Evidence of meeting #49 for Status of Women in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was women.
A video is available from Parliament.
National Director, Women's and Human Rights, Canadian Labour Congress
And a federal minimum wage, too, would help.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
I really do have issues with that, since we talk about 90% of it being under the province. Those are some things that we've dealt with. We are not in a pyramid; we're in silos, so we need to make sure that the provinces are doing their jobs as well.
When you talked about implementation, Megan, what is it that we do to—
Deputy Director, Canada Without Poverty
Yes, you just mentioned one of the key things. You have two national strategies right now on the table, for housing and poverty. How are you going to make sure the money is getting there? How are you going to make sure everything is funded properly? You need to make sure that what's happening at the provincial level is actually happening to support women. That's going to require monitoring, review, and ensuring that you're talking to the women who are affected and involved. It means conditions on some of the money that's being spent. It means committed resources.
Implementation fits within the human rights framework. That's why we talk about it as a human rights issue.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Basically, what I'm hearing, though, is that all of these systemic barriers are actually all tied into one. For instance, if we did not discriminate against women, we would not have a lack of decent work. If we implemented things, we would not have a lack of decent work. If we paid women more or paid men to take time off, then women would be all of this.
How is that done? You all profess on this. What is it that we actually do, then, to put this into a working method that works for all Canadians, and I say “all Canadians”, meaning men, women, youth, elders, everybody.
I know I'm out of time, but that is what I challenge you with. What does this look like that would benefit all Canadians, young boys who can't find jobs, young girls who can't find jobs, and elders who have had to go back to work? We talk about these things but I want to—
Conservative
Senior Economist, Canadian Labour Congress
We need gender-based analysis in government policy-making.
Liberal
Liberal
Eva Nassif Liberal Vimy, QC
I will now turn to Ms. Hooft and Ms. Biss.
You indicated in your report entitled “Human Rights and Poverty Strategies, A Guide to International Human Rights Law and its Domestic Application in Poverty Reduction Strategies” that more than 4.8 million Canadians are living under the poverty line.
What obstacles to economic participation, prosperity and leadership might Canadian women face?
Further, have you identified strategies and best practices that could be used to reduce poverty rates among women and enable them to achieve greater economic security? If so, what strategies and best practices do you recommend?
Thank you.
Legal Education and Outreach Coordinator, Canada Without Poverty
In terms of what the strategies and best approaches are within the poverty reduction strategy and housing strategy, I want to reflect a bit on what we're saying when we're saying a rights-based approach and what that actually means concretely, because I think our overall recommendation would be that what we need is a rights-based approach. I want to give some context to flesh that out a bit.
One of the key pieces to that is accountability and government accountability to ensure that if you have a rights-based strategy, there are mechanisms by which those 4.9 million people living in poverty can access some sort of review mechanism and have some sort of response from the government. We're thinking about policy, I think, as a piece that the government puts out, and then that's it. But it's more about implementation in the long term. How do you get feedback from those who are the most marginalized?
What we're really pushing here as a best practice isn't so much referring to this little pocket of policy or that pocket of policy—which are all really key pieces—as talking about an overall framework for these strategies that allows for that dialogue.
Deputy Director, Canada Without Poverty
To add to that, I think when you're thinking about concrete pieces, we put it down to a few pillars. For example, you have to include human rights language in policy and law, and you have to start thinking about things from the human rights perspective, a gendered perspective, which is how this policy impacts people on the ground.
Part of that will involve what Michèle was saying—monitoring it, having timely reports, transparency, adequate funding, but also the inclusion of people in the process itself to hear back what this means for them and how it impacts them.
When you get down further and you look at those policies, such as a living wage, they actually speak to whether they meet the woman's needs and a woman can comment specifically on that, or maybe her issue is child care, and she can comment specifically on that. But if she has nowhere to go except to come to Ottawa, and there's no way for her to claim her rights, her right to housing, her right to food, and an adequate standard of living, she's left in the poverty cycle.
There are a couple of these concrete steps that you need to put in place, and that's what the human rights framework offers.
National Director, Women's and Human Rights, Canadian Labour Congress
Well, no, I think they've done a good job of wrapping up. The idea of empowering people to take command of their rights is good, but I do think that the government can show proactive leadership in bringing rights to policy-making. That, I think, is fundamental. That's what this is all about.
