Status of Women Committee on April 19th, 2016

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.

I call the meeting to order.

We're going to start. We have an exciting panel with us today. We're very pleased to have the Department of Justice, the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Welcome to all of you, and thank you for taking your time to be with us today.

We're going to begin with opening remarks in the order of preference you have expressed. We'll start with Gillian Blackwell, from the Department of Justice.

[Gillian Blackell, Senior Counsel and Acting Director, Policy Centre for Victim Issues, Policy Sector, Department of Justice]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for inviting the Department of Justice to appear before you today.

I am senior counsel and acting director of the Policy Centre for Victim Issues. I am joined today by my colleague Nathalie Levman, counsel with the Criminal Law Policy Section.

We will be focusing our remarks on the relevant criminal law, the federal victims strategy and the Justice Canada component of the federal family violence initiative.

The issues you are examining today cover a wide range of behaviour, from inappropriate comments, harassment, and bullying, some of which fall short of the criminal threshold, to conduct that is clearly captured by the criminal law. We will focus exclusively on the latter.

Canada's criminal laws include substantive, procedural, and sentencing measures that provide a comprehensive response to violence against women and girls. The Criminal Code includes prohibitions on specific forms of violence, such as assault, sexual assault, uttering threats, criminal harassment, human trafficking, and homicide. There are also a number of child-specific offences in the Criminal Code.

To specifically address the issue of cyberbullying, the Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act created a new Criminal Code offence of non-consensual distribution of intimate images, which prohibits the sharing or distribution of nude or sexual images without the consent of the person depicted.

It also included amendments to authorize the removal of such images from the Internet, the recovery of expenses incurred to obtain the removal of such images, and a recognizance order, or peace bond, to prevent the further distribution of the images.

The Criminal Code sexual assault provisions, both substantive offences and procedural rules, have also evolved significantly over time in response to concerns about the treatment of sexual assault complainants in the criminal justice system.

For example, the Criminal Code defines consent, for the purposes of the sexual assault provisions, as the voluntary agreement of the complainant to engage in the sexual activity in question, and it provides a list of circumstances in which no consent is obtained.

The code limits the accused's ability to advance a defence of mistaken belief in consent. For example, it's not available in the cases of self-induced intoxication or failure to take reasonable steps to ascertain consent.

It limits the accused's ability to bring forward evidence of the complainant's past sexual activity or sexual reputation in order to put into question her credibility. This is known as the “rape shield law”.

It creates a special regime in cases where the accused wishes to admit the complainant's private records as evidence. This is known as “third party records regime”.

In addition, testimonial aids and other protective tools make it easier for women and girls who have experienced violence to meaningfully participate in the criminal justice system. For instance, victims and witnesses may testify behind a screen or outside the courtroom by closed-circuit television so they do not have to see the accused; they may have a support person close by when they testify; they can request the appointment of counsel to conduct cross-examination when the accused is self-represented, particularly, in cases of criminal harassment, sexual offences, and offences against children; they may request a publication ban on information that could identify them if they are under the age of 18 years or a victim of sexual offences; and they can request the exclusion of the public from the courtroom for all or part of the proceedings in exceptional circumstances, including the context of sexual offences.

Moreover, the Criminal Code instructs courts to treat offences more seriously for sentencing purposes when there is evidence that the crimes were motivated by bias, prejudice, or hate, based upon age or sex, or when the offence involved the abuse of a spouse, a child, or a position of trust or authority.

Victims of crime can also present a victim impact statement at the time of sentencing to describe the impact the crime has had upon them.

In addition to the criminal law, the recent Canadian victims bill of rights establishes victims' rights to information, protection, and participation, and to seek restitution, along with the right to make a complaint, if they believe that a federal department or agency has violated these rights.

