Evidence of meeting #38 for Status of Women in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was women's.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
You also provide mechanisms for communication and education. I think that's one of your important goals as well.
Is there a really good communication factor that you would like to put as a best practice, something that you or your organization have done really well?
Representative, Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres
One thing we did very well in order to communicate to both the government and the general public about what exactly we do at sexual assault centres and what exactly we need, is we conducted a five-year action-based research project on the relationship between the equality promise in the charter and violence against women. We looked at 100 cases of violence against women across the country and looked at the specific failures, and made specific recommendations to improve and address those failures at all levels of the criminal justice system. That particular study is something that was effectively communicated.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
That would be a good one. Great. Thank you very much.
Jocelyn, from the Canadian Foundation for Women's Health, thank you for your information as well.
I think you funded a University of British Columbia project. Dr. Patricia Janssen had a project, I believe, from the University of British Columbia. She said, "The CFWH grant has allowed us to learn about ways that health professionals can help protect pregnant women from partner-perpetrated violence." Was there anything you can tell us about this particular project that might also have a best practice?
Scientific Director, Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada
Yes. That project was one of the few papers that were published specific to pregnant women. It showed that health professionals have a role to play in understanding the signs, the risk factors, and the implications related to violence during pregnancy and the postpartum period. It suggested that what women need really differs according to what kind of violence they're experiencing. The study was a little bit inconclusive with what was best in terms of practices. It also depended on what was available.
What these other women and their organizations have been talking about in terms of keeping women safe, in terms of financial support, child care support, legal aid came out in that study as interventions or services, and access to those services that women also needed during pregnancy. The time lines were maybe a little bit tighter in terms of keeping babies and fetuses safe during that vulnerable time. That was a very well-conducted study.
What we took out of that is helping health providers at the front line understand what women need specifically, depending on the context they're living in, what's available to them in terms of services in their community, how those services can be accessed, and what they can do in their role as a health care provider to help women navigate that system and follow up. That study catalyzed a lot of discussion around what we can do to help support our health professionals in that role.
Thank you.
NDP
The Chair NDP Hélène LeBlanc
Thank you very much.
Ms. Ashton, the floor is yours. You have seven minutes.
NDP
Niki Ashton NDP Churchill, MB
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you very much to our witnesses who are with us today. I realize that for our witnesses in B.C. it's an extra effort, given the time difference, so thank you very much for making that effort to be with us this morning.
I want to go back to a key theme that you brought up in your presentation, Ms. Decter, around a national action plan. You spoke of the systemic issues that are involved in violence against women. You spoke of poverty. You spoke of the particular violence that indigenous women, racialized women and disabled women face. These are discussions that we're hearing a lot with reference to the need for a national action plan.
I've actually put forward a motion calling on the government to implement one. That is a response to the fact that so many people in the violence against women community are calling for this kind of action.
I'm wondering if you could speak to what, according to the YWCA, a national action plan could achieve.
Director, Advocacy and Public Policy, YWCA Canada
I spoke to a lot of gaps in the systems that have been created. To be clear, we're not starting from zero in terms of responses to violence against women in this country, so we would want a national action plan to incorporate everything that's existing, but the advantage it would have is to address on a national scale the gaps in services, the legal system, coordinating various gaps across jurisdictions. It could set standards for the country and ensure that those standards are met, basically by tagging the funding.
We think it would be a huge advantage in places like...we have YWCAs in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, where an enormous amount of service change is needed. They should have the same standards as we have in Toronto.
NDP
Niki Ashton NDP Churchill, MB
Absolutely. You spoke a bit about issues of housing as well. You gave great focus to that. Could that be something that's part of a national action plan to end violence against women?
Director, Advocacy and Public Policy, YWCA Canada
Absolutely. We would see it coordinating with national action on poverty and on housing and homelessness. We did a major research study that produced a paper, “Beyond Shelter“. Housing and homelessness for women, housing and poverty for women were key issues in violence against women.
Niki Ashton NDP Churchill, MB
Finally, you spoke about how a national action plan ought to include a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women. This is a critical issue for any woman across Canada, and frankly, for any Canadian. I'm wondering if you could speak to why YWCA Canada believes there ought to be a national inquiry.
Director, Advocacy and Public Policy, YWCA Canada
We would see it as a precursor to drawing up the national action plan. There would be evidence that would feed into what's needed in a national action plan.
I think we've seen continuing violence across the country this year. It's clearly the highest need action area, and the more that non-indigenous Canadians hear about this issue, the more their attitudes change. That's what's really needed, and that can be provided by a national inquiry, not a five- or ten-year royal commission with a big set of recommendations that don't get acted upon, but a national inquiry that listens to the people who are suffering from this.
NDP
Niki Ashton NDP Churchill, MB
Thank you, Ms. Decter.