I've heard an interesting dynamic in some of the conversations as if rights for one group means fewer rights for others. It's not a pie. Gender equality benefits everybody. I know I'm quoting like a Facebook meme right now, but it resonates with me. It also means that you actually have to start down the path. Further delaying the rights for women and for other marginalized groups means the situation continues to get worse. Inequality does not get better by further delays.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Pam Damoff
Okay.
Thank you all for being here. We really appreciate your testimony. It was very helpful. I notice that we've been joined by the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, Ms. May.
Thank you for being here.
We're going to adjourn for 15 minutes, and then we'll be joined by some Daughters of the Vote delegates.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Pam Damoff
I'm going to call this meeting to order.
We're studying the participation of women in politics.
I want to welcome the Daughters of the Vote delegates who are here. I can't tell you how thrilled we are to have you here.
What you see in question period is not indicative of what most of our life as members of Parliament is like. It's really nice to have you here to get a sense of, frankly, how collegial committee work is, and how most of our time as members of Parliament involves working together across party lines.
I spoke to you before. We're going to start left to right. You have three minutes to speak, and then we're going to have 15 minutes of questions afterwards.
To the committee members, I know we normally have a set structure of questions. The clerk is going to take a list of people who have questions. We are going to try and keep it to about one question per party, and limit it to about three minutes so that we balance it out.
Alana, welcome. You are the first Daughter of the Vote to address a committee ever. I understand that your topic is violence against women. Alana, it's over to you. Thank you.
Alana Robert As an Individual
Thank you.
My name is Alana Robert. I'm from the Manitoba Métis Nation. I'm so proud to be the first woman in my family to go to university.
I've always wanted to pursue a career in law to help combat the magnitude of violence and exploitation experienced by indigenous women in our country, and I'm currently studying at Osgoode Hall Law School.
I vividly recall this aspiration of mine being validated when speaking at a women's rights march only a few years ago. I saw a young indigenous girl in the crowd, perhaps eight years old, holding up a sign that said, “Will I be next?” This moment made me realize that our young indigenous sisters should be dreaming of their future, not for their future, and so I began to try to create a safer space around me for the women who surrounded me in my life.
I began a group at the University of Manitoba called Justice For Women. I brought together community organizations and leaders to help create consent culture workshops.
These workshops helped educate students about how to obtain consent and ways that they can design student programming to mitigate the risks of sexual violence. This encountered reluctance, so I created and successfully advocated for a policy that mandates this training to students across every single faculty at the largest university in my province.
I then designed a self-care and sexual violence resource centre that serves our community and secured funding to operate it.
While this work has made and continues to offer an impact at my home in Manitoba, this is only one component of the ability that we have to create a safer environment for our women, particularly our indigenous women, who experience a higher incidence of sexual violence.
I know students who go to class and sit only a few seats down from the perpetrator of violence against them, and students who use Justice For Women services because they don't know where to go or because there is nowhere else to go.
This leaves our women behind, and there's a lot of work ahead of us. The government can help advocacy groups like mine build the first generation free of violence against women.
With your support, we can create a national policy mandating all post-secondary institutions to have comprehensive consent education, response centres, and resources that are accessible to students. We can support the establishment of full-service community centres where women escaping violence can go for legal assistance, counselling, financial planning, and cultural activities, all within the same space.
This can reduce the re-traumatization of women that occurs when they are forced to retell their stories over and again. For indigenous women, who are particularly targeted, this is especially important to ensuring their safety.
Many environments of our young people and indigenous women are conducive to violence. Our women are capable of greatness, which can be achieved when we facilitate a society that lifts them up so that they can flourish and reach their full potential.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Pam Damoff
Thank you very much, Alana.
Now we're going to Shania, for three minutes.
Welcome.
Shania Pruden As an Individual
Thank you.
Good morning. My name is Shania Pruden. I am representing Elmwood—Transcona from Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Did you know that according to the Native Women's Association, indigenous women are almost three times more likely to be murdered by a stranger than a non-indigenous woman is? It's very difficult to take that in because it brings fear for many indigenous Canadians, including me.
A big thing that tends to happen is the negative stereotypes that these missing and/or murdered women get. Things like, “Oh, she was asking for it” or “Oh, she was a runaway”, and sometimes even, “She deserved it”. Why would someone say something like that? Then you stop and realize there are still people in Canada that don't care about equality, and making Canada a better and safer place for everyone.