These legislative responses are also supplemented by a range of programs, policies, and other initiatives. For instance, the federal victims strategy includes the victims fund, which currently has $21.5 million a year available to fund activities and projects. The victims fund is divided into three components: the provincial and territorial component that helps support victim assistance programs across the country; the projects and activities component that provides funding to NGOs and other agencies, including funding for families of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls; and the financial assistance component that provides direct limited financial assistance to certain victims of crime in order to, for example, attend parole hearings.

The victims fund has funded many activities or projects of relevance to the topics being examined by this committee. For example, in 2016-2017, a partnership of NGOs in B.C. was funded for a two-day symposium on preventing and responding to sexual assault on post-secondary campuses.

In this same fiscal year, Algonquin College, in partnership with other post-secondary institutions, the Ottawa Police Service, and NGOs, was funded for a project entitled “Free to learn: confronting sexual violence on campus”, including a series of workshops and training sessions.

Another relevant initiative is the Department of Justice's work under the federal family violence initiative. Through its family violence fund, the department supports projects to improve the system's response to family violence. One example is the recently funded pan-Canadian initiative led by the Girls Action Foundation. This initiative was designed to improve access to justice for marginalized young women who are at risk of, or victims of, intimate partner violence, by offering workshops on their legal rights, the justice system, and supports available to them when they are faced with dating violence.

Another example involved multi-year funding to Ending Violence Association BC for the initiative “Be More Than a Bystander”, which is education on violence against women and awareness for men and boys. The project, which was completed last year, involved men and boys in raising awareness about violence against women and girls by examining their own attitudes and behaviour, by speaking about violence and abuse to their peers, and by becoming part of the solution.

In addition, the Department of Justice has produced a series of family violence public legal education and information materials. For example, there is the multilingual “Abuse is Wrong in any Language” booklet, which is available in 12 languages and is distributed to community organizations across Canada. It includes information about family violence, safety, and gender equality in Canada.

Similarly, “Abuse is Wrong in any Culture: Inuit” and “Abuse Is Wrong In Any Culture: for First Nations and Métis People” are also written for indigenous people who experience violence in their relationships. I can leave copies of these documents with the clerk.

The Department of Justice also works with federal-provincial-territorial partners to address violence against indigenous women and girls. For example, in January of this year, FPT ministers of justice and public safety approved a justice framework for violence against indigenous women and girls. This is to guide the work of officials.

The Department of Justice also worked with the Aboriginal Research Institute to produce an online compendium of promising practices to reduce violence and increase safety of aboriginal women in Canada. This provides a tool for indigenous communities to access information about promising practices to reduce violence and improve safety for indigenous women and girls.

We would be pleased to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you, Ms. Blackell.

Now we're going to turn to the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, and Paula Isaak.

[Paula Isaak, Assistant Deputy Minister, Education and Social Development Programs and Partnerships, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development]

Thank you, Madam Chair and honourable members. I thank you for inviting Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada to appear before this committee. My name is Paula Isaak, and I am the assistant deputy minister responsible for education and social development programs and partnerships.

I just want to say at the outset that I would also like to acknowledge that we are gathered today on traditional Algonquin territory.

We are pleased that this committee made the decision to study violence against women and girls. It is, sadly, still a prevalent issue, and more so for indigenous women and girls.

As you heard from colleagues previously during Stats Canada's presentation on April 12, indigenous women and girls in Canada are three times more likely to be victims of violence than are non-indigenous women.

Violence against indigenous women and girls has a devastating impact on individuals, families and communities.

Preventing and addressing violence against indigenous women and girls is complex and requires that all partners work together.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada continues to participate in the federal family violence initiative, which gathers 15 federal departments and agencies with the same goal of reducing family violence in Canada. The Government of Canada is deeply concerned about the high level of family violence faced by indigenous people and is fully committed to addressing this issue.

INAC plays a key role in the prevention of family violence. The department's family violence prevention program provides funding to assist first nations in providing access to family violence shelter services and prevention activities to women, children, and families ordinarily resident on reserve.

