Evidence of meeting #139 for Status of Women in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was youth.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Paralegal, As an Individual
Thank you for the question.
Yes, I received a death threat online, and it was absolutely not the first time. It likely won't be the last. It was about a month ago. I specifically remember that one line said, “I want to beat you to within an inch of your life.” This is someone I've never met. They know nothing about me. It was good, old-fashioned homophobia.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
How gratuitous.
What did you do? You told the committee about it today, and we thank you for sharing it with us, but did you report the incident to police?
Paralegal, As an Individual
I reported this incident to the social media organization through which the incident took place, and I'm waiting for a response.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
I see.
As Ms. Baker, the Fondation Émergence representative, said, some 91% of victims do not report incidents to police. The same is true for many sexual assault victims. They don't report what happened to them either.
You didn't make it up. You received the threat, you saw it, you read it. You were obviously deeply shaken by it. Do you plan to report it to police?
Paralegal, As an Individual
Absolutely, that is my intent.
Unfortunately, the message was sent from an anonymous profile that was deleted within an hour of its being sent. I was quick enough to take screenshots and send them to the social media organization, but I'm waiting on them to figure out who said that—where that account came from—before getting the police involved. It's also....
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
It is no secret that the Conservative Party of Canada is a party that stands with victims, and we of course want legislation that puts victims first as much as possible.
Ms. Baker, you mentioned two statistics that really struck me. First, 78% of Canadians describe themselves as community allies. I'm not sure whether it was you or your colleague who said it. Second, 91% of LGBTQ people are victimized but do not report it.
Why don't they report it? I'm asking you that, but at the same time, I do want to point something out. When we studied intimate partner violence or violence against women, specifically, we found out that girls do not report hate crimes because they don't see the point—they don't think anyone will believe them.
When people do not want to come forward about hate crimes, what kind of situation are they in? Why don't they speak up? Ninety-one per cent is a huge number.
Trainer and content specialist, Fondation Émergence
You're right, the same phenomenon can be seen in other contexts. When it comes to the LGBTQ+ community, specifically, I think it's important to keep in mind the relationship between police and community members, historically. Not that long ago, police were raiding bars. There are still people who were criminalized or persecuted by police, so it obviously plays—
Trainer and content specialist, Fondation Émergence
I'll send the figures afterwards.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Send them to us in writing. If you have the data, we would like to see them. It's important information.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Sonia Sidhu
There's no interpretation.
Can you just pause for a minute?
Can you say a few words, Madame Baker?
Trainer and content specialist, Fondation Émergence
Yes. The main reason they gave is that they didn't think it would make a difference.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Sonia Sidhu
Yes, it is fixed.
Go ahead. If you can, please wrap up in 30 seconds.
Trainer and content specialist, Fondation Émergence
All right. Here are three figures: 74% of people thought it would make no difference; 45% said they didn't trust police; and 26% said they didn't think police would believe them. Those figures come from Women and Gender Equality Canada. I can send them to you by email.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Yes, we would appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Liberal
Liberal
Lisa Hepfner Liberal Hamilton Mountain, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to all of our witnesses for being here with their very important testimony today.
I'm kind of all over the place as to where to start here. I think it's clear that the Conservatives have no interest in asking questions about why we have seen such rising hate against the 2SLGBTQI+ community.
Tyler Wisner, I thought it was interesting hearing the questions to you about why you didn't go to police after an online threat. I wouldn't expect the police to be able to do much about an online threat like that. We are moving forward in this country with some online harms legislation. It's not perfect. There's more work to do. The Conservatives have put forward a similar bill that would make you have to sue the online media company to have the post taken down or to get any sort of retribution. All the onus is on them, but you'd have to sue the social media company to get any retribution.
What are your ideas about...?
Conservative
Michelle Ferreri Conservative Peterborough—Kawartha, ON
I have a point of order.
That's not true, just for the record. If you can table proof of that, that's all I would ask. That's not true. That's not what the legislation is.
Liberal
Lisa Hepfner Liberal Hamilton Mountain, ON
I don't interrupt you with untruths, Michelle, so you can wait till you have the floor to continue with your untruths.
Liberal
Lisa Hepfner Liberal Hamilton Mountain, ON
How do you think we fight this?
You're right. It's not just online harms anymore. We're seeing manifestations of this on the street. People are being physically attacked. It's happening in real life now. It's not just online.
Do you have any suggestions?
Paralegal, As an Individual
You mentioned that it's not only happening online. I received a death threat in the streets of Toronto last week while I was walking home from work. How do we address this? I think part of the onus should be on these social media companies. They need to be monitoring in some way, because these threats are immediate. They need to be addressed in a timely manner, or violence will occur. It's that simple.
How to regulate these social media companies is difficult, because there are pros and cons. They do provide a great network to reach out to people like yourselves to find community where you otherwise wouldn't, but the threats of violence are real and very vast.
Liberal