Status of Women Committee on Nov. 30th, 2016

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Great, and welcome back.

I represent the riding of New Brunswick Southwest, so I'm going to start my questioning with the Government of New Brunswick.

Why do you think, Ms. Mills, that it's important that Premier Gallant is the Minister for the Status of Women, and what are the benefits of that in the province?

[Jocelyne Mills]

Thank you for that question.

I've been with the branch for almost two years now. In my tenure with the branch, he has been the minister responsible, so I don't have an experience with another minister responsible.

I will share some of the feedback that we've received from stakeholders within the province on that issue. Overall, the feedback that we have received has been on the leadership. It shows that to have commitment from the very top has been really a great benefit to the file in terms of advancing the issue of women's equality in the province.

Certainly it's been demonstrated in the decisions by government in the last few years in some of the achievements that we've been able to make in terms of women in positions of leadership, for instance, and in advancing work in the area of government appointments to agencies, boards, and commissions throughout the province. I think having that leadership from the top has made a big difference and has had a big impact.

Also, we've been able to move forward with gender-based analysis within government by ensuring that all decisions through our cabinet process have a screen put on them as to whether there's a gender impact. If that screen yields that there is a gender impact to the decision, then a full gender-based analysis is required.

Those are a couple of examples from my experience that demonstrate that leadership from the top really does make a difference.

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

I think it does as well. I think it sends a very strong message. Certainly the choice for the premier to be appointed as the minister—and it could have been any ministry—is a very significant message.

Also, I will say how pleased we are in the province of New Brunswick that Cathy Rogers was appointed as the first female Minister of Finance.

You talked about regional diversity. Could you inform our committee how you work regionally with other provinces? We were told earlier this week by the minister that we were very fortunate to have nine part-time positions across the country for status of women. In our region, one will be in Saint John, one in Charlottetown, and one will be in Halifax. We definitely have that regional representation, which is great.

How is New Brunswick similar to the other provinces within our region, and also, what is unique about New Brunswick in terms of our region?

[Jocelyne Mills]

I guess there are a couple of parts to that question.

First, in terms of how we work regionally, we have—and I alluded to it briefly in my comments—an Atlantic status of women ministers forum, represented by the four ministers in the four provinces. That provides us with an opportunity to work collaboratively among the four Atlantic provinces. There's also a senior officials forum that supports the work of the ministers. The ministers tend to meet on an annual basis and provide direction to the forum, and then as a result of those meetings the four provinces have our areas of focus on which we collaborate on an Atlantic basis.

We're currently in the process of looking at the next set of priorities, I would say, on an Atlantic basis, and we hope that will be the subject of discussion by the ministers when they next meet. However, there have been successes in that area. We've been able to do things together that perhaps would have been more challenging, for financial reasons or others, to do on our own.

One of those examples is work in the area of cybersafety, particularly focused on girls. There was an initiative launched by the Atlantic forum of ministers. I'm going to get my dates wrong, but I think it was—

[Martine Stewart, Director, Violence Prevention and Community Partnerships (Unit), Executive Council Office, Government of New Brunswick]

It was in 2012 or 2013.

[Jocelyne Mills]

—in 2012 or 2013. We can provide you with exact dates.

We launched an online site with a number of tips and resources, focused both on parents and also on girls themselves. Those resources are providing ways for girls to be safe online. The site itself has been quite successful. What our research tells us so far is that probably parents have been using the site more than girls. We're looking at how to make some tools that perhaps will be more accessible to girls themselves as the next potential phase of some of this work.

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Okay. Thank you.

Can I just ask you one question? I'm not sure how much time—

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Pam Damoff]

You have 30 seconds.

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

I know there isn't much time, but at some point during your responses to the rest of the questions, would you be able to speak at all to small rural coastal communities and some of the challenges they face in terms of program delivery? There's my plug.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Pam Damoff]

Thank you.

We'll now move to Ms. Harder. I understand you're sharing your time with your colleague.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Hi, there. Thank you so much for being with us today.

My question goes to Ms. Adamson.

You mentioned helping immigrant women in particular, and the need for a plan or further action with regard to that population, or that is what I understood. I'm hoping that you can expand on that a bit.