There are two components to the program. One is operational funding, which covers salaries, direct client costs, and the administration costs for an existing network of 41 shelters in the provinces and Yukon territory. The other is proposal-based prevention projects. Currently the family violence prevention program invests $31.7 million on an ongoing basis to provide support to these 41 shelters and the family violence prevention activities on and off reserve.

Between 2010 and 2014, the department invested a total of $163.6 million in the family violence prevention program, providing shelter services for more than 10,500 children and about 12,300 women, and funded more than 1,100 prevention and awareness activities. These activities include public outreach and awareness, conferences, seminars, workshops, support groups, and community needs assessments.

Through its funding, the family violence prevention program enhances the safety and security of women, children and families living on reserve.

Minister Bennett was mandated to ensure that no one fleeing domestic violence is left without a place to turn by growing and maintaining Canada's network of shelters and transition houses.

To support the renovation and construction of new shelters for victims of family violence in first nation communities, budget 2016 proposes to provide $10.4 million over three years, starting in 2016-17. Budget 2016 also proposes up to $33.6 million over five years, beginning this fiscal year, and up to $8.3 million ongoing in additional funding to better support the shelters serving victims of family violence in first nation communities.

These additional investments will allow the Government of Canada to continue to protect indigenous women, children and families on reserve.

In addition, under the first nations child and family services program, the department supports the delivery of appropriate prevention and protection services for first nations children and families.

Budget 2016 investments of $634.8 million over five years would support critically needed program stability, address key cost drivers, and increase funding for prevention services across the country. Immediate investments would support front-line service providers and ensure continued availability of services to first nation children and families as the government moves to engage with its partners on how to address child welfare issues in first nation communities.

The goal is to ensure that programming emphasizes prevention through supports to families, so INAC provides funding to support the efforts of agencies in early intervention and to create tools such as parenting skills programs to allow parents to better care for their children before a situation becomes a matter of protection. Ultimately, prevention-based programming aims at improving the services that children and families need and deserve.

Budget 2016 investments represent a concrete first step. Much-needed program reform will be developed in partnership with first nations stakeholders.

This government has been clear on its commitment to establish a “new fiscal relationship that provides sufficient, predictable and sustained funding for First Nations communities”. Overall, in March 2016, the Government of Canada proposed investments of $8.4 billion over five years in first nations families, youth, and children as part of budget 2016. Through these investments, Canada will work in partnership with indigenous peoples to improve the socio-economic conditions of indigenous children, families, and communities.

Minister Bennett was also mandated to develop, in collaboration with the Minister of Justice, and supported by the Minister of Status of Women, an approach to and a mandate for an inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women and girls in Canada. In December 2015, Canada launched a national pre-inquiry engagement process to inform the design of a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.

Our minister and the Ministers of Status of Women and Justice met with over 2,100 survivors, families, and loved ones. The ministers also heard from front-line and national organizations. They were told first-hand about the devastating effects of violence against indigenous women and girls and about the negative impacts on the families of victims and their communities.

The importance of involving survivors, families, and loved ones in all stages of the inquiry process was expressed at these sessions, as was the need to examine the origins of violence. Participants also shared their experiences with various institutions, such as child protection and policing, and expressed that they would like to see the inquiry lead to improvements in these areas.

Throughout the pre-inquiry process, the ministers heard from young women who were survivors, family members, or loved ones. They provided many focused suggestions, including a recommendation that the inquiry look at ways to support the children of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. Several submissions recommended that youth be represented at all levels of the inquiry.

We also received over 4,100 submissions via an online survey and approximately 300 pieces of correspondence and submissions by email, mail, or phone between December and February. All the input received will help inform the design of the national inquiry. Minister Bennett has publicly expressed the desire to have the inquiry begin its work by this summer.

Recent commitments were made by all participants at the second national roundtable on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, held in Winnipeg in February 2016.

