I want to echo what the other presenters have said. Absolutely, experts from the community working hands-on with these issues, and victims themselves, need to be involved in the process of developing and delivering training to all legal and law enforcement professionals, including judges.
Avalon has worked with the Halifax Regional Police to develop police investigation and response training, and we deliver that on a regular basis. We have worked with the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society to develop training for lawyers. It is something that lawyers can access if they want, but it is not mandatory. Again, one of the questions is whether it is getting to the right people.
Over the years, we have talked to judges and have advocated for training for judges here in Nova Scotia. We have also worked in collaboration with organizations across the country to advocate for training for judges. We haven't been invited to do that. Often, what we hear is that judges would not be seen as impartial if they had specialized training.
I think the point all of us are trying to make is that this doesn't mean you're no longer impartial. What it means is that you are informed and you actually have the specific knowledge and understanding of the issues of sexualized violence, as well as the intersectionalities of race and other oppressions and how that impacts victims and points of law.
Certainly, as we know from many of the people who are on this panel before you now, and from high-profile cases across this country, people are being deliberately targeted for specific reasons, whether it's race or other forms of marginalization because of alcohol or misogyny. Not only are they being targeted for victimization because of those issues, but those very issues of why they're victims are then held against them in a court of law and are used as a way to deny what has happened to them.
That's what we need to get at, in terms of the roots of how we are actually understanding sexualized violence, through training.