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.