Ms. Govender, I'd like to turn to you. I know West Coast LEAF has also spoken to the need for a comprehensive national action plan with particular emphasis on the need for coordinated legal aid services in our country, something which the federal government has stepped away from quite significantly over time. I'm wondering if you could speak to why West Coast LEAF views a national action plan as necessary when dealing with violence against women.
Executive Director, West Coast Women's Legal Education and Action Fund
Yes. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, I think what's needed are national standards in a number of different areas around economic security for women, that being one of the direct pieces of connection to violence here. If women are empowered and independent financially, they are more able to leave relationships safely. I think that would include national strategies on housing, poverty, legal aid and child care, and that all of those aspects would support women in very necessary ways.
If I can speak for a moment about legal aid in particular, there are very different legal aid plans across the country. I can tell you that in British Columbia, family law legal aid in particular is in crisis. It's not just in B.C.; there are other areas in the country, but of course I know B.C. the best.
What that means is that if women leave relationships, they have absolutely no assurance that they will get assistance with their custody and access matters. In fact, the eligibility is so narrow that you can make barely over minimum wage and not qualify. You only qualify if there's violence in the relationship, and even if both those criteria are in place, you only get 25 hours, which is often only enough to get a protection order in place. So women are left to deal with their abuser, trying to get custody, trying to have division of property, if there is any, and trying to get spousal and child support. These are incredible risk factors for women, which create a lot of fear about leaving relationships, and about what they might lose if they go when they have no support to fight for those things.
NDP
Niki Ashton NDP Churchill, MB
Thank you very much, Ms. Govender.
You spoke in particular in the case of B.C., and on my last visit there, the feedback focused on the lack of legal aid services was overwhelming. In fact, I would even say, I heard more about it there than I've heard in other parts of the country. It could also be a reflection of the kind of advocacy that so many organizations are engaging in to highlight this important area.
I'm just going to ask—
NDP
Niki Ashton NDP Churchill, MB
Right.
Maybe I'll leave off by thanking you. I look forward to getting some more time to ask you more questions afterwards.
NDP
Conservative
John Barlow Conservative Macleod, AB
Thanks again to everybody for being here today. I appreciate the time and the commitment. It's wonderful to hear everyone's passion on this issue. Hopefully we can use some of the best practices and the ideas that you're giving us to put to good use.
Ms. Decter, I want to speak to you first. I will let you know that the minister has tabled the action plan on violent crimes, family violence and violence against aboriginal women and girls. I think that's a great step in the right direction.
I think you're also maybe selling yourself a little bit short here in case I heard this wrong, but one of the biggest things that we're trying to do is break that cycle. You talked about it passing on from generation to generation. I thought you said that nine out of ten women that leave the YWCA shelters don't return to that home that is the source of the violence. Is that right?
Director, Advocacy and Public Policy, YWCA Canada
The statistic I had wasn't specific to YWCA shelters. I believe it's from talking to women in shelters. Nine of ten women, while they're in shelters, don't intend to return to their previous home and spousal relationship.
Conservative
Director, Advocacy and Public Policy, YWCA Canada
No. Four out of ten who don't want to go back don't know where they will go. That's the gap in access to housing that needs to be filled somehow.
Conservative
John Barlow Conservative Macleod, AB
All right.
With regard to your suggestion on that nine out of ten and the experience you have in the shelters, what are some of the ideas or some of the things that we can look at to improve that number, so that when they do...? It's so important that they actually do seek help and go to a shelter. That's often the most difficult thing: to get them out of the house first.
Conservative
John Barlow Conservative Macleod, AB
What are we missing there? Once they've made that step, how do we get them to the next step, to not return and continue that cycle?
Director, Advocacy and Public Policy, YWCA Canada
As I mentioned, it needs to be easier to find housing that's safe and affordable. In most places, it's the lack of stock; there is a lack of safe, affordable housing where they are.
Other supports that have been really helpful include ongoing outreach post-leaving shelter. That, from our studies, seems to really reduce the rate at which women return to shelter. In the VAW shelters, they have a lot of services, but not in homeless shelters. There's a huge difference there, and sometimes it's the same population in the two kinds of shelters. You'll find a lot of women who have been in abusive situations in homeless shelters where there are zero supports, which is one of the reasons we're trying to get doors to shelters for abused women open wider for women with mental health and addiction issues.
When they leave the shelter, typically a lot of those services don't exist, so follow-up is huge. You come from a situation; you leave in an emergency situation and you perhaps don't have identification with you or anything like that. Then you go somewhere that's safe and comfortable, where over time you get a lot of support to find somewhere to live, hopefully, to get your kids into schools, and to go through a massive legal process, which may or may not work for you at all. Then on leaving the shelter, it's gone. Those supports continuing into the community are huge.