Participants in the 2016 National Roundtable on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls agreed to work with families and local partners to continue to collaborate to address violence, participate in the national inquiry, build on the current iteration and activities of the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group, support indigenous-led anti-racist and anti-sexist training programs for all public servants, create and implement common performance measures, improve liaison with families, and launch a pan-Canadian awareness campaign.

We will continue to collaborate with federal colleagues, provinces, and territories, as well as with national aboriginal organizations to address this important and challenging issue.

Thank you again for making this issue an important part of your work.

I'd be pleased to answer any questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you.

Meegwetch.

Now we are going to turn to Kimberly Elmslie, who is the assistant deputy minister at the Public Health Agency of Canada.

[Kimberly Elmslie, Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada]

Madam Chair, honourable members of the committee, thank you for the invitation to address this committee regarding its study on violence against young women and girls in Canada.

The Public Health Agency of Canada has a mandate to address family violence, which includes intimate partner violence and child maltreatment. We see family violence as a serious public health issue, and I would like to provide this important context to you as you undertake your study.

I am here today to speak with you about the significant and long-term physical and mental health impacts of violence on women and girls, and the role of the health system in preventing and addressing them.

Research clearly shows that women who have experienced intimate partner violence face high rates of injury, chronic pain, sleep disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance use problems.

Children who have been abused or witnessed abuse in the family have a higher risk of developing chronic illnesses such as heart disease, and mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and self-harm, both immediately and throughout their lives. Boys who have been victimized or raised in violent homes are at an increased risk of becoming perpetrators of violence as adults. Girls exposed to violence in the home are at increased risk of being victimized as adults, thus continuing the cycle of violence.

The Public Health Agency of Canada's focus on family violence is very closely aligned with the subject of your study, because women and girls represent the majority, almost 70%, of victims of family violence.

Considering intimate partner violence specifically, including dating violence, 80% of this form of violence is against women, according to police-reported data. Looked at another way, the most common perpetrators of police-reported violence against women are their intimate partners.

As you have heard, intimate partner violence affects many women and girls in Canada. One in five women experience intimate partner violence in their lifetime. Certain populations, again as you've heard, are more affected. Aboriginal women, for example, experience intimate partner violence at a rate three times higher than non-aboriginal women.

The way women experience family violence differs from the experience of men. Female victims of intimate partner violence are twice as likely as male victims to be sexually assaulted, beaten, choked, or threatened with a weapon, three times more likely to experience disruptions in their daily life, and almost seven times more likely to fear for their life. Men are more likely than women to be kicked, bitten, or hit with something. Importantly, intimate partner violence that involves high levels of coercion, degradation, and control is perpetrated almost exclusively by men toward their female partners.

At the Public Health Agency, we address family violence clearly from a public health perspective, which means our focus is on encouraging collaboration across sectors to bring together expertise, knowledge, and experience to help prevent violence, and also to help survivors improve their mental and physical well-being.

We do this in four areas: we coordinate the federal family violence initiative, which has been mentioned by both my colleagues who spoke previously; we conduct surveillance and research; we support community-based maternal and child health programs that promote healthy relationships and positive parenting; and we invest in initiatives that are designed to support the health of survivors of intimate partner violence and child maltreatment.

Let me briefly expand on each of those areas.

The first area of agency action is our coordination of the federal family violence initiative, with our 15 colleague departments across the Government of Canada.

This approach addresses violence from multiple perspectives, including healthy relationships and empowering women and girls, supporting survivors, ensuring that the justice response is appropriate to deter offenders and is sensitive to the needs of victims, enhancing the availability of shelter beds and services, and tracking and analyzing data on the nature and extent of family violence. This just gives you a flavour of the scope.

The federal family violence initiative is the forum that ensures our federal activities complement each other. Through the federal family violence initiative, we meet regularly; share new research and evaluation findings; discuss new program design and project ideas, policy initiatives, and stakeholder networks; and ensure that knowledge is applied across sectors. Working together in this way helps improve both the relevance and the impact of our collective federal work.