I get scared walking home from my bus stop at night, but also when I'm in public, my self-esteem disappears. My parents told me many times that I am not allowed to take a taxi anymore due to the recent events that occurred in Winnipeg. Why is it still happening in 2017?
Something that I've never told many people is the reason why I dress the way I do, and the reason why I act the way I do. It's because I feel braver and more secure. If I was to dress more like a girl, people would know I'm a girl, and I'd likely be harassed for it. If I dress more like a boy, people won't bug me. They would sweep it off because, “Oh, it's just a guy”. Why should I have to do that just to live free from harm?
The biggest thing that struck me the most was the death of a 15-year-old girl. Her name was Tina Fontaine. Her body was wrapped in a bag and pulled out of the Red River. It's terrible because she was only 15. She wasn't able to experience graduating high school, getting married, or having her own family. She had her life stolen from her.
Losing a sister is hard. My older sister died by suicide, but my family knows how she died. Can you imagine the thoughts that these families have knowing that their daughter, sister, and/or mother are somewhere out there, not knowing whether they're alive or not.
As an Individual
It's scary. Tragedy can happen at any time. Indigenous or not, women are women, and I strongly agree that violence against women has to stop. It's not fair that women have to live in fear. When we work together, we can help end violence against women once and for all.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Pam Damoff
Thank you very much for your really personal and powerful testimony.
Natasha.
Natasha Kornak As an Individual
Thank you all very much for having me here today.
My name is Natasha Kornak, and I am the Daughters of the Vote delegate for Calgary Confederation.
Roughly one year ago I launched a campaign in Alberta called Right2Know, which is working to put an end to sexual violence in the province.
I believe that three key elements are needed to eliminate sexual violence and its ramifications: education, creating robust public health resources, and revamping our justice system so that it is accountable to those who come forward with allegations of sexual assaults.
The primary focus of my activism has been on reforming Alberta's sexual health curricula to teach youth about consent, how to prevent and cope with the aftermath of sexual violence, and how to maintain healthy relationships. This is something I'm working on at the provincial level with the help of many outstanding MLAs from various parties in Alberta.
I believe, however, that the federal government has an obligation and the ability to help with the third pillar of the plan I just outlined: the revamping of our justice system.
When I was younger, I was picked on by boys in my class. I asked my teachers for help, and they said the boys were doing it because they “liked” me. We equate the abuse and assault of women to affection, which sounds ludicrous when you say it out loud, but you don't need to look past our justice system to see that this is the case. From Justice Robin Camp in Alberta, who told a woman she could have prevented her rape by keeping her knees together, to Judge Greg Lenehan in Nova Scotia, who claimed that a drunk individual can in fact give consent, our justice system is failing those who are brave enough to come forward with allegations of sexual assault.
Today I ask this committee to consider studying the effectiveness and feasibility of a survivor's bill of rights for survivors of sexual violence. Right now there is a vast discrepancy in the quality of care survivors can access across the country. Many people in rural and northern communities, for instance, lack access to sexual assault centres and sexual assault evidence kits.
Additionally, a recent investigation by The Globe and Mail found that on average one in five sexual assault claims is dismissed as baseless, often because of a lack of physical evidence. The investigation also found that detectives in this country oversee cases of sexual violence without proper sensitivity training.
In the courtroom, if a case even makes it that far, it often doesn't get any better. There have been cases in which judges have refused to allow a lawyer to read a victim's impact statement on behalf of the complainant. There are judges like the two I just mentioned who treat the complainant as though they are the ones on trial, calling their sexual history into question. This is a blatant violation of subsection 276(1) of the Criminal Code of Canada. It's no wonder that 90% of Canadian women will never report their assaults.
A survivor's bill of rights should include, but should not be limited to, the following: the right to be notified of one's options for reporting; the right for a victim's advocate; the right to ask for a change of the detective overseeing one's case; the right to accessible medical and counselling services; and the right to further preservation or destruction of a sexual assault evidence kit, upon the survivor's request.
For too long, our justice system has treated sexual assault as a petty crime, something to be met with a slap on the wrist. This undoubtedly perpetuates the pervasiveness of sexual violence in our country, and our government should not stand for it. We have the obligation to create provisions that will protect the rights of survivors of sexual violence. This committee has the opportunity to change the status quo, and I hope you will take action to do so.
Thank you very much.