The issue of violence against women is also interlinked to immigration and citizenship, eventually. One of the the things that made it very difficult was the conditional permanent residency, or CPR, which became part of the immigration portfolio. We found many women...it was unbelievable how many women came to SAWC for help, because within the first year of marriage, the marriage broke down. There was a woman who we had to admit into the shelter when she was three months pregnant. She left but she returned to the shelter when her baby was one month old.
These are the types of situations. There was another woman who was turned away at the airport and told that her husband had just said that the marriage was annulled, and she had to be sent back. She was brought to our agency, but her father did not want to continue. She was only 23 years old. She had nowhere to go and no place to stay. We did say we would find her the support she needed, but she recognized it was going to be an uphill battle. She chose to go back home, where she was going to be stigmatized for having been married previously. She was unlikely to find a bridegroom or settle down, and she would have to go through tremendous mental trauma.
I think that's what we refer to when we talk about some of the systems that are in place.