As an example, we support a one-stop knowledge exchange initiative through the Stop Family Violence web pages, which serve as a source of information for both professionals and the public.

The second area of agency action is surveillance and analysis. We conduct national surveillance of child abuse and neglect, including children's exposure to intimate-partner violence. This work provides important information on the characteristics of child maltreatment, including neglect and exposure to intimate-partner violence, the circumstances that accompany it, and the physical and mental harm that can result.

Third, we make an important contribution to reducing risk factors for family violence through our community-based maternal and child health programs. We recognize the importance of creating supportive, healthy family environments at the earliest age. Positive parenting, parental involvement, attachment, resilience, and healthy relationships are all protective factors that are associated with a reduced risk of family violence.

These programs—the community action program for children, the Canada prenatal nutrition program, and aboriginal head start in urban and northern communities—reaches 278,000 at-risk children and parents in over 3,000 communities across the country each year.

Many women served by our programs are currently exposed to violence or have had exposure to violence in the past. In fact, 75 projects are currently delivered out of shelters for women and children leaving abusive situations. The programs also serve as important points of access, places where women living in situations of abuse and violence may be referred to more specialized intervention services.

As we all know, supporting victims and survivors of family violence is complex and requires collaboration across sectors. That's why, in February of last year, the agency launched a new investment of $7 million per year to address the needs of survivors of violence. This investment is supporting community-based projects that are developing and testing health promotion approaches to improve the physical and mental health of those who have experienced child maltreatment or intimate-partner violence.

Health promotion that is specifically geared to the needs of survivors of violence is a new and innovative field of practice. To help build the evidence base for these types of interventions and share them widely, we have invested in a knowledge hub led by the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children at the University of Western Ontario. This research and knowledge hub is connecting experts working in the field and developing common ways to measure progress and share emerging findings with researchers and professionals.

Our support for front-line professionals and other service providers with the skills and knowledge required to support survivors of violence safely and effectively is a priority. Right now, a major project is under way, working with national health and social service professional organizations to develop guidance and education that will help health professionals work in a sensitive and trauma-informed way to better support the needs of victims of violence.

In addition to work in Canada, there is growing momentum internationally that recognizes violence as a health issue as well as the important role the health system should play in addressing it. Canada is part of the World Health Organization's development of a global plan of action that is focused on strengthening the role of the health system to address violence against women and girls.

The action plan provides evidence-based direction on how the system can respond to violence against women and girls through leadership, capacity-building, prevention, programming, and improved health on a national and international basis.

This plan will be endorsed at the World Health Assembly this May.

When violence occurs in families, it has far-reaching and tragic effects. Communities and community organizations across the country are doing impressive work, and the investment we are making aims to increase the reach and impacts of these efforts.

Thank you for your attention. I would be pleased to answer any questions you have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you.

Now we are fortunate to have Fraser Valentine, from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration.

Go ahead, sir.

[Fraser Valentine, Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning , Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thanks very much for the invitation to be here with you today.

As you say, my name is Fraser Valentine. I'm the director general of strategic policy and planning at Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada. I am joined by my colleague Ümit Kiziltan, who is the director general of research and evaluation in the department.

I understand that your study will examine several very specific areas of violence, including cyberviolence, street harassment, and hyper-sexualization.

While the programs and services offered by my department do not directly touch on these areas, with our federal partners, as well as with provinces and territories and community organizations, we do work to combat and prevent violence in the lives of women and young girls.

To begin, let me just say that IRCC is committed to gender-based analysis or, as it's commonly referred to, GBA. As required by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, IRCC is in fact the only federal department with the legislative requirement to conduct GBA and to report to Parliament on an annual basis.

I understand that officials from IRCC have been invited to return to this committee at a later date to talk in more detail with you about that, and we look forward to that. I suspect it will be me.

