Status of Women Committee on Oct. 17th, 2016

[Brigitte Sansoucy, NDP, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

You spoke in your presentation about the need to adopt a national action plan. How important is it to have a national strategy that would, of course, include education and training?

The goal would be to inform people about sexual violence and to change behaviours in that regard. Healthy relationships, consent, encouraging self-esteem and working with men and boys to change attitudes and behaviours could be addressed. I won't talk about “rape culture” since you said that you don't like that expression.

How important is it to have a real strategy to address all these issues?

[Prof. Dawn Moore]

I'll just backtrack and clarify. It's not that I dislike the term “rape culture”; I just feel that it has become a distraction right now. That's why I say I'm agnostic about it. We can use it if it's useful, but I don't want that term to become the debate. I want the debate to stay on what we can do to prevent gender-based violence.

To answer your question with regard to education, I'd refer back to the educational initiatives that we have undertaken as a nation around racism and around homophobia. Most of those were led by the federal government in terms of educating the Canadian public about what it means to live in a cultural mosaic, about educating the Canadian public about the importance of human rights for all. Canada was the first country in the world to allow gay marriage, and that didn't just come from the courts: it also came from a Canadian public that was ready to embrace diversity within our population.

If we look at the history of this country, we see that education—changing the sensibilities of the day-to-day Canadian, the average Canadian—is vital to effecting the widespread change that we need in order to prevent and stop gender-based violence. I share the vision of my colleague in Montreal of having—

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

I'm sorry; that's your time.

We'll go now to Mr. Serré for seven minutes.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll be sharing my time with Mr. Fraser and Ms. Dhillon.

My first question is for both witnesses. In your opinion, how is violence online different from physical violence?

Also, as you are answering that, Ms. Dugal, on your website you indicate that a lot of the research is focusing on teens, but we've also heard from some other witnesses that possibly we should be starting earlier. I want to get your comments on that.

[Anuradha Dugal]

To answer your question about focusing earlier, I completely agree. We know that the organizations we work with have told us that they have been invited into grade 6 classes. Those are young people 10 and 11 years old. We know there are some programs, in Montreal in particular, that are about communication strategies for young people that start in maternelle, in kindergarten. I think that the question of how you have a healthy relationship with anybody needs to start as soon as young people are in school.

On the consent question, as soon as we have young people gathered in a small space, we've seen that even three- and four-year-olds are able to learn to ask if they can hug you. It sounds like something very small and insignificant, but learning to ask permission for physical intimacy is a key part in teaching a culture of consent if we want to create a climate like that to go all the way through to universities and beyond. That's the question about how early you could start.

On your first question about the place for education...sorry, I'm needing a bit of precision.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

It was to comment on the difference between physical violence and online violence.

[Anuradha Dugal]

It was about online violence. For us, the definition of “violence” is psychological, physical, online, financial, sexual. It encompasses everything. The violence that I think is critically difficult for young women to deal with right now is online stalking and harassment. It is different because it seems to be very much more personalized. It's directed against women who specifically take a position on wanting to look for equality rights or wanting to present a more.... I know you're going to be speaking to Julie Lalonde. We know that she's experienced a lot of harassment of that kind, but almost any woman who talks on the Internet about equality experiences violence and aggression.

I don't know if my colleague would like to add more.

[Prof. Dawn Moore]

I could add something more apropos physical threats and death threats online for public positions I've taken on sexual violence. That is absolutely accurate.

To speak quickly to how early we can start, it's from birth. My children are in the CPE system in Quebec, and they are taught not only to ask permission to touch others but also that they are allowed to say no when somebody touches their own bodies. The notion has been very much inculcated in them that their bodies are their own and that other than when they have to go to the doctor or I have to take their temperature, they have veto power over their bodies. I see that reflected in the way my kids comport themselves now. They are much more respectful of their friends' bodies and theirs and mine. They will now ask if they can hug me. They've learned to do that because I am also a rape survivor, so that's been important in establishing boundaries in our household.

Children are capable of understanding consent. They're capable of understanding their own bodily autonomy. There's nothing wrong with teaching them to be respectful and to seek consent from the get-go.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Go ahead, Ms. Dhillon.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

You mentioned before that universities are not very open to disclosing how much sexual assault or rape or harassment occurs on campus. Could you please tell us why you think so, and who puts up those roadblocks? You also said it discourages complainants from coming forward. What can the government do to encourage these complainants? What are the best practices we can establish?

