It's my turn to thank everyone for allowing us to testify here today, especially MP Dhillon, MP Damoff and MP Saks for really assisting and championing this bill. Thank you again for allowing us to speak here today.
We believe this is an incredibly important bill. Jennifer's case is actually the poster child for why this bill is so necessary. The thing that she didn't tell you is that there were 53 court orders made in her case, by over 12 judges. Many of those court orders were warning her ex about his poor conduct. This is where the disconnect came.
There were two levels of disconnect. Disconnect number one was they were recognizing that there was something amiss with her ex, but not acting on it. Number two was that certain judges just weren't recognizing it at all. In either case, it ended exactly where we feared, which was the death of Keira.
I'm a family law lawyer and I've been doing this for 13 or 14 years now. I'm quite busy. I say this because on the ground level there are problems that I can even testify to. Many victims of violence don't have a lot of confidence in the system. Lawyers, quite frankly, don't have that much confidence either.
Lawyers regularly advise their clients not to mention abuse, because judges won't get it. It's going to be used to punish you. Victims are scared that judges don't hear and understand them or are dismissive of it. They feel revictimized in court. Judges oftentimes put them back in situations where they have to communicate with and be around the abuser. They don't quite recognize how dangerous a situation that can sometimes be.
When I speak of judges, I'm speaking generally. There are obviously some really good and well-informed judges, and there are ones who are a little less informed. Overall, the flavour is that people don't feel safe, and there is a lack of public confidence, especially as it relates to survivors.