Evidence of meeting #43 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 work.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
NDP
The Chair NDP Hélène LeBlanc
Thank you very much, Madam Bateman.
Madam Truppe, you have five minutes.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Marie-Christine, I have another question for you. You mentioned new Canadians living in Quebec, and that there was a program, I think, for new Canadians living in Quebec. I just wanted to know a bit about the program and if you had a best practice for new Canadians that would help women and girls.
Executive Assistant, Carrefour pour Elle
I didn't quite understand your question. Did you want to know what is being done in this regard in Quebec or rather what we are doing at Carrefour pour Elle?
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
I'm basically looking for a best practice that would help new Canadians. I'm wondering if you think there's something great going on, such as a program that would help women and girls who are new Canadians so that they know where to go or what to do.
Executive Assistant, Carrefour pour Elle
Those women have to be reached as quickly as possible when they arrive here. That's why we have focused so much on francisation courses. We generally meet with them less than six months after they arrive in Canada. Those courses give us an opportunity to meet with them. We tell them not only about domestic violence, but also about their rights. We remind them that domestic violence is a crime in Canada, that it's unacceptable and intolerable. We explain to them what offences come under the Criminal Code of Canada.
In a way, we provide those women with popular education, so that they can know where to turn if they experience violence. Our message to those women is that they can find a way out, that hope is alive and that they are not alone or abandoned.
I know that some of my colleagues do this kind of work in Montreal, Quebec City or places that receive a lot of immigrants, such as Laval and Longueuil
We really have to meet with them and welcome them as quickly as possible, and those communities are a good place to start. There are also Quebec women centres, which give them a place to live. Groups of women from various countries are sometimes formed, and we meet with them to deliver prevention workshops. This is another good way to reach them.
Agreements with schools or CEGEPs that provide francisation activities established by the immigration department give us a great avenue for reaching those women.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Thank you.
Nathalie, I have a question for you. You said you were developing best practices for cybercrime. I'm wondering if you have a best practice you'd like to share on what you're doing with cybercrime or cyberbullying.
January 29th, 2015 / 12:30 p.m.
Coordinator, Regroupement québécois des Centres d'aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel
We're starting off in that field. For the time being, we're principally trying to get a grip on the diverse reality of what cybercrime is and what it comprises, and trying to see and develop ways to reach young people, who are the most exposed.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Thank you.
I think you said your organization started in 1970. Now we're in 2015, and I'm just curious, what is the best thing that has changed since 1970 that maybe could be used as a best practice? There must have been tonnes of changes over all those years.
Coordinator, Regroupement québécois des Centres d'aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel
In our organization or in Quebec in general?
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Well, when you said 1970, was that your organization or was that...?
Coordinator, Regroupement québécois des Centres d'aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel
We started in 1979, 35 years ago, but the first CALACS emerged during the 1970s.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Is there a best practice that has changed? There must have been lots of changes along the way to bring us to 2015. Do you have a best practice, such as your favourite program, that you'd like to share?
Coordinator, Regroupement québécois des Centres d'aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel
Our main achievement, I guess, is really the offering of an alternative for women in terms of offering individual counselling and also group help. We offer self-help groups. We have accompaniment services for court or for the police station if a woman decides to lodge a complaint. We also are very proud of the work we do in schools with young people in terms of preventing sexual assault.
I would say that our last best practice, or what excites us very much presently, is the new community-sharing platform that we are constructing presently. That started in July 2014.
NDP
The Chair NDP Hélène LeBlanc
Thank you, Ms. Duhamel.
We will now move on to Ms. Fry, who has five minutes.
Liberal
Hedy Fry Liberal Vancouver Centre, BC
Thank you.
Ms. Josling, I want to ask a question about intergenerational violence. We know there is enough evidence to tell us that obviously children who have lived in a home where there's violence eventually either marry violent people or begin to become violent themselves in their own interpersonal relationships. That's one example of intergenerational violence.
Of course, the other example of intergenerational violence that we hear a lot about is based on the root causes of aboriginal women's societal, domestic, and other forms of violence, because of that intergenerational sense of shame and deculturalization that came down from colonial times.
Have you been doing work on this? If so, how are you dealing with this problem? Are you successful? Do you have indicators? Are you measuring outcomes?
Executive Director, Co-Chair VAW Forum, KW Counselling Services
That's a number of questions at once—
Executive Director, Co-Chair VAW Forum, KW Counselling Services
As I mentioned, we do have trauma and attachment services at KW Counselling. Those are offered in part in collaboration with the child welfare agency. We also use this trauma and attachment lens to inform all of our individual family and group counselling with children who witness woman abuse.
We have a program called “Trusting, Loving Connections” and a program called “Enhancing Attachment”. They're both group programs that help caregivers understand the effects of trauma on their own lives and the effects of trauma on their children. As I mentioned, we engage in this intergenerational trauma treatment approach. At this point, we've had one generation of research by our child welfare agency. We looked at placement stability for biological parents and foster, kinship, and adoptive parents who received these trauma and attachment services. We saw increases in parental confidence and competence and changes in child behaviour as well.
We are now about to engage in a second generation of research into those services. We'll be looking at the social return on investment as well, because we're curious as to whether there are cost savings in delivering trauma and attachment services this way.
Liberal
Hedy Fry Liberal Vancouver Centre, BC
The multi-generational effect that we see with aboriginal peoples is very different. I don't know if you've been doing any work on that or if anyone—Ms. Ryan, Ms. Wright, or Ms. Plante—has any comments on this. I would really like to find a very clear, evidence-based set of interventions, etc., that can actually deal with them. Also, I agree with Ms. Wright; you have to do it with aboriginal women and with aboriginal communities, not just women.
Have any of you done any work on this? Do you have anything to offer?
Executive Director, St. John's Status of Women's Council Women's Centre
We work very closely with the women at the native friendship centre. We let them do the work and we support them as well as we can and we work with them in a lot of different areas.
We co-created a vigil to commemorate the missing and murdered women in Newfoundland and Labrador. It was a very powerful community exchange.
We also have a trauma-based program that women from my organization do with the friendship centre. It's called Spirit Horse, and it is an equine therapy program. These women are so full of anxiety and pain and trauma and addictions that initially we can't even get them to get on the bus to go, but by the end of working with these horses around trauma and building, and through being able to talk and share stories, all of a sudden they come out with these horses and they're really, really strong.
In terms of what the best practices are, it would be up to the indigenous community to tell us that. As an organization, we support native women's organizations and work with them and collaborate with them in any way we can. We find that's been very positive. Our Spirit Horse program is probably one of the most effective programs. The women there sit together afterwards and talk and find a way to communicate through a lot of pain.
In terms of addressing the multi-generational impact of colonization, an indigenous women's group would be the ones to speak to best practices for that.
NDP
The Chair NDP Hélène LeBlanc
Thank you very much.
I would like to thank all the witnesses who have provided us with so much insight as part of our study. Thank you for your time. I want to thank you for making yourselves available, sharing your best practices with us and telling us about situations you face as organizations. Thank you for helping families so much.
We will suspend the meeting until 12:45 p.m., so that we can go in camera to continue with committee business.
[Proceedings continue in camera]
