Jan. 30th, 2014

[Meghan Rhoad]

There was this weird paradox in some of our interviews where women were very afraid to talk to us for fear of retaliation for complaining. At the same time, once they did talk, it was clear that they thought this was normal and that it was perfectly acceptable in their communities for them to be roughed up by the police on a fairly regular basis.

I think by having a national inquiry that included that issue, you would be sending a strong message that this is not acceptable, that this is not the state of play that we're going to allow to continue. Validating the experiences of indigenous women and girls through a national inquiry and the gravity that kind of process brings is very important.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

Thank you, Ms. Rhoad.

That concludes this round of questioning.

I want to thank our witnesses.

[Romeo Saganash, NDP, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Madam Chair—

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

Just let me do the thanking first, Romeo, and then I'll recognize you.

Mr. Hassel, I want to thank you for taking the time to join our committee. I know it's a little more awkward by video conference, but I want to thank you for participating today.

Ms. Rhoad and Ms. Gerntholtz, I want to thank you again for appearing before the committee.

Before I suspend for five minutes, Mr. Saganash, you have a point of order.

[Romeo Saganash, NDP, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair.

At least two or three times during Ms. Brown's intervention I heard her talk about 120,000 reports that have been made. At least two or three times she specifically mentioned 120,000 reports. I want to allow her to correct the record. That is not the case, obviously. I know she's against having a national independent public inquiry, but she doesn't have to exaggerate, I believe.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

Mr. Saganash, I'm going to interrupt there. That's not a point of order at this point.

I wonder, Ms. Brown, since you did cite 120,000 reports, if it would be possible to provide the committee with the source for that, or a list of the reports.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

I'll do the Google search again and get that for you.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

That would be welcomed.

Mr. Dechert, did you have a point of order?

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

No, Madam Chair, I was just going to point out that I don't think it was a point of order.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

I got there before you.

Again, I thank the witnesses.

I'm going to suspend for five minutes so we can set up for the next witnesses.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

We will now reconvene, please.

I want to welcome our next set of witnesses. Ms. Pate is here from the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies. Ms. O'Sullivan is from the Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime.

I'm sure you were in the room, but I'm just reminding people to keep their presentations to about 10 minutes. When members pose their questions, the first round will be for seven minutes and that includes the member's question and your response.

Ms. Pate, the floor is yours.

[Kim Pate, Executive Director, Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies]

Thank you very much to the committee for inviting us.

I also want to start by acknowledging the traditional territory on which we have the privilege of being, which is unceded Algonquin territory. Every day of the last 30 years that I have had the privilege and responsibility of walking in, and more importantly walking out of, federal penitentiaries and provincial and territorial jails, local police lock-ups and juvenile facilities, the colonial legacy that is the reality for our indigenous peoples is brought home.

I start this way because it is very much, in our view, linked to the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women. It's very much linked to the lack of entitlements that women in particular, and indigenous women even more so, have experienced. It's in my lifetime that enfranchisement has happened for indigenous peoples. It's in my lifetime that we have seen any discussion of violence against women taken seriously. It's been in my working lifetime that we've seen issues of the racist and misogynous treatment of indigenous women by police, by correctional authorities, and by most state actors. I think it's no accident therefore that today we're still having these discussions.

I first started working on the issue of missing and murdered women back when our sisters in the downtown eastside were raising it, particularly the Aboriginal Women's Action Network and then the Native Women's Association of Canada, and many other indigenous groups who started to raise the alert.

What I had not initially linked it to but very quickly did was that a number of the women were women we already knew. It is no accident that in our prisons, particularly our federal penitentiaries, more than 34% are indigenous women, and yet they represent as a group less than 2% of our Canadian population. It's not because they pose the greatest risk to public safety. It is very much linked to their marginalization and victimization and therefore is also linked to the manner in which we criminalize and institutionalize in particular imprisoned people.

One of the ways this became very clear to us was that when some of the first victims for which Robert Pickton was prosecuted were identified, they were women I knew from prison.