[Prof. Dawn Moore]

In terms of evidence, the three universities we studied all told us that there was no problem with sexual violence on their campuses. Carleton, my own university, told me that there hadn't been a sexual assault since the quite infamous sexual assault in 2007, which is patently wrong. I was told that by the head of university safety. There is certainly a sticking-your-head-in-the-sand response from universities. Across the board, they don't want to acknowledge that the problem exists.

What was the second part of your question?

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

The second part was about how to encourage people to report, and whether the university will help them or not. What are best practices? What can the government do to encourage this?

[Prof. Dawn Moore]

One thing that I would really like to see us test out in Canada, which has been tried on campuses in the United States, is anonymous reporting mechanisms.

There is software available now that allows students to just simply go online, and from their dorm room, they can explain the circumstances of the assault and put in the name of the assailant. This information sits in a database, and the student will be notified if another student reports that she has also been assaulted by this person. In some interfaces, university security might have access to that information, but in an anonymous way, so that they can see the prevalence of incidents of sexual violence on campus without knowing names.

It's very simple, but I think it would go a long way to giving us a much better ability to capture the prevalence of sexual violence on campuses.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you very much.

We will go now to Garnett Genuis for five minutes.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you very much. I really appreciated hearing both of your testimonies.

Ms. Moore, I'll start with a comment, and I'm curious about your response to it.

I'm 29 and I was on a university campus not that long ago. Maybe things have gotten better or maybe they've gotten worse, but I know that from my perspective, stop light parties were something that happened and weren't just fraternity or sorority things. When I was a student, our resident association organized a stop light party. This is an organization to which students paid mandatory dues that were collected by the administration and distributed. It floored me, but many other people thought that this was normal fun or whatever.

You also mentioned specifically the issue of frosh week activities and the hypersexualization of the university environment that's often associated with frosh week. This is very important to me, because you have students coming for the first time and they're learning what university life is all about, and this is immediately what they're greeted with. It's not some kind of erudite academic experience. It's something completely different.

In some cases there are issues of culture, but these issues that I've mentioned reflect in some cases things that student unions are organizing as officially sanctioned social activities. That's especially true of frosh week. It's not to say that student unions are always the problem. Sometimes they're part of the solution as well in terms of emphasizing education around this issue.

What is the appropriate response from university administrations? I am asking because it seems to me that in some of these cases there needs to be a greater degree of control by the administration in terms of saying to student unions that there are limits to the kinds of activities students unions can organize if they go outside the kind of culture we want to create on our campuses.

[Prof. Dawn Moore]

I really appreciate that question. I think universities have two choices. One is to be reactive, and that is what most universities do now. Most of you are familiar with what happened on Carleton's campus a couple of years ago. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to swear in this room or not—okay, no. I will just say that frosh facilitators were seen walking adjacent to campus wearing T-shirts that said, “Eff safe space” or “Eff me”. This created a debacle on campus. It took a long time for university administration to condemn these acts, but those students were never actually punished, even though their actions clearly were infractions against the student code of conduct.

I don't think that kind of a reactive approach is particularly useful. We saw the same thing at Saint Mary's. We saw it at U of O. We saw it at Brock. If we just keep responding, then we're not actually getting ahead of the problem. To my mind, we need to have ongoing education that begins with frosh week but then continues, so that those people who are educating the frosh about what consent means have had four years of education about what consent means and are in a position to model for them what consent means and what healthy sexual relationships mean.

What we see now at universities is that the frosh facilitators do an online course that takes them half an hour, and that's their consent training, which they then bring down to the frosh. It's not sufficient, and it's not sufficient for that to only happen once in your university career. It should be an ongoing project of universities to be continuously educating people, and not just students. Everybody on the university campus needs to be engaged with continuous education around safe, healthy, consensual sexuality.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

If that isn't going to happen from the student union side, it needs to be managed from the administration, because administration ultimately has the responsibility for the safety of the spaces they manage. Would you agree?

[Prof. Dawn Moore]

What I would hope for is collaboration among students, labour unions, and administration. I just came from a meeting on Carleton's campus about our own sexual violence policy, and it's certainly something we're advocating on our campus. I think the will is there at a lot of other campuses, but we need national direction in order to set a standard that we can all achieve.