Within the department, we have both a focal point for gender-based analysis, ensuring adherence to the policy and providing guidance, as well as a champion to promote gender-based analysis.

In addition, the department collects and generates sex-disaggregated data and disseminates research to support policy and program development.

As you are probably aware, for the past 10 years Canada has welcomed approximately 255,000 new permanent residents each year. Over one-half of all immigrants who arrived in Canada in 2014 as permanent residents were female, of which around 20% were under the age of 15. The majority of all women, approximately 60%, were admitted through our economic category, and more than half of those women were principal applicants. The remaining immigrant women arrived through the family class, at around 30%, and as refugees, at just under 10%. Of note, about half of all refugees who arrived in 2014 were women.

As you know, research tells us that immigrant women face a range of challenges in integrating into society after they arrive in Canada, such as difficulty adjusting to changing family roles and relationships after migration, including gendered roles and intergenerational tensions.

They also face economic, employment, and educational challenges after migration, and generally we're finding that they report poorer economic outcomes than immigrant men. IRCC does have programming and funding in place to help close some of these gaps.

Through the settlement program, the Government of Canada, through my department, provides significant funding to over 400 service provider organizations across the country to deliver both pre-arrival and post-arrival settlement services to newcomers, of which more than half are women.

Services and resources to immigrant women, youth, and their families include such things as pre-arrival orientation sessions on issues related to equality, family dynamics, and abuse; women-only programming on employment; activities aimed at fostering social connections within communities; skills development; and financial literacy.

In addition, there are a range of women-only language classes offered, with themes that include topics such as spousal abuse, women's rights, legal rights and responsibilities, and health care.

In recognition that newcomer youth face distinct settlement and integration challenges in comparison with other newcomers, the department also funds targeted programs aimed at empowering and engaging young girls and youth. Activities in this range include mentorships, in-school support, social and cultural activities, leadership development, and employment and skills support.

As I have noted, we know that immigrant women face particular challenges for social integration compared with Canadian-born women and immigrant men. This is one reason the department has taken several measures to help reduce the vulnerability of women and to address violence against women and family violence. Measures in place since 2010 have included combatting human trafficking, protecting foreign workers, stopping those with a history of family violence from sponsoring family members, and protecting vulnerable refugees.

While the overall incidence is low, as Minister McCallum has said, marriage fraud remains a concern. Visa officers are trained to detect and deal with suspected cases of marriage fraud while processing applications both abroad and in Canada.

In order to contribute to the federal anti-trafficking efforts, which affect women in a majority of cases, IRCC introduced guidelines in 2006 for immigration officers to help identify potential victims of human trafficking and to provide them with protection by issuing a temporary residence permit to give them temporary resident status in Canada.

IRCC's involvement usually begins when a person self-identifies or is referred by a non-governmental organization or a law enforcement agency. The department is working actively with stakeholders to raise awareness on this issue and to ensure good communication with partners and proper assistance to potential victims. For instance, information sessions are provided by the department to the RCMP, to the Canada Border Services Agency, and to immigration officers, who are those meeting with potential victims.

IRCC also plays a key role in identifying marriages of convenience or, as they're commonly referred to, forced marriages. As you know, Minister McCallum has been asked by the Prime Minister in his mandate letter to bring forward a proposal regarding permanent residency for new spouses in Canada, including exploring an approach to end the current two-year waiting period to obtain permanent resident status.

Furthermore, in 2015 the department implemented changes to raise the minimum age of eligibility from 16 to 18 to immigrate to Canada as an accompanying spouse or partner or to be sponsored as a spouse or partner of a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. This amendment has decreased the number of potentially vulnerable young spouses immigrating to Canada who have not yet reached full maturity or who do not yet possess the ability to act in their own self-interest, and it could potentially prevent a forced marriage from occurring. In addition, the department has developed operational guidelines for our visa officers to better respond to and track forced marriage cases.