Much was made of the fact that they were women who may have experienced violence on the street and from the state and at the hands of people they knew. Not a lot was made of the fact that they had also experienced the violence of the state in terms of the lack of support services for those who were survivors of residential schools, as was identified by our Native Women's Association and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in their work on the Arrest the Legacy project and by the efforts that the Native Women's Association has made in the Sisters In Spirit reports. Nor was a lot linked to the fact that we had then abandoned people to social services and child welfare systems that were also operating with fairly racist assumptions, including assumptions that weren't necessarily supportive of women.

It's partly that legacy that contributes to our having more indigenous children in the care of the state now than we did even at the time of residential schools. It also contributes to the violence that women experience on the street and the commodification of women and girls.

We're in a moment in which we have an opportunity to do a number of things.

We do support the call for a commission of inquiry, not because we want another report. In the area that I work in, we see many, many reports. I wouldn't necessarily say that those reports are bad. But one of the things that an independent commission of inquiry does, in much the same way independent commissions of inquiry have always done, is to bring to light for the Canadian public what is happening and to make very clear that what is happening should not be happening and to allow for a non-partisan means of addressing the issues that need to be addressed.

A commission of inquiry does not have to be only a report. A commission of inquiry can lead to action. I would suggest that an independent, well-resourced commission of inquiry, combined with a number of important recommendations about police, court, and corrections accountability, is also vital.

We also need to be looking—in the next year, the government will have to—at the whole issue of the role of misogynist violence in pushing women into a position of being increasingly commodified. The sexual commodification of women, particularly indigenous women, has been very real for many years. We have tended not to look at it as a separate issue, despite the fact that we know that many women, in the context of the virtual elimination of national standards around needed social services, social assistance, and health care, have been forced to end up literally on the street, in our prisons, or dead.

In a context where we have no province or territory where people can survive on social assistance, in a context where we have a country where far too many reserves don't even have drinkable water, and in a context where we have far too many reserves that don't have adequate accommodation, schooling, or social supports of any kind for children, women, and all community members, it's not accidental that in fact we see more of those individuals at increased risk of both fleeing those situations or being forced out of those situations.

I agree that we need adequate resources in those places. Those are actions that could be taken in the form of national standards. I believe it is the responsibility of all members of Parliament, their fiduciary and legal obligation, to ensure that those kinds of standards exist.

In short, I agree that families want action. Families that I know, women that I know, want action.

I'll give an example of a very concrete action we're involved with right now that links to this issue. When I was in Nova Scotia in November, and when I was doing work in conjunction with a task force on sexually exploited and trafficked women and girls with the Women's Foundation, one of the things we became aware of was that many indigenous communities in the Atlantic region are fearful about the new shipbuilding business going into the Halifax area. The elders and the women in the community are already signalling that they know that this will “invite”—the term that others used—or likely draw a demand for the sexual services of many young women.

I commend to you the work that the Native Women's Association has done in this area. The research they have recently done shows that most of the young indigenous women who end up on the street being traded for sexual services often start between the ages of seven and twelve. The families and communities from which those young women come in Atlantic Canada are very fearful that they will likely see more demand for that kind of sexual commodification of their women and girls in the coming years.

We are calling upon not just the private sector, for instance, in the form of the Irving shipbuilding family who will be going in there, but also government resources, federal, provincial, and municipal, to be allocated to ensure that women and girls have other opportunities and do not continue to face the marginalization, the victimization, and the resulting criminalization and institutionalization that is increasingly their legacy, particularly if they are indigenous women and girls.

We do call on the need for front-line services on reserves, adequate housing, guaranteed livable incomes, and adequate social services, and the need for violence of all forms to be taken very seriously, including sexual violence, not just in the family, not just in a domestic sphere, but also in the context of the increased commodification of women and girls.

I thank you very much, and I look forward to your questions.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

Thank you, Ms. Pate.

Ms. O'Sullivan, for 10 minutes.

[Susan O'Sullivan, Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime, Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime]

Good evening, Madam Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting me here today to discuss the important issue of violence against aboriginal women in Canada.

I too wish to acknowledge the traditional lands of the Algonquin Nation, where we are meeting today.

I would like to begin by providing you with a brief overview of our office's mandate. The Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime was created in 2007 to provide a voice for victims at the federal level. We do this by receiving and reviewing complaints from victims, by promoting and facilitating access to federal programs and services for victims of crime by providing information and referrals, by promoting the basic principles of justice for victims of crime, by raising awareness among criminal justice personnel and policy-makers about the needs and concerns of victims, and by identifying systemic and emerging issues that negatively impact victims of crime.