Right now, as I said in my brief, we're all functioning in silos. We're all functioning completely blind to what is happening at other institutions, and that's not helpful. My colleague talked about knowledge dissemination and knowledge sharing. We desperately need that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

All right. That's your time, unfortunately.

Ladies, your input has been very valuable to the committee. I want to thank you for appearing before us. If you have other things you'd like to send us based on the questions you heard, feel free to forward all of that to the clerk. We would love to have your input. Thank you again for coming.

We're going to suspend the meeting for two minutes to set up for our next witnesses.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Order, please.

We are continuing the meeting.

We have with us today several witnesses.

First of all, we have Maïra Martin, from Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes. Then we have, from Ottawa Hollaback!, Julie Lalonde, who's the director. By video conference, we have Gabrielle Ross-Marquette, who is the communications coordinator for METRAC Action on Violence.

Ladies, welcome. We're glad to have you as our witnesses today.

We're going to start with Gabrielle. Each of you will have 10 minutes to make your remarks. I will cut you off savagely at the end of your 10 minutes, because we have to stay on time. Then we'll start the rounds of questions.

We'll start with you, Gabrielle, and then we'll go to Maïra. You have 10 minutes.

[Gabrielle Ross-Marquette, Communications Coordinator, METRAC Action on Violence]

Thank you, everyone, for inviting METRAC to speak on issues of campus safety. We know that post-secondary education campuses across the country are profoundly unsafe spaces for women of all backgrounds and gender-nonconforming folks.

North American research suggests that between 15% and 25% of college- and university-aged women will experience some form of sexual assault during their academic career. METRAC Action on Violence has more than three decades of experience in working with campus communities to foster safer institutions for everyone, with specific attention to individuals and groups at higher risk of experiencing violence.

Today I will summarize METRAC's brief, which was submitted on September 23, by focusing on three issues: rape culture, poverty on Canadian campuses, and the rise in human trafficking on campuses.

I'll be happy to answer any questions following the presentation.

Rape culture results from the prevalence of sexual violence on campus, coupled with the normalization of this violence. Because of statistics, we know sexual violence is prevalent on Canadian campuses. For example, we've all heard the sobering statistic that four out of five undergraduate students report experiencing dating violence. The acceptance of this sexual violence is what we call “rape culture”, which describes shared social and community beliefs, ideas, structures, and practices that can, when added together, make high rates of sexual violence seem normal, unavoidable, and acceptable; make us prone to blame, disbelieve, and silence those who experience victimization; feed into sexist gender stereotypes and rape myths about men being naturally violent and women being at fault for provoking them; and feed into sexualized stereotypes about certain groups, such as indigenous people, racialized communities, and trans and gender diverse communities, and reinforce a belief that they are somehow more likely to commit abuse or to be immune to victimization. Rape culture can also make us think it's okay that our policies, practices, law enforcement, and courts do not respond well to the problem, and rape culture keeps us ill-equipped and unaware of how to support victims or survivors.

Rape culture is found everywhere, from individual beliefs to large social structures. It's grounded in historical patterns and power arrangements between people; we can think of colonialism or sexism. Even as laws against sexual violence and stereotypes improve, these legacies are embedded in our culture and linked with ongoing forms of oppression such as racism, homophobia, and ableism. As a result, rape culture has led to greater risks for vulnerable groups that have been pushed to the margins of society—for example, young women, indigenous women, and trans individuals—while there are still not appropriate services and supports for marginalized people when they face abuse.

Egale Canada's national education survey in 2011 notes that about two-thirds of queer and trans students reported feeling unsafe at school. In 2009, 74% of student-reported hate crimes on campuses were linked to a student's sexual orientation, while more than one-third of students experienced sexual harassment. These forms of violence are directly related to race, religion, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Therefore, it's crucial to consider the intersections of sexual violence when developing a strategy to address this violence. The strategy cannot be separated from an approach that seeks to challenge all forms of oppression.

However, developing any strategy to address sexual violence on Canadian campuses is challenging. The climate of economic uncertainties creates unsafe campuses where developing a culture of consent proves difficult.

Here's what I mean by economic uncertainties: the rising cost of tuition fees, record levels of student debt, the high cost of housing, the high cost of food, and the nature of work on campus, which is precarious or unpaid through many internships.

