Thank you so much.
Women often arrive at our shelter feeling truly broken. Many women have a hard time expressing their needs and wants because most of them have been dictated to them by their abusers.
We see mothers struggling with their children, who are mimicking what they have witnessed, and we are faced at times with children who are physically and verbally abusive towards their mothers. The effect on children can oftentimes be seen when children of past residents are now seeking our services as adults because they are now victims of partner violence themselves. It's imperative that we work diligently to offer the most empathetic, supportive and empowering experience and to help them in being able to realize that they have the right to be free from abuse.
Forty-four per cent of women who have been in an intimate relationship experience abuse, indicated a Statistics Canada report in 2008. This does not shed light on how many women and children have been victims of sexual luring or trafficking and those who have not come forward or pressed charges due to fear of repercussions.
The amount of control that one single person can gain over another person is unimaginable to many, and there is no time limit to heal from the extreme trauma, effects and even dehumanization they have lived through. I will quote one woman's words that she stated to me: “It's not the physical and sexual abuse that he put me through that traumatically impacted my life. It's the 13 years of mental, emotional and financial abuse.”
Abusers need to be held accountable. Some ex-partners have such a high need to control that we are now seeing women—mothers, mostly—being put through the most cruel type of abuse, and it's being done through their children.
Some children are being coerced and influenced negatively by the abuser to refuse visitations with their mothers, and partners are refusing visitation rights to their ex-partners because they know that police will not get involved, as most custody orders do not have police enforcement clauses. This leads to mothers not being able to see their children for months and having long delays in the judicial system. The abusers are now utilizing parental alienation to their advantage.
Our work in violence against women is critical in protecting women's and children's lives. My recommendations are as follows: to increase annual funding to violence against women's shelters and agencies to reflect the actual cost of living; that coercive control be recognized in the Criminal Code; and that we fund public awareness campaigns on coercive abuse and what it is and how it affects women and children.
I would also suggest consultations with Pamela Cross, who is a Canadian feminist lawyer and a women's advocate, as I believe that could be instrumental in effectively describing coercive abuse in legal terms and advising the committee on potential underlying or detrimental actions that can be used against women.
Thank you.