The office helps victims in two main ways, individually and collectively. We help victims individually by speaking with victims every day, answering their questions and addressing their complaints. We help victims collectively by reviewing important issues and making recommendations to the federal government on how to improve its laws, policies, or programs to better support victims of crime.

I have been invited here today to discuss a very important issue: violence against aboriginal women in Canada. As you all know, violence against aboriginal women is far more common than among the rest of the population. Women are facing violence at alarming rates, and in my opinion, Canada must take swift and decisive action.

Today I would like to share with you some of the specific aspects of this issue that our office has looked at and the recommendations we have recently shared with the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights during their recent visits to Canada.

The first item I would like to discuss is the potential for a national commission of inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada and the subsequent or concurrent development of a related action plan. I support the call for the creation of this commission and action plan.

Research shows that simply being an aboriginal person in Canada significantly increases the likelihood of experiencing violent victimization. In a study where all other factors were held constant, the odds of being the victim of a violent crime is approximately three times higher among aboriginal people. Available statistical evidence further paints a picture of aboriginal women's lives being particularly marked by vulnerability to violent victimization, especially domestic and/or sexual violence. In 2009 the General Social Survey conducted by Statistics Canada revealed that aboriginal women are about three times as likely to be victims of violent crime as non-aboriginal women. Further, 79% of aboriginal women respondents to the survey stated that they had been victimized by a male, with additional studies showing that on average, one-quarter to one-half of aboriginal women were victims of sexual abuse as children compared to a 20% to 25% average rate within the non-aboriginal population.

However, while these statistics are alarming, they are not sufficiently comprehensive. Unfortunately, in Canada there exists a gap of reliable data on the true scale of violence against aboriginal women. Data contained in the General Social Survey, some of which I have shared with you, are limited only to certain violent crimes, sexual and physical assault, robbery. The General Social Survey does not capture homicides. Normally, the Homicide Survey would assist in filling in the gaps here, but the Homicide Survey only collects socio-demographic information when it is known. As a result, in about half of the cases, the aboriginal identity of a victim is reported by police as unknown.

Together, our current data collection practices don't enable us to have a full and clear picture of the scope of this problem. As l am sure members are aware, the Native Women's Association of Canada's Sisters in Spirit initiative did some work in this area. Their initiative, driven and led by aboriginal women, worked to conduct research and raise awareness of the alarmingly high rates of violence against aboriginal women and girls in Canada.

As part of this, Sisters in Spirit conducted ongoing research that gathered statistical information on violence against aboriginal women. As of March 2010, the research concluded that there were more than 582 cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls in Canada, many of which were not formally reported to law enforcement agencies. These figures demonstrate an extreme vulnerability to violence among aboriginal women and girls and a reluctance to report victimization to police.

Beyond the statistics are the reasons behind them and these, in my view, are key to truly understanding the issue in order to effectively address it. We need to look more closely at the factors related to the increased rate of victimization. Where have the systems broken down? What are the root causes, and what further supports or resources are necessary to address them? We don't have the complete answers to these questions yet. This, in combination with our lack of comprehensive data, highlights the need to better understand the causes of this vulnerability, as well as the crucial importance of developing informed strategies for prevention and appropriate response.

Informed strategies should be ones developed with the aboriginal community itself. To be effective, any inquiry, plan, or strategy developed must defer to the leadership, knowledge, and expertise that only Canada's aboriginal community can provide.

While there recently has been a provincial commission of inquiry in British Columbia, the commission focused on missing and murdered women in the province of British Columbia and was not specific to aboriginal women and girls, nor did it explore the multiple factors that have led to significant violence against them.

Clearly, the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women is not unique to British Columbia; it is a problem national in scope. A national commission of inquiry would allow for the voices of Canada's aboriginal women and communities to be heard, respected, and considered in processes and structures designed to address their needs. In this way, strategies for preventing and responding to this crisis could be specifically tailored to the needs of aboriginal women and rooted in understandings of the social and economic conditions that have contributed to their vulnerability.

The Government of Canada has an important leadership role to play in preventing and responding to the crisis of missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls. As such, in my view, the initiation of an inclusive national commission of inquiry on Canada's missing and murdered aboriginal women, with a corresponding commitment to implementing the commission's recommendations, would be an appropriate and necessary next step.