There are many statistics that support these claims, but I will highlight just two of them. One is that the Ontario Association of Food Banks reported that an increasing number of post-secondary education students now regularly use food banks, with 8% of users being students and senior citizens, and that there is not one college or university campus that does not have a food bank or hunger relief program on site. The second is that international students on Canadian campuses may face even more economic barriers as their tuition fees are often three times the Canadian average, and they may find it even harder to obtain paid work because of negative stereotypes, racism, and xenophobia.

We are then in a climate where students are forced to look outside of traditional means to survive. The serious reality of poverty on campuses increases the risk of exploitation of vulnerable and marginalized students. Universities and colleges, with their high proportion of young women on isolated campuses, are particular areas of concern for human trafficking. The Internet adds to that problem, and online human trafficking of young women and girls is a growing, serious issue in our communities.

Just last week, a story in Ottawa made the headlines when a manager for the University of Ottawa's football team was arrested for posing as a talent agent online to lure girls into the sex trade. In Canada, this is a particular concern for indigenous women, because the majority of women who are trafficked are indigenous women and girls.

Sex trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation of women and children, especially girls, is a significant crime and human rights issue currently facing urban centres. Ontario is considered one of the major centres for sex trafficking of indigenous women and children. Ontario is also home to the majority of international trafficking victims recognized by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and it is the province where the most human trafficking prosecutions in Canada have occurred. There have been some cases of international students being internationally trafficked in Ontario.

The combined factors of increasing poverty among students, large numbers of women-identified students, and border town locations of campuses require the attention of the government. We must attend to understanding and managing the associated risks for sex trafficking in areas surrounding campuses.

We would like to take this opportunity to share some effective strategies for challenging rape culture and sexual violence on campus.

Effective strategies to combat sexual violence must involve the campus community. The people who study, work, live, and use a campus are the safety experts in that space, with the greatest understanding of their safety concerns. Students can both guide and help implement the process for change, which should focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion to ensure everyone on campus is safe from sexual violence.

Some promising practices are METRAC's campus safety audits. These safety audits explore physical factors, sexual violence, discriminatory behaviour, access, practices, and policies. They require partnership among students, administration, faculty, employees, and the broader community in order to be effective in addressing the safety needs and assets of diverse campus constituencies. Audits review policies and practices, evaluate local needs and assets, assess safety, and provide a detailed report to the different campuses, along with recommendations for implementation.

There is also inclusive education. Here we are talking about educating all members of campus communities—students, staff, and faculty—on rape culture, sexual violence, and fostering a culture of consent through face-to-face workshops led by peers trained by external community partners.

Finally, there is METRAC's online student training. METRAC is offering a new online course entitled “Campus Consent Culture: Preventing Sexual Violence E-Course for Students”. This online course, coupled with inclusive education, allows students to learn these concepts in a self-directed, interactive way.

METRAC commends this committee for dedicating time and resources to exploring the issue of campus safety for women and girls, and we thank you so much for offering us the opportunity to share our knowledge with you today.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Martin, you have the floor for 10 minutes.

[Maïra Martin, General Director, Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I am going to speak in French, and I used to speak very fast in French, so please let me know if you get lost in translation.

Thank you very much for inviting Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes to make a presentation today.

Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes is a provincial women's rights collective of safe houses, sexual assault centres, or CALACS, and programs on violence against women. They provide services in French to women experiencing violence in Ontario. The mandate of Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes is to develop resources in French on violence against women, to provide training and to coordinate awareness campaigns.

The purpose of your study is extremely specific. Therefore, I will limit my presentation to the sexual violence experienced by young women and girls, particularly on campuses. I will especially stress awareness about this form of violence by speaking about the “Draw the Line” campaign.

There are relatively few statistics on incidents of sexual violence on campuses, but studies in the United States have shown that approximately one female student in eight has been the victim of sexual assault during her post-secondary studies, which is nonetheless significant. As Ms. Ross-Marquette said, all these sexual assaults are encouraged by a culture that is present in our society and on campuses that we generally call rape culture. This culture, which is sexist, chauvinistic and based on many stereotypes, makes sexual assault survivors responsible for their assault and blames them for it. Moreover, it tends to completely remove responsibility from the attackers and to minimize the sexual assaults.