Finally, the department has resources to help newcomers and citizenship applicants through the citizenship study guide Discover Canada and the Welcome to Canada orientation guide.

These publications include information on gender equality, family violence, and Canadian laws and reinforce the fact that gender-based violence is not tolerated in Canada, as was recommended in a report published by this committee in the previous Parliament. These publications are provided directly to newcomers and citizenship applicants and are published in both official languages, as well as made available in a number of online formats. They are also used by schools, libraries, and settlement organizations to educate Canadians and newcomers about Canadian values.

Overseas, newcomers can access programs that help them understand their rights and responsibilities in Canada and provide detailed labour market information so that they can make informed decisions upon their arrival to support their economic integration. Once in Canada, women also have access to a range of employment-related supports that help them build their skills to enter the workforce and/or to advance their careers.

In conclusion, Madam Chair, IRCC plays an important role with respect to addressing women and protecting them against violence. Of course, as I said at the beginning, we work closely with our partners in the federal government and with provinces and territories and community organizations, including the family violence initiative, as my colleagues have also noted.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you, and we look forward to the findings of your study.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you, Mr. Valentine.

Let me also extend the welcome to Ümit Kiziltan and Nathalie Levman, who will help us by answering questions.

We'll begin our first round with Ms. Damoff.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Thank you.

I noticed that a lot of the focus of what you were providing us was on the general programming you have for violence against women, but not a lot about violence against young women and girls, which is the focus of what we want this study to be about. I suspect it's because there's a lack of specific programming for that specific demographic.

I want to focus on cyberbullying first of all. You mentioned that you were going to speak to legislation that was in place. Where do you see the gaps, in particular for young women and girls, when it comes to cyberbullying? Are there things we could and should be doing to protect young women and girls?

[Gillian Blackell]

Thank you very much.

Just in terms of the issue about funding for projects related to young women and girls, I did forget to mention that we do have a component of the victims fund that's dedicated to developing and enhancing the child advocacy centres across the country. They work specifically with child victims, particularly victims of sexual abuse, many of whom are girls. That is a large component.

In terms of cyberbullying, the federal jurisdiction relates to the Criminal Code, and therefore the reforms that were recently introduced—the new offences in the Criminal Code—were within the context of what would be within our jurisdiction. Clearly provinces and territories are also looking at enhancing that in order to complement other forms that fall short of the criminal threshold. In Nova Scotia, as you know, there is legislation that they're now re-examining.

I'll hand it over to my colleague.

[Nathalie Levman, Counsel, Criminal Law Policy Section, Policy Sector, Department of Justice]

I'll make just a quick comment on the new offence that my colleague referenced, section 162.1, the non-consensual distribution of intimate images offence. That is a very useful tool in the sexting context in particular.

We heard from prosecutors and investigators that the only tool they had to address that kind of behaviour was the child pornography offences related to images of youth under the age of 18. That was considered to be quite a heavy hammer in the context of sexting, which usually involves two teens who are certainly engaging in behaviour that is undesirable but probably doesn't reach the level of child pornography, pedophilia, etc.

That offence allows criminal justice officials to exercise discretion and use section 162.1 in cases that are more akin to what we might see adults doing when there is a breakup and intimate images taken in private context are shared inappropriately. That has assisted immensely, we're told by prosecutors, in these types of cases, which are so common to the cyberbullying context.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

I'm sharing my time with Ms. Nassif, so I'll pass it over to her now.

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

My thanks to all the witnesses for their presentations.

My first question is for you, Mr. Valentine.

Could you elaborate on the women at risk program? I would like more information about the way it works, its effectiveness and the indicators of its success.

[Fraser Valentine]

Thank you very much for the question.

Most programs in my department are settlement programs.

We provide the funding to organizations through grants and contribution agreements, and then they are delivered at the local level. The department and the Government of Canada aren't actually delivering those services to those young girls at risk. Instead, we provide the funding so that those organizations can do that.

