Status of Women Committee on Sept. 25th, 2024

[Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich, Deputy Chief of Police, Peel Regional Police]

Good afternoon, and thank you.

My name is Nick Milinovich and I'm the deputy chief of investigative and emergency services command at Peel Regional Police.

I'd like to start by thanking the chair and members of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women for inviting us to participate today. I would also like to thank all the witnesses for sharing their perspectives and stories.

For those unfamiliar with Peel Regional Police, we are the third-largest municipal police service in Canada, serving the communities of Mississauga and Brampton as part of Peel Region. Peel Region is one of the most diverse communities in the country, with over 1.7 million residents. It is home to one of the largest international airports in North America, Pearson airport. Our community is also one of the largest transitory hubs in North America, with billions of dollars in goods transported through our region daily.

Because of this, issues such as intimate partner violence, human trafficking and gender-based violence collectively are a concern for our community. They are also prioritized by our police service through enforcement, prevention and making some of the largest investments in those spaces that any police service has in Canada. We have specialized human trafficking investigators who comprise our vice unit. It is one of the only services delivering specialized training for all of our frontline officers to enhance capabilities in identifying, preventing and safely intercepting incidents, with the victim's well-being and support as the main priority. Further, our vice team works with local colleges, community organizations and law enforcement agencies—including Pearson airport—to effectively monitor, stop and intervene in human trafficking across our region, the province and the country. In the last five years, our vice unit has charged over 150 people with human trafficking-related offences.

Another primary focus of our police service is intimate partner violence. In 2023, our officers responded to over 9,500 incidents of family and intimate partner violence. That is the equivalent of almost 26 unique incidents a day.

I'm going to pause here and ask the committee and everybody participating and watching today...26 unique incidents per day. Now imagine all of the reverberating impacts on family members and the community from that 26 per day. Then you begin to understand the scope of this issue.

As I said, we laid 9,540 charges. The top five charges were assault, uttering threats, failure to comply with release orders or conditions of release, assault with a weapon, choking, suffocation or strangulation. Our data shows that roughly one woman a day in Peel is strangled by her partner. From January 1 to August 31, we had 297 strangulation occurrences. Of the 15 homicides we've had this year, three—20% of those—have been femicides. These are just the incidents that are reported. As everybody participating today, other witnesses and certainly police know, a greater number of incidents are occurring and continuing to be unreported.

At Peel, we have taken a survivor-centric approach to gender-based violence, inclusive of intimate partner violence and human trafficking. These are tragic, unacceptable incidents that carry unimaginable trauma for victims and survivors. Those victims and survivors are predominantly women and girls. This disproportionately impacts racialized women and girls, as well as members of our LGBTQIA+ community and people with disabilities. Each of these incidents is representative of the vulnerabilities we are seeing in our current system and the need to prioritize survivors in a system we ask them to rely on for protection.

In Peel, we have integrated our intimate partner violence unit with a variety of specialized, trained officers within the Safe Centre of Peel—I believe the committee heard testimony from its members before. It collaborates with 24 community partners who provide wraparound and integrated services and supports in one centralized location. This ensures victims and survivors are receiving the help they need for themselves and their families.

In April 2022, the joint deputation of our police service and Safe Centre of Peel also provided information to this committee for your study of intimate partner and domestic violence. It included a series of recommendations to address the gaps in the current system that were barriers and that were also creating risks for victims or survivors.

Presently, violence in family and criminal law is narrowly defined as physical—

[The Chair, Conservative, Shelby Kramp-Neuman]

I'm sorry to interrupt.

Could I have you wrap up in the next 10 or 15 seconds? Then, if you have anything that you're missing, try to include it in any of the questions that are posed.

Thank you.

[D/Chief Nick Milinovich]

Absolutely. Thank you.

In conclusion, it is incumbent upon all of us, as a community that really cares, to ensure that the right measures and safeguards are in place, where survivors can feel safe and supported to remove themselves from these types of environments.

Currently, there are gaps, and there are reasons that legitimately concern survivors about coming forward. We need to begin addressing those.

Thank you again for inviting the Peel Regional Police to appear before the committee. I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Shelby Kramp-Neuman]

Thank you for that.

