Status of Women Committee on Feb. 4th, 2022

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

The shelters, yes: How many were low barrier?

[Alia Butt]

Low barrier...? I'm not sure. I'd have to look into that and get back to you. We can certainly get back to the committee once we've done an analysis of those numbers. There are 1,200 organizations that were funded with that money, so we would have to look into that and get back to you.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Yes. I ask that because many women with addictions, for example, often aren't able to use shelter systems, and this costs lives. We know that, so I think it's important to identify how many shelters are actually low barrier, so that all women and diverse genders are able to access them.

Rates of violence—as you know, since this is your area—against women and the diverse-gendered have increased as much as 400 times in some areas. I know that my riding of Winnipeg Centre has seen a crisis of violence, particularly against indigenous women and girls. We still don't have a national action plan, even though we see a rapid, 400-fold increase in violence. When will the national action plan be released? On what date?

[Alia Butt]

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to give you a date in particular, but what I can tell you is that in 2019, the Minister for Women and Gender Equality was mandated to build on the ongoing work of the Canada strategy to prevent and address gender-based violence. Since that time, a lot of work has been done, and some key milestones have been reached.

The national action plan means we're working with provinces and territories to develop this collaboratively. It was in January 2021 that the FPT ministers endorsed the joint declaration for a Canada free of gender-based violence, which really confirms the common vision, principles and goals for responding to gender-based violence. That was one of the key—

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I ask this because that was 2019 and it's now 2022. Rates of violence have gone up 400 times, and we really need a plan quickly. I would really appreciate it if your department could get back to the committee to give a really clear timeline of when we'll see this national action plan. I think it would be helpful.

I have another question. It's no secret that indigenous women and girls are 12 times more likely to go missing or be murdered than the rest of the population—12 times. This was actually reported in the national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. That was released in June 2019. It's now 2022. You still don't have an action plan in response to the 231 calls for justice that came out of the inquiry. The crisis persists. When will this action plan be released?

[Alia Butt]

On that one, there will be witnesses from Crown-Indigenous Relations and Indigenous Services Canada on panel two, so I would just maybe leave it to them to speak specifically about the MMIWG question you have, but what I can tell you in terms of the important work we're doing at WAGE is that we have been working very closely with our colleagues in those departments.

On the $55 million that I mentioned earlier in terms of the call for proposals that's currently open, that is funding that is specifically targeted to indigenous women's and 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations to bolster their capacity specifically to help in the prevention of GBV. That is one important piece that we're delivering at WAGE that does fit with the federal pathway in response to MMIWG.

More broadly in terms of the MMIWG plan, as I mentioned, panel number two will have two officials present from both Crown-Indigenous Relations and Indigenous Services Canada.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you very much.

In terms of findings regionally, how much funding was provided to Manitoba shelters?

[Alia Butt]

I can definitely jump in here. I don't have the number in front of me, but I can confirm that for the 1,200 organizations that were funded with the $100 million, all the information is publicly available on our website. It's broken down by province. You'll see the name of every single organization that we funded in your province, along with the amount of money they received. We can follow up with the committee to give you the link.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Absolutely, follow up with the committee. Perhaps at the end of the meeting, there are certain things we may request of some of our witnesses today. We'll speak to our clerk to ensure we get everything done.

I'm looking at the time. One of the most important things is that we will be switching over to another panel and we need to do sound checks.

I'm going to do this on the fly. For round two, I'm going to be reducing Laila to four minutes, Anita to four minutes, and Andréanne and Leah each down to a minute and a half, so we can get the entire round done.

I'm going to pass it over to Laila for four minutes.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

I guess I'm going to have to speak quickly.

Ms. Butt, in your opening comments, you touched on the disparity in violence that you see in a variety of spaces. Is it fair to say that there is a rural-urban divide when it comes to gender-based violence? Yes or no.

[Dr. Lisa Smylie]

I can take that question, Madam Chair.

The short answer is yes, absolutely.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Fantastic.

I come from Fort McMurray, which is evidently a rural part of the world, especially in Canada, so it's something that is quite concerning. I would ask that rather than just sending us the website, please send documentation to the committee with all of the shelters across the country that have received the funds. If it's possible, could you also send us every shelter that applied that did not receive the funds? I think it would be helpful to be able to see how you are specifically trying to make things better for rural communities and the indigenous communities that tend to be in those rural areas.

I was also wondering if you could point us in the direction of best practices that exist either within Canada or around the world.

[Alia Butt]

We probably don't have enough time, so we will certainly follow up with the committee and send you the full list of the 1,200.

I want to mention something that's really important. We have worked really hard with our partners at Women's Shelters Canada and the Canadian Women's Foundation to make sure everybody gets the funding they need during this emergency period.

There will be another call for proposals in case absolutely anyone was missed. If you're worried about a particular organization in your riding, we can certainly make sure that they are not left behind if they're able to apply for those calls for proposals.

I don't know how much time we have left, but maybe we can get back to—

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

There is a minute left.

[Alia Butt]

Do you have anything to add right now, or will we follow up on best practices?

[Dr. Lisa Smylie]

In terms of some best practices, WAGE has provided a million dollars in funding to Women's Shelters Canada, which produced an interactive map of shelters. Because of that, over 75,000 people were able—

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

I understand, but in our study, we are trying to find legislative and public policy solutions. It's not about funding at this point. It's about who is doing good things and what can we do to replicate it. It's not necessarily just spending the money.