One of the things I'm quite passionate about is with regard to the Yazidi women. We have women and girls who are supposed to be coming into Canada. They're supposed to be arriving in February. I'm very curious as to the plan that's being put in place, and I'm wondering, from your angle, what you would recommend in terms of a plan for immigrants in general, but in particular with regard to a vulnerable population like Yazidi women and girls, who come from a background where they've been sexually exploited to the greatest extent possible by ISIS.

[Maureen Adamson]

In broad-brush terms, a lot of the public awareness and other programs we have, as I mentioned earlier, are in 16 different languages, so we're trying to address that.

In terms of the sexual violence round table that we have, we have a very rich representation around that table of service providers who represent and help new immigrants, whether that's some of the refugees who have just arrived.... These people are on the ground, dealing with the issues that many of these women face. We're trying to build that into all of our programming. However, that is one really important place where we seek advice from those on the front line working with the individuals.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Would you say that from a government perspective, then, more can be done?

[Maureen Adamson]

I think there's always more that can be done, not that I get to speak on any particular part of your government. I think that in Ontario there is a recognition that there are different needs for different communities and different folks who are affected. I would say that we're trying to target some of the programs we're making available, and they are to be tailored. Can more be done? For sure.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

In your estimation, would you say that immigrant women are among the most vulnerable in terms of sexual violence and exploitation? Do you have facts on that?

[Maureen Adamson]

A lot of our focus is on what we found with indigenous women. They're at higher risk, certainly, in terms of being a vulnerable group. We can come back with some stats, actually, in the next couple of days regarding Toronto and Ontario being very diverse. We have some data we can probably get back to you with, if that helps.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Yes, I would be very interested, particularly with regard to our immigrant population and just what we're seeing there. Honestly, facts are great, but even anecdotal reflections are helpful.

Thank you. I'm going to hand it over to my colleague.

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

Thank you, Rachel, and thank you to all of the witnesses.

I want to stick first of all with the witnesses from the Government of Ontario. Thank you for being here.

You spoke about the new health sex education curriculum in Ontario. You mentioned a number of the new components it includes.

One of the things we've talked and heard a fair bit about at this committee is the impact of violent sexual images. You could say pornography, but really we're talking about a subset or a certain kind of pornography and the way that and other media can lead to false beliefs about violence against women, which young boys in particular can absorb, but also young girls.

I'd be curious to know if and how the new health curriculum addresses and discusses the issue of pornography.

[Lisa Priest, Assistant Deputy Minister, Ontario Women's Directorate, Government of Ontario]

Thank you very much for your question. It goes to two areas, really. There is our public awareness campaign, “It's Never Okay”, and also our curriculum changes.

Let me tell you a little bit about the curriculum changes, if I may. We have an updated health and physical education curriculum for grades 1 through 12. It was implemented in September 2015. It helps students develop an understanding of root causes of gender inequality, and from a very early age--

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

Sorry to cut you off, ma'am, but I'm actually quite limited for time. If you could address the issue of if and how the curriculum addresses the issue of pornography and violent pornography, I'd really appreciate it.

[Lisa Priest]

It goes to the heart of teaching the dangers of sexting. That's one of the areas. I'm not familiar with whether it goes specifically to violent pornography. I could find out for you, but it does talk about the dangers of sexting and sending images electronically of people in various states of undress and understanding that it's a form of sexual assault.

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

What I'm hearing you say is that essentially, no, it doesn't address the issue of the impact on someone of viewing violent pornography. Yes, it addresses the impact of a person perhaps sending an image of another person to someone else or of sending sexually explicit text messages, but it doesn't address this emerging issue of the impact, in terms of the formation of beliefs associated with consuming violent pornography. Am I understanding you correctly that it does not address those issues?

[Lisa Priest]

Not exactly. The first part is right, regarding sexting. I would need to get back to you on the latter and whether it addresses that. That's what I would like to do. I would not say that it does not. I'm saying that I need to find out and get back to you on that particular point.

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

Okay, fair enough. I, and I think the rest of the committee, would be quite interested in that clarification. Of course, no curriculum is finalized, and I'm sure there are ongoing updates, but that would certainly be an important emerging issue in this area.

Ms. Hill, you talked about the new health curriculum as well in your statement. I'd be curious about your thoughts on the relevance of violent pornography and if you have a sense that your peers are consuming this material and what the impact is on some of the issues you raised in your testimony.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Pam Damoff]

You have just a few seconds.