In addition to the creation of a commission of inquiry, the creation of a missing persons and unidentified remains index, or MPI, is of importance to the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women. Currently, unidentified remains fall under the jurisdiction of provincial and territorial coroner's offices. This means that DNA comparisons are only an option at the respective provincial and territorial level, which prevents DNA comparisons and/or matches to unidentified remains from occurring across all provinces and territories. At a time when cross-border travel and even trafficking is more and more common, this can prove to be a serious barrier to solving or advancing cases. A missing person's index would provide the capacity to compare the DNA profiles of missing persons with unidentified remains.This would ultimately strengthen law enforcement's investigative capacity by providing a tool for this comparison, important work not only within a province but across Canada.

Support for a missing persons index has been shown by the Coordinating Committee of Senior Officials. The committee, whose establishment was mandated by the federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for justice, conducted a review of issues related to the high number of murdered and missing women in Canada. The committee released its report and recommendations in January 2012. Included within it was the recommendation that "jurisdictions support further consideration of the feasibility and utility of a missing persons index”. There has also been considerable support for the creation of a national missing persons index from the Canadian public, law enforcement, victims groups, parliamentarians, and various levels of government.

In the interests of time, I will not share the details of this support here now, but I would be more than happy to speak to it further during questions. As you can imagine, with such strong support from such diverse groups, it is difficult for the families and loved ones of missing persons to understand the delays in developing this important index.

I have had the opportunity to speak with victims and victim groups, who have articulated a sincere and determined hope that the development of a missing persons and unidentified remains index be given the priority it deserves in order to alleviate the suffering that many families of missing persons face not knowing what may have happened to their loved one.

For this reason, my office on numerous occasions has made recommendations to the Minister of Public Safety that the development of these indices be given a high priority and that jurisdictional issues be resolved on an urgent basis. To date, legal, privacy, and jurisdictional concerns continue to be cited by the Government of Canada in its response to the office's recommendations as the primary impediments to the implementation. We understand that cost may also be an issue of concern.

Finally, I would like to briefly mention the importance and duty we all have to ensure that the programs, services, policies, and laws that we have in place for victims of crime be sensitive and adaptable to the needs of aboriginal victims.

Recently, I had the opportunity to make a series of videos of victims and victim advocates sharing their views and experiences in order to help raise awareness of victim issues. As part of the series, we had the privilege of having Dr. Dawn Harvard, interim president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, speak about the needs and experiences of aboriginal victims.

In the views she shared, Dr. Harvard recounted the story of an elder aboriginal victim who, after seeking assistance and struggling to write out a victim impact statement, was told that the statement was not on the correct form and that she needed to go home and do it again. Dr. Harvard also shared with us the realities of lower literacy levels in smaller communities and how government services that require Internet access or the completion of complex forms can pose significant accessibility barriers for aboriginal victims.

While the majority of victim services in Canada are provided at the provincial level, I do think it is worth noting the importance of considering these needs when it comes to the service and programs we offer at the federal level.

In closing, I would like to thank the committee for its consideration of the above issues and for its work in examining this important issue.

As discussed, I support the creation of a national commission of inquiry into the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women, as well as the national missing persons and unidentified human remains DNA index. I encourage the committee, in its work, to emphasize the need for the federal government to provide accessible, appropriate services and programs to aboriginal victims of crime.

I thank you for your time and welcome any questions you may have.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

Thank you, Ms. O'Sullivan.

We'll go to the first rounds of questioning, which are for seven minutes.

I'll start with Ms. Ashton for seven minutes.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Thank you to Ms. Pate and Ms. O'Sullivan for joining us today on this very important study we're doing.

Ms. O'Sullivan, I want to begin with you.

There was a forum hosted by your office in April 2013 that identified the importance of having culturally appropriate services. In particular, participants identified that, “there is a high specific need for culturally shaped services for Indigenous people”. I'm wondering if you have any initiatives to support culturally specific programming for victims, and obviously, particularly with respect to indigenous people. If so, could you describe them? Or perhaps you're working on this area right now. Please let us know.

