I will call this meeting to order.
Welcome to meeting number 109 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women.
Before we begin, I would like to ask all members and other in-person participants to consult the cards on the tables for guidelines to prevent audio feedback incidents.
Please take note of the following preventative measures in place to protect the health and safety of all participants, including the interpreters. Only use a black approved earpiece. The former grey earpieces must no longer be used. Please keep your earpieces away from your microphones at all times. When you are not using your earpiece, place it down on the sticker placed on the table for this purpose.
For all members, please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. Thanks to all of you in advance for your co-operation on that.
For members in the room, please raise your hand if you wish to speak. For members on Zoom, please use the “raise hand” function. The clerk and I will certainly manage the speaking list.
I do have my 30-second reminder. I also have a “time is up” reminder as well.
For the benefit of the witnesses, I'd like to make a few comments.
Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. For those participating by video conference, click on the video conference microphone icon to activate your microphone, and please mute yourself when you are not speaking. For those of you in the room, your microphone will be controlled by the proceeding and verifications officer.
You may speak in the official language of your choice. Interpretation services are available. You have the choice of floor, English or French for your earpiece. If interpretation is lost, please let me know right away and we'll get it back on track.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on Monday, November 27, 2023, the committee will continue its study of coercive behaviour.
Before we welcome our witnesses, I'd like to also provide the trigger warning that we will be discussing experiences related to violence and coercive control. This may be triggering to viewers with similar experiences. If you feel distressed or need help, please advise the clerk.
For all the witnesses and for all members of Parliament, it is important to recognize that these are indeed difficult discussions. Let's try to be as compassionate as possible in our conversations.
At this point, I would like to welcome our witnesses.
We have, as an individual, Jennifer Koshan, professor, Faculty of Law, University of Calgary, joining us by video conference; from Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale, Karine Barrette, lawyer and project manager, and Louise Riendeau, co-responsible for political affairs; and from the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, Roxana Parsa, staff lawyer, joining us by video conference.
You will each have five minutes for opening remarks followed by rounds of questions.
I will give the floor to Ms. Koshan to start. Then we'll give the floor to Ms. Barrette and Ms. Riendeau for a shared five minutes, and then to Ms. Parsa.
We'll begin.