At this point, I would like to welcome Ms. Linda MacDonald and Jeanne Sarson.

You have up to five minutes.

[Linda MacDonald, Co-Founder, Persons Against Non-State Torture]

Thank you.

Jeanne Sarson and I are feminist grassroots activists working in Nova Scotia, Canada and globally, with 31 years of expertise in supporting women who have been subjected to non-state torture. We are also members of the NGO, the National Council of Women of Canada.

Coercive control is often a very large component of non-state torture. Keeping women captive and the coercion of older women is very invisible.

As a nurse, I supported a woman in her 80s who had been tortured and trafficked as a young mother, with her two little boys present, by men in a Nova Scotia fishing village where she lived. Escaping this torture, she brought up her family and remarried. After retiring, her second husband began coercing her by taking control of her money, isolating her from her family and friends, making intentional medication errors, dehumanizing her with constant psychological abuse and terrifying her by claiming she had memory loss.

These coercive control tactics triggered her into previous non-state torture flashbacks to the point that she became constantly triggered, losing control of her independence and eventually having to be placed in long-term care.

Coming from Nova Scotia provides our voices extra weight because we were participants in the Mass Casualty Commission inquiry after one man shot and killed 22 people, including 13 women.

Earlier this month, the Nova Scotia provincial government passed a bill declaring domestic violence an epidemic in Nova Scotia, which flows from the Mass Casualty Commission's findings about Nova Scotia and Canada. Coercive control is often combined with other forms of male violence against women, intimate partner or domestic violence, and if considered a serious crime, it can prevent suicide and fatal crimes such as femicide and even mass shootings.

As participants of the Mass Casualty Commission, we heard about the extensive coercion that the gunman forced onto his partner, making her terrified to leave him. She was also strangled by him, but this crime was not taken seriously.

Jeanne and I joined with other Nova Scotia feminists, recommending that coercive control become part of the Criminal Code of Canada. As persons against non-state torture, we recommended that strangulation and femicide, as distinct crimes, be added to the Criminal Code. We submit these recommendations again today.

As Anne Frank said, “What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it happening again.”

[Jeanne Sarson, Co-Founder, Persons Against Non-State Torture]

I'll follow Linda.

Furthering our brief recommendation, promoting a victim-centred approach relating to children means creating the social-legal environment wherein children can speak of the impact that non-state torturers' coercive control manipulations have on them, on other children and against animals. Their safety is always threatened, creating never-ending vulnerability as described in Bill C-332.

Our brief introduced Carrie, whose father forced her to drown her pet kitten and threatened to drown her if she told of his torture trafficking.

Carrie is not alone. Alex's father took her to see baby rabbits. Hugging one, her father then took the rabbit and broke its neck. His message was clear. Alex said she knew never to tell that he was torture trafficking her. Alex was six years old.

The knowledge is that these perpetrators inflict coercive control within and outside of their home. Children's victimization can include the harming of animals. Non-state torturers' coercive control of their children includes intentionally inflicting no-win victimization ordeals in and out of their home.

Hope described how her father used to blackmail her by forcing her to allow him to orally rape her so her siblings would be fed. She wondered what choice she had.

Carrie described being forced to smear Margaret, another little girl, with perpetrators' body fluids so she would not have to consume their body fluids, saying that there was no way she could win. The decision left her feeling like she had harmed Margaret. She felt so guilty, ashamed, humiliated and terrified.

To end the epidemic of intimate partner violence against women, red flag indicators will be preventive interventions available to children if the torturer's m.o. of coercive behaviours is understood as involving their exertion of absolute domination, power and control in and out of their home; inflicting torture, terror, horror and dehumanization on their children and other children; and the harming of animals. As well, it is the possible involvement of organized criminal torture, trafficking and formal networks.

To Linda's recommendation I add support for Bill C-332 and the criminalization of non-state torture to expose the perpetrators' criminality.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Shelby Kramp-Neuman]

Thank you, kindly, for your testimony.

Next, I would like to welcome Ms. Christy Dzikowicz.

You have up to five minutes.