[Susan O'Sullivan]

As I indicated as the federal ombudsman, the majority of direct services for victims of crime in Canada are the responsibility of the provinces and territories.

When we hear of a lot of the immediate needs of victims of crime, such as.... I'll make this comment, because it got talked about. I was fortunate enough to be here for the previous presenters. When you talk about the needs of victims of crime, a lot of the needs they have and the need to be respected is about their treatment within the criminal justice system.

When we talk about needs, obviously there's an entire continuum. Obviously, prevention is hugely important, because if prevention works, we don't need the rest of this. If prevention doesn't work, we have to look at early intervention, and then, unfortunately, when a crime happens, there's the court system, and there are post-conviction and post-release. For many victims—I also had the privilege of reading some of the transcripts—as you will hear, the needs are lifelong.

We looked at direct services. It really is the majority of them that are offered. I have had the privilege of going across this country and speaking to many different victims, including at the forum. One of the things the forum really brought out, and one of the things that we felt was important, and I think it's reflected as well in my comments, was to involve people from the aboriginal community in the development of that forum, in the development of the themes that were there.

As I indicated, around the eight themes we do have some very powerful videos that are available on our website in which victims are speaking directly to what some of those needs are.

There are many different programs, many services, and many examples throughout Canada, but the majority, as I say, would be offered at the provincial and territorial levels.

One of the things that we do use our voice for, however, is to get that message out about what those needs are. It was spoken about again very much around this table: the need to be informed. I have to tell you that the need for information for victims, and it being culturally appropriate.... I'll use one example from Dr. Dawn Harvard. I have had the privilege of speaking to victims from aboriginal first nations, Métis, and Inuit as well. In recognizing the cultural...I'll just give one simple example.

I had the privilege of going up to Iqaluit and going to the women's shelter and meeting different people. Some of the victim support workers who worked there talked about their culture and fact that while we go to a court of law and say, “This is the person who did this”, they say “maybe”. It's a learning experience for me. In order to really understand, I had the privilege of listening to some grandmothers, who talked about the fact that there are two different dialects of Inuktitut and many different languages, and who also said that some of the words in the criminal justice system that we use regularly don't exist in their language.

Those are just some examples I've had of people sharing. We have created a national framework of information, dialogue, and exchange. We want to ensure that we include aboriginal people in the development and in the recommendations we make from our office, but again, the majority of those direct services are the responsibility of the provinces and territories.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Thank you.

Ms. Pate, you spoke about your significant experience in this field. What's come up many times here is the lack of capacity that organizations have to advocate on behalf of indigenous women, indigenous people, and women, and the trend of pretty severe cuts that organizations have faced. Some organizations simply no longer exist.

I'm wondering if you could speak to that in terms of how it connects with this issue and the voices that perhaps we're not hearing, both in terms of addressing the issue and in terms of prevention and finding solutions.

[Kim Pate]

It was part of why I mentioned in the context of an inquiry why that can be valuable, because many of the groups that have historically existed, including one that I mentioned, the Aboriginal Women's Action Network, don't have resources. Most of the groups that have been doing equality work in this country, particularly women's groups, have been literally wiped out in terms of being able to continue to do that work.

We have worked together for at least three decades with the Native Women's Association of Canada, and they are stretched to the limit. We are stretched to the limit. What brought it home all the more—not exactly on this issue, but it's very much linked—was the fact that 91% of indigenous women who are federally sentenced have histories of violence, have histories of physical and sexual abuse. It's not accidental that they end up in the system, because there aren't resources to support them.

Neither is it accidental that they are not believed. Take the Jamie Gladue decision: every witness who was aboriginal at her preliminary inquiry was first asked what beer they drank.

The assumptions and the racist attitudes towards particularly women in this context are real. I mean, part of the reason I knew the women whose remains were found at the Pickton farm was that people didn't believe they were really missing initially. You also heard the stories that Meghan talked about when she was presenting earlier. That's a very common theme.

The examples I was trying to conjure up here were not just of the more recent cases here in the south, but also in the north. Sue has talked about a number of women I know whose cases were thrown out, including people who were victimized by people who are now well recognized as multiple predators. It was presumed that because they were drinking, or because they had been on the street, they were easy prey, and it was fair game that they be attacked.

