Status of Women Committee on May 30th, 2012

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

It must be a real challenge to try to meet the needs of the many people who are knocking on your door.

[Bertha Mo]

Absolutely. We're also the go-to for clinical training for social workers, interns, and psychologists who want to work with immigrants and refugees.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

I certainly very much appreciate the good work you do on that particular file, because I know the needs are enormous.

[Bertha Mo]

Thank you.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

There clearly are not enough organizations like yours in the Ottawa area.

Thank you.

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

Thank you, Ms. Sgro.

We have come to Ms. James. We have two minutes left.

Do you have any questions you'd like to ask in this short period of time?

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Yes, I'm sure I can speak and ask questions for two minutes. Thank you.

Thank you to both of our guests as well.

I'm going to direct my questions to Ms. Mo.

As a side note, I also sit on the citizenship and immigration committee, and I appreciate your comments with regard to the changing landscape of immigrants to Canada, as opposed to 20 years ago.

In my other committee, on all the studies we've done there are key words that always come out: integration and assimilation into Canadian society is key to success of new immigrants.

I think in your own testimony you mentioned it's a significant barrier if someone is unable to speak one of the official languages in Canada—English or French. That correlates with what I hear on my other committee, that it's essential for someone to succeed in Canada, to be able to integrate very quickly, to be able to get a job and give back to Canadian society. I do appreciate your comments on that.

Because this committee's purpose is to see what we can do to advance girls in leadership roles, economic prosperity, and so forth, with regard to the immigrant children your organization has helped, do you see a difference in the success rate in immigrant children by gender, so boys versus girls?

[Bertha Mo]

I'm very sorry to say that a lot of immigrant and refugee boys are in trouble with the law. In my work we are often sent to testify or represent parents at the mental health justice committee.

In Ottawa, if you're 18 and under and commit something, other than probably severely injuring somebody, and you come from a situation where there might have been war trauma and torture, this particular board, which has a psychiatrist on it, can kind of defer your incarceration into the—

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

Excuse me, Ms. Mo, but I need to interrupt you. We have—

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Can I just try to get the answer out?

Are you saying that immigrant boys are more prone to violence? I was going to ask you a question about violence in the home with respect to girls achieving success later on in life. Is that what you're saying?

[Bertha Mo]

I would say that it's more refugee boys, because they have often lived through several years of trauma, torture, and being helpless. Many of them are from single-parent households, usually with a mom. So due to their background, the only way they know how to deal with conflict and lack of success—and they find this in school—is through violence.

We also have quite a bit of gang violence in Ottawa, and a lot of this is perpetrated by refugee boys.

[The Chair, NDP, Marie-Claude Morin]

This is extremely interesting, but I must unfortunately interrupt you, Ms. Mo. We are going to have to go and vote in the House any minute now.

This brings today's meeting to a close. I'd like to thank you for your time, and I hope you have a pleasant evening.

The meeting is adjourned.