[Christy Dzikowicz, Chief Executive Officer, Toba Centre for Children and Youth]

Thank you to the committee for providing me the opportunity to speak on such an important topic. My name is Christy Dzikowicz, and I'm the chief executive officer of Toba Centre for Children and Youth, a charitable organization and Manitoba's only child advocacy centre.

Child advocacy centres are child-friendly spaces in which law enforcement, child protection, prosecution, mental health, medical and victim advocacy professionals work together to investigate abuse, help children and their families heal from abuse and hold offenders accountable.

The first child advocacy centre was established in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1985, and the movement has been growing ever since. There are over 900 accredited child advocacy centres in the United States. We have over 40 in Canada, and there are centres in over 20 countries around the world. These centres are recognized around the world as the leading practice in responding to child abuse cases. However, I would suggest we have a long way to go in Canada in supporting these centres and ensuring the best outcomes for children.

Before I go further, I'd like to speak directly to the issue of child maltreatment. At our centre, we serve children, youth and their caregivers who experience child sexual abuse and physical abuse, and children who witness IPV and significant violence. There are approximately 200,000 child abuse investigations across Canada each year, and these are only the cases we know about—the ones that are reported. There are significant barriers to reporting, coercive behaviour being just one of them.

While I speak to issues impacting children, youth and their caregivers, as it is the focus of my life's work, I'd like to note to the committee that the majority of my comments today also speak directly to the experiences of vulnerable adult populations also impacted by interpersonal violence.

Child abuse is anything that intentionally endangers the development, security or survival of a child: the act of emotionally, physically or sexually harming a child. To be very clear, coercive behaviour is central to almost all of this criminal behaviour. A further impact of that coercive behaviour and inevitable abuse can be setting children, youth and adults up for additional challenges in dealing with the criminal justice system. Abusers work very hard to silence their victims, take away their voice and disempower them. The system that is set up to respond must understand this and work in a coordinated fashion to ensure we are meeting the needs of the survivors.

Child advocacy centres are designed for this purpose, but in Canada we do not have any mechanism to enforce internationally recognized standards of practice.

In the United States, child advocacy centres must be accredited and prove that they are meeting minimal standards, which include a multidisciplinary response from the point of report, child forensic interviewing standards, inclusivity and diversity standards and victim support, amongst others.

At this point in time, it is up to folks like myself to convince partner agencies like law enforcement, child welfare agencies and medical centres that working together and demanding standards is a good idea. While I have no doubt that all folks working in this area would say they want to put children first, it is no easy task to change these old, large and institutionally based systems. It requires a great deal of humility for folks to step back and say they need to work differently and better.

All levels of government have tools at their disposal that can and should be used to demand that these standards be met through legislation; professional standards, like policing standards; and through funding of child advocacy centres to ensure all children in Canada have access.

When considering this testimony on coercive control, I also reflected on how poorly children, youth and those impacted by interpersonal violence fare in our criminal justice system. I believe that significant reform is both needed and possible. Again, victims in these cases have often been stripped of their voice and their confidence. Our criminal justice system is not set up to consider the needs of these vulnerable populations.

Child advocacy centres across Canada are working with their local prosecutors to try and facilitate closed-circuit testimony being offered from their centres. In Calgary and Edmonton, this practice is happening. In each jurisdiction, though, we have to start from the beginning to create precedent and enable this option. When we consider the coercive abuse endured by the victims we work with, we're struck by the horror of asking that child to enter into a room with their abuser and speak their truth in front of their abuser, their families, and strangers, and it seemed inhumane.

Psychologist Rachel Zajac has published a great deal of research outlining the failures of the courts to meet the needs of children.

She wrote:

Recent research has made it clear that cross-examination is unlikely to be the truth-finding technique that many believe it to be. Instead, the style of questioning typically used during this process directly contravenes almost every principle scientifically established over the past 30 years for obtaining complete and accurate evidence from any witness, particularly a child.

There are countries we can learn from in this area, with innovations like intermediaries in the U.K.