The resources of the state are limitless to deny responsibility and to defend against indefensible actions. While it's not directly on this point, I think it's linked that every time we try to raise an issue around these sorts of things, we're met with the phalanx of lawyers that are the Department of Justice.

As an example, we just went through the Ashley Smith inquest. We're about to start into another inquest of a woman who was also sexually exploited and was missing for a period of time. When her family found her—they found her because she was in prison—she'd been in not safe conditions before that. She died a year ago, and we're about to start into that inquest.

This is at a time when we know—it's just been revealed through an access request by a media person—that $5 million was spent by the government on the Ashley Smith inquest by just the Correctional Service of Canada.

I just think the resources are limitless to defend against indefensible actions. I think if we really want proactive action, we need to put the resources into some of the things that will prevent people from being victimized, that will support them once they are, and that will prevent them from being criminalized as well, particularly indigenous people, because they're more likely to end up being.... The only system that can't say no to them is the current justice and prison system.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Jean Crowder]

Thank you, Ms. Pate.

Ms. Truppe.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Thank you both for being here and for your expertise in presentations.

I'm always proud of the work our government does for women and girls across Canada in terms of violence against women and girls. Earlier this week, the Minister of Justice and the Minister for the Status of Women announced government support for a Girls Action Foundation project. Building bridges for female youth is a national partnership project that will address intimate partner violence and increase access to justice among marginalized young women. It's funded through the Department of Justice. It's a pan-Canadian initiative designed to improve access to justice for marginalized young women and girls who are victims of partner violence.

Ms. O'Sullivan, I know you've done a lot of work in this. In your opinion, how could this initiative have a positive impact on young aboriginal girls who are vulnerable to becoming victimized?

[Susan O'Sullivan]

The government has undertaken many different initiatives, for which I certainly commend the government, but I think we're here today just to look at....

In terms of a national inquiry, an inquiry would give us an ability to understand the scope of the problem. As I said in my earlier testimony, the data aren't sufficient. An inquiry would allow us to identify those underlying causes so that we can address them and prioritize them. We can also give an opportunity for the recommendations in the action plans to be reflective and inclusive of their lived experience and knowledge.

When you ask me that question, I would say this. What I have seen across the country is that no community is the same. The different communities will have different resources, different capabilities, and different challenges. We often talk of the north in terms of challenges. As we know, there are, I believe, about 53 fly-in communities. For some victims, the whole criminal justice system has to fly in and fly out, and when they do, there are no resources left to them.

You ask me how this could benefit.... In our country there are many communities, and there are some phenomenal initiatives that are going on in our country, but we have to take this big picture look in order to ensure that we have a solid foundation on which to build as we go into the future.

There's the example you've given, and there are many other examples in this country. Again, I know there are many I could look at and have funded. I think we really do need to ensure that the voices of the families and the victims are very much involved in that foundational piece in order to be able to prioritize.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Thank you.

You also mentioned that recently, in order to help raise awareness of victims issues, you had the opportunity to make a series of videos of victims and victim advocates sharing their views and experiences. This was briefly touched on in the previous hour with Human Rights Watch Canada as well. On awareness issues, I just want to find out, again from your expertise, how you think raising awareness of this would help. What awareness would you like to see?

[Susan O'Sullivan]

For having an opportunity for Canadians to see and to examine exactly what all of these issues and priorities are, I think an inquiry is one way, but another way.... About a week and a half ago, I had the privilege of attending a symposium on confidence in the Canadian criminal justice system. They talked about awareness being important. One of the issues was that how we treat people and how we support people within the criminal justice system is directly linked to their confidence in it.

We've heard a lot of people talk here today. Awareness is one piece, but how we're going to treat victims.... They're going to come forward if they trust and respect that the agency they are coming forward to is going to listen to them, that they're going to be believed, supported, and informed, and that they're considered, that they matter. This is something you build. It is a relationship that communities build. That's going to continue to take a lot of effort on our parts in order to ensure that victims truly get the supports they need.

When we look at the general population when it comes to sexual assault, for example, we know that a large majority of sexual assault victims do not report for many different reasons. The more we can build healthy and safe communities that are going to allow victims to feel informed, supported, and considered, and to feel that they matter and are protected...because you have to be able to know that you're going to be safe when you come forward with that information.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

In terms of the victims being aware of their options, do you think that's important?