I'm happy to share with the clerk some concrete examples of programming that are happening at the local level. For instance, in Saskatoon there is a program that's being run through the International Women of Saskatoon that's targeting girls age 13 to 15. It's working with the Saskatoon police department to provide these young women with self-defence training so they can take control if they're in a situation in which they feel threatened. It's also providing them with knowledge on rights and responsibilities with respect to bullying in particular. I don't know, from what I've been given, if this includes things like cyberbullying, but I'm certain we could help the committee with exploring that further if that's helpful.

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

Thank you.

I would like to have another question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

You have one minute.

[Eva Nassif, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

My question is to Mrs. Blackell.

In order to achieve justice, crimes must be reported. Have there ever been any programs, or are there any currently, designed to encourage women to seek help and report incidents of violence and crimes? Often intimidation and fear prevent women from getting some help. What can we do to help address the situation?

[Gillian Blackell]

Thank you for the question.

The provinces and territories all are responsible primarily for the investigation and prosecution of criminal offences, sexual offences. There are victim services across the country, which we do support through the victims fund, and a number of them do a number of outreach projects with victims.

One of the challenges, of course, is that if victims are not going to contact the authorities, the authorities are not going to necessarily find out, so there are a number of different inter-agency models models across the country. Around the table, there are representatives from the government and from shelters, etc. There are different models providing more outreach at that local level, but the federal role is rather removed. We do, through grants and contributions and through our transfers to the provinces, influence it through the directors of victim services primarily.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

That's your time.

We are going over to Ms. Harder from the Conservatives for seven minutes.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you very much.

I suppose in some ways this doesn't directly relate to our study, but while I have you here I need to ask, and perhaps it will lead in.

Mr. Valentine, I'm wondering if you can comment with respect to human trafficking. Would you happen to know the prevalence rate at which we see human trafficking taking place in Canada? Also, what are the common venues that are used to perpetuate it?

[Fraser Valentine]

Getting a firm number on rates of human trafficking, as you probably know, is very challenging. The measures we've put in place with respect to human trafficking are relatively new, so I think it's probably too soon to say at this point what those numbers are, even from a trend perspective. I'll defer to Ümit as well in a moment. He may have some views on that.

In terms of sites, my colleagues in the operations sector, who are really on the front lines here, I'm sure would say that there are particular geographic regions in the globe where there is a higher prevalence of human trafficking rates than in other areas. I know that the operational guidance and the training that the department provides to those visa officers are targeted in that geospecific way, and they use different techniques depending on where they're located in the globe, as the techniques that are used vary.

Ümit, did you have anything to add?

[Ümit Kiziltan, Director General, Research and Evaluation, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

No, I don't have any statistics with me, but we will definitely look into it and we'll get back to the committee for sure.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you.

Ms. Blackell, can you outline for me some of the biggest requests that victims have that remain unaddressed by federal policy right now? Help me understand the gaps that exist with regard to victims' rights and taking a stand for their rehabilitation.

[Gillian Blackell]

Thank you.

I'm not sure I understand exactly, because federal policy is somewhat removed in some ways. Apart from our funding to the provinces and territories for victims' services, we don't generally provide direct services to victims. We do have a couple of specific funds available, one funding pot for victims to attend parole hearings and another for Canadian victims of crime abroad. If they do have concerns, there's a complaint mechanism in place at the federal Department of Justice as per the requirements under the Canadian victims bill of rights.

We have heard from our provincial and territorial counterparts who deliver victims' services across the country that victims are often mostly interested in information, and that is a key piece. That's one of the reasons we work with them in the implementation of the Canadian victims bill of rights to help them at the provincial level to enhance their means of providing information to victims at different stages in the process.

Certainly we do at the federal level. The direct contact will be primarily through correctional services, so victims can register. They can register with the Correctional Service of Canada and the Parole Board if they are a victim of a federal offender, so there are mechanisms by which they can then receive information.