It's been very challenging. At the beginning of the pandemic, there was an increase in women choosing to leave their relationships, as the witness from St. John's, Newfoundland, also talked about. What we're seeing with the second wave, as we start to go into lockdown again and courts start to close down, is it's very difficult to get protection orders for women. Also, many abusers are actually using the access to visitation centres, because those are also closed as well during lockdown, as an opportunity to further harass women.
With courts being closed and public transportation being shut down or not available at all in a community, it is getting harder and harder for a woman to safely plan and leave. What we're worried about is that many women are having to make the unfortunate choice of not being able to leave at all, because of how the very necessary pandemic public health restrictions are actually stopping women from being able to move on to that next step.