I cannot imagine anything more important than ensuring safe pathways, so victims of child abuse and IPV can come forward and proceed through a criminal justice process. Our failure to create environments that can effectively hear their outcries and respond with safety can be devastating. We are not just risking survivors being retraumatized by our response or disbelieved by our systems but also empowering those who are engaging in the coercive, abusive behaviours. A child or person who makes an outcry of abuse and then recants, either out of fear or coercion, is often more at risk. Offenders tell their victims they will not be believed.

While we must always seek the truth, we must do everything we can to create the safest possible pathways for our vulnerable populations.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Shelby Kramp-Neuman]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, all, for your opening remarks. At this point, we will move to our first round of questions.

We'll start with six minutes for Michelle Ferreri.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much to the witnesses for being here today on our study of coercive control at the status of women committee. I see many familiar faces here. It's great to see some of you. I know this is a very tough topic. Thank you to those of you who have been here before and are testifying again.

Deputy Chief Milinovich, the testimony you provided here today was pretty shocking—9,500 IPV calls for Peel Regional Police, and 26 choking incidents every single day. Among these women being choked—they're primarily women—how many of the men choking them are out on bail?

[D/Chief Nick Milinovich]

Thank you for the question.

Certainly, in my opening remarks.... One of the things you might notice is that the issue of bail and repeat offenders continues to create some barriers for us as a police service when it comes to protecting survivors of intimate partner violence and a variety of other offences, as well. It's not the only issue, but it's certainly one of them. It creates some issues of confidence for survivors coming forward, and also for the police response.

I don't have exact numbers. However, what I can tell you anecdotally—I've been involved in this for 25 years—is that one of the concerns survivors have, at least among those we've dealt with, is this: When an offender is ultimately released, how are survivors going to be kept safe? Unfortunately, it's a legitimate concern, one we've seen play out tragically here in Peel—Darian Henderson-Bellman being a great example of that.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Would you be able, Deputy Chief, to table those numbers for the committee, if you have them? I think it would be very valuable for us to have them on record for this study.

I'm curious about whether you know this or have numbers—if you don't, could you table them?: You're the third-largest detachment in Canada. How many violent repeat offenders are at large? I know you said that, of the five primary calls you get, number three is violating bail or release restrictions.

How many are at large, and you don't know where they are?

[D/Chief Nick Milinovich]

That is a number, again, that would be large. It would be very difficult for us to collect that, because people can attend courts in other jurisdictions and be released here in Peel.

To help frame that up, we have a specialized unit that focuses almost exclusively on violent repeat offenders in possession of firearms involved in a variety of things—everything from human trafficking, drug trafficking and carjackings. Of the percentage arrested by that unit, roughly half of them have already been released since their arrest. That's in 2024.

Among high-risk violent repeat offenders currently in our region, there are approximately, I want to say, in or around 790. Those are offenders who, in our region alone, have been released from the federal system. However, I can absolutely collect and confirm those numbers.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thank you so much for that data. It's truly shocking. It's a public safety crisis at large.

I had the pleasure to meet two lovely women, Linda and Jeanne. They have a very powerful book. Obviously, it's very upsetting testimony they provide. One of the shocking things they said to me was that parents are trafficking their children. Parents are torturing their children. I think that is a very hard fact for a lot of us to comprehend or believe.

I had the privilege of touring the Toba Centre. It's an incredible centre. Everybody from across Canada should go and see what Christy has done. She is a remarkable human in what she has done.

Christy, how do we hold these parents accountable? To your point, for so many victims and children you see, it is in fact a parent or someone they know who is abusing them. What are the best consequences in those instances? We know parent reunification is often ideal, but these children are being abused and tortured.

[Christy Dzikowicz]

Thanks for the question.

I think we do know that the vast majority of abuse takes place by someone a child knows. Whether it's a parent or somebody in their family or in their network of care, it's typically a person the child trusts.

In terms of centres, I'm not really speaking for our centre here in Winnipeg, Manitoba, specifically, but having access to these types of environments across our country is essential. Most kids don't have access despite the fact that we have great centres in most major cities. Our criminal justice system, although this is not a critique of the individuals within it, is not a friendly environment for kids to come forward. In order to provide kids with the best chance to share with us what's going on, so that we can uncover what's going on, we need to—

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Christy, I'm so sorry. I have only 30 seconds left, and I want you to tell them the set-up you have there where those children are able to testify. I just want you to put that on the record. What I witnessed there was remarkable. They didn't have to go into court and face their abuser. I'd like you to put on the record what you've set up at the Toba Centre.

