Status of Women Committee on Feb. 5th, 2015

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

Are you going into some of the schools, and what age do you target?

[Lana Wells]

Yes. Right now in Alberta there are several programs.

In Alberta with my particular project, we're scaling up the best practice called the fourth R with CAMH in partnership with Western and the University of Calgary. We've had 17,000 Alberta youth go through it and we're targeting 50,000 in five years. We think that, within seven to 10 years, we're going to reduce dating violence, which should reduce intimate partner violence and violence against women later on.

We have a targeted strategy where we're working with 14 school jurisdictions, and they're partners in it. The program is not just about a program, it's a whole-school approach. That means everybody gets trained, teachers get trained, and those teachers deliver this program. This also means that schools are safe and caring communities and it ensures that all students are receiving the care that they need.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

I'd like to ask that same question to Ms. Mills from Nova Scotia. I'd like to ask her the same type of question as to where and when you think this should start. At what age are we looking at for boys to start this means of preventing violence against women?

[Gerry Mills]

I absolutely agree with Lana. I think it needs to start really early.

The issue of stable funding and continuous funding is a big issue. We have some great projects, and they all end after either a year or two years. ISANS has 120 staff, but not one staff member has a contract beyond a year. We only have a contract for a year. That means we can't continue; we can't even look at really short-term outcomes until the following year, and then it's just a cycle.

I think we need to look at the whole issue holistically as well. I really appreciated what all my colleagues said around...just the rhetoric around let's protect women. I think we need to make women the leaders. We need to put the women out to the front, and by women I mean girls as well, so start that really early. But I think we also need to look at it in family units, because for immigrant women, as we've said, immigrant women for the most part do not want to leave the family and they don't want to leave the abuser. They just want the abuse to stop. There may be situations where some may consider that it's not the best thing for them, but as you so eloquently said, it's up to the women to make that decision. I think we have to look at all of this through the lens of different cultures. It may not be what other people think is appropriate, but it may be okay in different cultures.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

My next question is—

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you. I'm sorry.

I will now yield the floor to you, Ms. Duncan. You have seven minutes.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you, Madame Chair.

I'd like to thank all of you for coming, for presenting, and for the life-changing work you do. You've given us so much to think about. I'm going to try to ask questions of all of you.

Ms. Dumont-Smith at NWAC, were you formally consulted on the action plan to address family violence?

[Claudette Dumont-Smith]

The one that was put out by the Status of Women last year?

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Yes. Did they come and say they were thinking about creating a plan and ask if you had ideas for that plan?

[Claudette Dumont-Smith]

From my recollection of that, we wanted to be fully included in the whole research, because it was sort of research like you're doing now, and what happened is that we were invited to present, as we are doing today, a 15-minute presentation. We felt that we should have been more involved throughout the process.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

There was only a 15-minute presentation?

[Claudette Dumont-Smith]

Yes.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

There was no follow-up? That was it. Thank you.

To the South Asian Legal Clinic, we've talked a bit about Bill S-7. If you could make a recommendation to this committee, what would the recommendation be?

[Deepa Mattoo]

My recommendation to the committee—and I think I speak for Bill S-7 and all other policies, which sometimes do not meaningfully engage with the communities and the survivors. When I use the word “community” I'm not talking about the South Asian community; I am talking about communities of students, lawyers, or settlement workers. I'm not talking about an ethno-specific community. I think meaningful consultation and meaningful engagement are really important and unfortunately they haven't happened with Bill S-7.

Moving forward I think it is important that any policy or any change in the framework this committee undertakes have the voice of the survivors at the centre. Voices of survivors are not monolithic either but are multi-dimensional. They say, “We don't need you to save us; we can save ourselves”. They say, “We don't necessarily want to report; we just want to feel safe”. They say, “I don't want to leave; I want to negotiate my violence while being resilient in the situation where I am located. I am an immigrant woman. I don't need you to tell me that I am not civilized and I'm barbaric. I want you to tell me that you respect me for who I am. I'm not a discounted human being. I'm a full citizen of this country as I come here”.

I think that's my recommendation, to please treat women in their full capacity, because we are doing a disservice to our own country if we do not take them as who they are and do not take them as our leaders. They can teach us how to do this. They have been doing it and they have been fighting this fight and they can teach us and lead us.

I'm sorry—it's very broad but I think what I am saying is that we need their voices.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Again to Ms. Dumont-Smith, there was the loss of Sisters in Spirit funding. Can you tell us why that funding ended and whether there is more work to be done?

[Claudette Dumont-Smith]

After Sisters in Spirit ended, of course NWAC applied to continue to update or keep up the data. New criteria were put out. We were told that there was not to be any more research or advocacy, so any project to do with research or advocacy that was funded by Status of Women following that Sisters in Spirit five-year phase would not be funded.

Evidence to Action I and II did not do any of its research. However, we do have volunteers who assist the work of NWAC, and they have maintained their own separate database, so to speak. We know that the numbers are always increasing, and that was confirmed when the RCMP did its own research and put out the report in May. But we were not allowed to do more research.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

There was no funding for research?

[Claudette Dumont-Smith]

No.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Okay.

Ms. Wells—

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

We are going to stop the clock, please.

Ms. Crockatt, you have the floor.

[Joan Crockatt, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

We wanted to have a broad-based conversation. We generally leave the questioning completely to people, but I do think the member is straying quite considerably away in all of her questions recently from promising practices to prevent violence against women. So I would just encourage you to bring it back to the topic.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much, Ms. Crockatt.

I find research and evidence, and some of the programs that are and were funded quite relevant to our study, so I will allow it.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I believe we always want to have evidence.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Ms. Duncan, I will just let you know that you have a minute and a half.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you.

Ms. Wells, I just wanted to pick up on something you had talked about. You talked about a national parenting strategy and you also talked about corporal punishment. I wondered if you would like the opportunity to talk about both.