Status of Women Committee on May 2nd, 2017

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

I'm always a fan of keeping it positive.

With that positive note, we go to Ms. Malcolmson for three minutes.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

It was off topic but that's nice news anyway.

We're talking again about Justice Camp, and I just want to make sure that everybody heard the testimony we had from the Women's Centre for Social Justice, which does Courtwatch monitoring.

The witness said that comments and attitudes such as the ones made by Justice Robin Camp are:

...far more pervasive and form part of the everyday misogyny in the courtrooms across the country.... No one is shining a spotlight on them, thus enabling them to continue treating victims in ways that skew the outcomes in favour of the offender with no regard for the victim.

I just want to flag, even though we're talking about Federal Court judges here, that when something goes sideways it has an inhibiting effect, whether it's on the police, the prosecutors, or certainly the victims coming forward. I'm glad we're talking about this all together, and we want to show some leadership.

I just want to get a clarification. On page 2 of your submission that you gave us this morning, question 2, you reference the design of a curriculum content. The second-last sentence says it's “designed to be responsive to the needs of the judiciary in consultation with judges, academics and the community” and that the courses are “continually reviewed and renewed”.

I want to know by whom. Who is the “community” in that context, and in the review and renewing, where's the community insert?

[Adèle Kent]

It depends on the course. When we do our courses on indigenous law, we have elders on our planning committee. They will help plan and evaluate the course again, and if we repeat it, we will look with them to determine whether changes are needed. If it's a course on terrorism, for example—because we put on courses on terrorism—we will have members of the community and prosecutors looking at de-radicalization, and those kinds of things, so it depends on the—

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Are they in this context of domestic assault?

[Adèle Kent]

Well, not in this context, but I'm trying to give you an idea that, when we say this in our answer, we look to the community. It's the community that is relevant to the course we're putting on.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

If it's in relation to sexual violence and domestic assault, which community groups would be helping you with that?

[Adèle Kent]

I cannot give you names today. Depending on the focus of the course, we may reach out to community groups. I can't give you names of community groups. And we will reach out to the academy, professors who work in the particular areas. I know when we deal with poverty, for example, we have looked for a poverty simulation, to the united—

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Again, our time is so tight—

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Actually, our time is done.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Would you undertake to give us the names of the domestic assault community groups that you referenced in your answer?

[Adèle Kent]

I'm not sure, because I don't have the permission of any of those people to give that information. I think I'd have to think about that. I don't want to violate the privacy of anyone.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Certainly not.

Thank you very much. I want to thank the witnesses for appearing before us a second time. This will be helpful to us as we come to our clause-by-clause review of the bill on May 11.

I would remind committee members that your amendments are due by 5 p.m. on May 9.

Now, we're going to turn our attention to subcommittee business and will suspend to do that so we can consider our economic work plan.

Thank you.

[Proceedings continue in camera]