In recent years, this rape culture has surfaced many times on North American campuses. For example, some colleges and universities have very strongly discouraged survivors from speaking out about their assaults. I suspect that you will remember many cases in which extremely sexist activities were organized on campuses, particularly during frosh week.

One fairly easy way to combat the rape culture and sexual assaults in society and on campuses, in particular, is first to speak out about this culture and to raise awareness. The Draw the Line campaign were created in Ontario by Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes and by the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres. Ms. Lalonde, who is here today, was also involved in this campaign, which was created in 2012.

One of the first benefits of this campaign, which is extremely important to me, is that it is fully bilingual and was created in French and English simultaneously. So it also meets the needs of francophones. In addition, this awareness campaign takes a feminist approach, meaning that we are seeing sexual violence as a form of violence against women, gender-based violence. We analyze sexual violence in a much broader context, as a social problem that affects everyone and is caused by the inequality between men and women.

The Draw the Line campaign is for family and friends. We chose to address the public, both men and women as friends and family, rather than women as victims and men as attackers. It is extremely important that we use this approach. In fact, if we address women as potential victims, we easily risk blaming them or giving them advice on how to avoid a sexual assault by refraining from alcohol, going out in a group, refraining from sexting and so on.

All this advice would strengthen the myth that women could avoid a sexual assault when it isn't true. No matter what a woman does or doesn't do, she will not avoid a sexual assault.

We also decided not to address men as potential attackers because it has been shown to be ineffective, that it had no effect on the attackers and, in particular, did not encourage men to get involved as potential allies and as people who can foster change. In fact, we are addressing men and women as friends and family who can step in effectively to put an end to a sexually violent situation, effectively and empathically support a survivor or hold an attacker responsible.

To create socially profound changes, the public needs to feel concerned and know how to recognize the various forms of sexual violence because, for most people, sexual violence means only rape, while we know that it is much more than that. Not only do we need to recognize sexual violence, but we also especially need to know how to intervene safely and effectively to put an end to it. If we don't equip family members and friends with the tools for intervening properly, it won't be effective and we won't get to the bottom of this matter.

With the Draw the Line campaign, we decided to create different scenarios that cover the spectrum of sexual violence. For example, we prepared scenarios on alcohol and attacks, cyber sexual violence, spousal rape, sexual exploitation and violence in sports culture and in society. These scenarios enable the friends and family to be exposed to a real or possible situation of sexual assault, to think about the situation and, above all, to see what they could do in specific situations.

As I said earlier, intervention is extremely important. In fact, we also give a few examples of possible interventions for each of the scenarios to start to guide thinking.

On advantage of the campaign is that it can be implemented in several ways. It can be done on social media or individually with the campaign material. I have brought you a few examples of this. So it can be an individual reflection or an informal group reflection among friends or with family.

However, I think the most effective awareness method is organizing workshops in schools or on campuses, led by people who work at the CALACS. It is important that the people who give the workshops are trained because when training is given on violence against women and on sexual violence, in particular, it is important to be prepared for conversations that are sometimes a little difficult. If facilitators aren't ready to receive negative comments and reactions, it may be difficult for them.

The Draw the Line campaign is run on any given day by the various CALACS in the English-speaking and French-speaking provinces on campuses and in secondary schools. We note that there are many dialogues and that the workshops foster conversation. That is what is most effective for creating profound changes. Posters or television ads aren't enough to bring about changes in attitudes and mentalities. The most important thing is to talk about it, and have the expertise of someone who is able to debunk the myths and talk about the reality of sexual violence.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you very much.

We are fortunate now to have Julie Lalonde, the director of Ottawa Hollaback!, to address us for 10 minutes.

[Julie Lalonde, Director, Ottawa Hollaback!]

I'm going to speak in English. I also speak really fast in all languages, so I'm going to try to be really slow and articulate and keep my eye on the wonderful translators.

Thank you so much for inviting us. We're the first Hollaback! chapter in Canada. We launched in 2010. It's pretty remarkable for us that street harassment is on the radar of the federal government. That excites us very much.

I'm going to talk a bit about our work and who we are, but Maïra has already covered a lot, so I'm going to echo what she said in terms of effective strategies.

For folks who aren't familiar with Hollaback!, first of all, we have nothing to do with the Gwen Stefani song.