[Alia Butt]

On the legislative side, I'll turn to my justice colleagues in terms of identifying any best practices.

[Nathalie Levman, Senior Counsel, Criminal Law Policy Section, Department of Justice]

Thank you for that referral.

I'm not sure how much time I have, but I'm here today to speak to what I know the committee is interested in, which is existing criminal coercive control legislation that's in place in various jurisdictions. The U.K. is one of them. Is that something that you would like to hear about? I see nodding.

Before I comment on the criminal coercive control legislation, I'd also like to note that the concept of coercive control has been used in other areas of the law as well, for example, in family law. My colleague Claire Farid is here today, and she can comment on that if that's of interest to you. I think it probably would be.

In the criminal context, coercive control offences criminalize a pattern of conduct—

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Ms. Levman, we are at four minutes already. I'm very sorry.

On that question, I don't know if we'll be able to have more opportunity here, but there could be some written requests later.

I'm sorry about the time. It's just so short, and I know how important it is.

I will now pass it over to Anita for four minutes.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

My first question is for you, Ms. Butt. When I was on this committee in 2017 and we did the gender-based violence against young women and girls study, there was a lot of discussion about whether we should be focusing on a federal action plan or a national action plan. The difference is that the federal one is for the areas that are specifically in federal jurisdiction and could be done immediately, whereas the national one means having to coordinate with all the other levels of government, including provinces and territories.

You mentioned in your opening remarks the gender-based violence strategy, the whole-of-government approach. I don't want to leave it to seem as though because we haven't launched a national action plan, this means there hasn't been anything done. I wonder if you could elaborate on the federal side, the gender-based violence strategy.

As well, how is it going with the provinces and territories? How receptive are they? How might COVID have impacted the ability to be able to do those negotiations in order to get to the national action plan?

[Alia Butt]

I had started to touch earlier on some of the achievements of the federal strategy when I was talking about the seven departments involved and some of the good work that's being done by the knowledge centre. In terms of other notable achievements on the federal strategy, we were able to launch three new national surveys establishing baselines on different forms of GBV and critical data gaps. We know how important that is. There is a need to continue to fund research so that we know what the issues are and we can appropriately target them.

In terms of funding for community-based research to better understand the impacts of GBV and prevention efforts, we've developed and tested promising practices in prevention and support for victims and survivors in areas that include sexual violence, child maltreatment, teen and youth dating violence, gender-based violence in post-secondary institutions specifically, and also human trafficking. We have enhanced cultural awareness training for RCMP officers and staff across the country. We're enhancing supports for victims and survivors of GBV within the Canadian Armed Forces. Those are just some of the good things that are coming out of the federal strategy.

In terms of the national action plan, you're right, we are working with the provinces and territories across the country, and that takes time. We're also engaging with many stakeholders. Since 2020 we've had a series of engagement sessions with approximately 1,500 individuals from civil society. We've engaged with the ministerial advisory council on gender-based violence. With our indigenous partners, our deputy minister has an indigenous women's circle, which has been critical to ensuring that there is an indigenous pillar within our national action plan. A lot of significant effort went into the development of this national action plan.

Overall, I want to say that the collaboration has been great with PTs. I will mention that Quebec supports the general principles of the joint declaration and the plan, but is wanting to continue the fight against gender-based violence by prioritizing its own actions and measures. I just want to make sure I'm clear about that point. They have been at the table and are supportive of the work we're doing. That work is proceeding.

To address the question you raised about the pandemic, absolutely we had to pivot. In March and April of 2020 we absolutely had to pivot with the FPT forum, and got the $300 million that we're now rolling out. As I mentioned, $100 million is already out to the network of shelters. It was really just making sure that the emergency needs were met while we continued to move forward on the good work we were doing on the national action plan.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

That's awesome.

We'll pass it over to Andréanne for 90 seconds and then to Leah. They will be our last two questioners.

Go ahead, Andréanne.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

It's great to have a national plan, but 10 years is far too long. I hope that the timeline can be shortened.

Having said that, Ms. Levman, I'd like to hear from you on what falls under the Department of Justice's purview. Quebec already has some ideas, and I would like to know if Ottawa will follow suit. I would hope so. We have pilot projects for the electronic bracelet and creating a specialized court, for example.

Could you then talk about coercive control to expand our conception violence against women?

[Nathalie Levman]

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to criminal coercive control offences, which criminalize a pattern of conduct that serves to entrap the victim who is a current or former intimate partner of the accused and thus eliminate their sense of freedom.

A broad range of coercive and controlling conduct may be employed, but the focus is on how the pattern of that conduct serves to subjugate, not the individual incidents by which an abuser has exercised control. That's because coercive control is concerned with the cumulative impact of the abuser's conduct on the victim. In this respect, coercive control legislation is unlike traditional criminal law, which generally responds to specific incidents of wrongful conduct, like assault, sexual assault or uttering threats.

Coercive control criminal legislation was implemented in the United Kingdom in 2015, in Scotland in 2018 and in Ireland in 2019. I can provide the committee with information on those offences and also on the Home Office's March 2021 evaluation of the U.K. offence.