Most definitely.
When we started working on the issue of forced marriages we were very much being informed by the women who are experiencing this form of violence. Just to clarify, when we started working on this issue, right from the beginning—I'm talking about since 2005—one thing that we have been clear about is that it is part of the continuum of violence against women and nothing else. It should be dealt with within that same framework. We were never wanting it to be dealt with any differently.
Again, we wanted the systems to be sensitive and alive to the issue of the distinct experiences of the women who faced this form of violence, but we wanted it to be included in the violence against women framework. But unfortunately it has been somehow discussed in a way...and we know there's Bill S-7 that is on the table at this point as well.
There is an assumption that is coming that somehow the current legal system does not have enough in it to address this issue, whereas our education from our clients, the survivors, and our education from the communities, very much tells us that the existing systems and the structures are enough to serve the needs of the population if they want to access the law and justice in that way.
Unfortunately, I think we haven't learned enough from what we see, that women don't necessarily want to report. My colleague on the panel from Nova Scotia also spoke to that briefly, that women don't necessarily want to leave their families. Women don't necessarily to want to leave their.... I'm not saying that they shouldn't or they should, but the point is that the choice should be theirs. It should be a decision made by them. The system shouldn't expect them to make the decision because it wants them to, and the criminalization most definitely is a path towards that, where we are trying to put responsibility again on them to protect themselves rather than accepting that we are responsible for preventing any form of violence against women.