[Christy Dzikowicz]

We have closed-circuit testimony set up, as do Calgary and Edmonton. One of the comments in my remarks was that it's an uphill battle to create precedent within each jurisdiction, but we do have the environment where kids can come back to the safe space. They can provide their testimony remotely and not have to enter into a courtroom with their abuser. They can return to a centre like ours, where they provided their initial statement, and have some sense of safety.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thank you so much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Shelby Kramp-Neuman]

Thank you very much, Christy and Michelle.

Marc, you're next. You have six minutes.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm sincerely grateful to the six witnesses who are with us today.

It has already been pointed out that some of you have testified before the committee in connection with other studies, but what we're hearing today about coercive control is troubling. We need to do better and find ways to look at the specific things that have been discussed today.

My first question is for Ms. Lafantaisie Renaud. I salute the Horizon Women's Centre for the work it has been doing for some 30 years in West Nipissing. I've visited the centre, and I know how dedicated you and your staff are to the community.

We tend to hear from a lot of witnesses from urban centres who have access to many nearby resources. It's a little different for you, because your centre is located in a small municipality. Not only does it provide services in English and French, but a large proportion of its clients are first nations. So you have three specific types of clients.

Can you tell us about the challenges in terms of resources or the lack thereof to help people? The centre is located four hours from Toronto, and Sudbury and North Bay are pretty far away by road.

What challenges do you face when you're trying to help women and children, in terms of housing or any other services you provide?

[Linda Lafantaisie Renaud]

Thank you for your question, Mr. Serré.

I appreciate your very compassionate way of talking about our centre.

The centre is located in a small community, so that's challenging. Most of the services our residents need are usually provided in North Bay, which is half an hour from our centre. There are no services for them in the small town of West Nipissing. For example, there are not enough French-speaking child therapists, so the waiting list is really long. That's why we turn to our employees and people in the community for their knowledge and partner with other agencies to provide services to the women and children who need them.

We also advocate a lot for children's services. In terms of our indigenous community, at least 18% of our residents from Sturgeon Falls are from our local reserve. We also have a few other reserves that are close to our town. They have so many disadvantages from being from a small town that we really need to look at all of the services that we could provide to them, either virtually or through finding another way to offer them. They do have the right to all of the services that someone from a big city has.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

We've heard that there's a lack of training, not only for judges, but systemically. Do you find that, in a small community, people in a range of jobs and professions need better training?

[Linda Lafantaisie Renaud]

Absolutely.

I think it is really imperative that in any educational system—in medical school—there be almost a forced curriculum. They need to educate our future lawyers, our future police officers and anyone in the judicial system about what types of abuse there are, how these women and children have been affected and how the abusers are using this against them.

It's really important that we start education when children are very young. We need school boards to have curricula that are appropriate and designed by professionals who work in violence against women to teach children from an early age what good relationships are and about abuse, and to teach them to be able to not treat their partners....

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Ms. Lafantaisie Renaud.

Ms. Gagnon, we've heard that defining this is tricky. Do you have a definition of coercive control? Also, what role should the federal government play in training?

I have about 40 seconds left.

[Justine Fortin, Director, Legal Services, Juripop]

I can answer that quickly.

Regarding the definition, what matters most to us is that it be included in the Divorce Act, whose comprehensive definition of family violence doesn't include deprivation of liberty and micro-regulation of daily life, which are the hallmarks of coercive control. To us, that's crucial, and it has to be added to the Act next time it's amended.

Regarding training and knowledge, improving the definition in the Act would provide guidance not only for judges, but also for the professionals who work with this Act. It would add to the available information that can be used to provide guidance to the courts, as well as to lawyers and litigants.

As my colleague said, mandatory training will definitely have to be added so that this information doesn't simply exist in the Act, but is also understood and applied.