Evidence of meeting #4 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 funding.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
All right. We will start once again from about a sentence before you left off, if you don't mind, and your time will just continue. Thank you.
Executive Director, Fédération des maisons d’hébergement pour femmes
I will try to slow down.
In Quebec, the political will takes the form of specialized courts and a review of family law in order to consider spousal violence and domestic violence when determining the best interests of children.
At the Federation, however, we know that just 35% of children are supported and seen by Youth Protection. We also know that Youth Protection recognizes the major consequences of spousal violence. Therefore, we see a national plan as extremely important. Actually, I am a former co‑chair of Women's Shelters Canada, a Canada-wide network. Through our advocacy, we recognize the federal government's proactive stance in establishing a national action plan to which it will provide leadership. It will also work more closely with the provinces. That is extremely important.
Let me give you a very specific example. We know that amendments were made to the Divorce Act by means of Bill C‑78. For the first time, it includes a definition of family violence, as well as measures to set better criteria with respect to the best interests of the child. So the Divorce Act is now very good, but the act is federal. Working with the provinces, the federal government can take the lead to include that aspect, for example, in Quebec's Civil Code and family law. The Government of Quebec was actually enthusiastic about the act. This shows the importance of a national action plan that prompts the provinces and the federal government to work much more closely together.
Is that okay?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
It's awesome. Thank you so much.
We're now going to move over to Claudine.
Claudine, you have the floor for five minutes.
Claudine Thibaudeau Social Worker and Clinical and Training Supervisor, SOS violence conjugale
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I am extremely grateful for your invitation. I am happy to speak to you today on behalf of SOS violence conjugale.
Let us tell you a little about ourselves. We are the main resource line for spousal violence for all of Quebec. We are available by telephone 24 hours a day, and have been for almost 35 years. We provide access to all resources and all services, whatever the need, to all who are affected by spousal violence: victims, of course, but also their loved ones, some abusers, and those who may have questions. One telephone number provides access to all the resources everywhere in Quebec.
During the pandemic, we also developed services via text and online chat. We are one of the organizations pioneering this new way to respond. We have really noticed that it helps us to reach some victims more easily, victims who do not have access to our telephone services for various reasons. This is mainly because, for some women, expressing their fears of spousal violence out loud is a step too far. Later, I will tell you about another initiative that we have instituted to make that path easier.
In our 35 years, we have responded to more than 850,000 requests. This year, we will have probably received more than 55,000 requests by March 31. This is by far the busiest year in our history. We have already reached 50,000 requests, with a month and a half still remaining.
I am going to introduce you to two initiatives that we have established in different areas, one of which is prevention. Earlier, other witnesses talked about the importance of making young people aware of the reality of violence between intimate partners. In particular, this includes the forms of violence that are more difficult to see, that are more subtle, and that do not involve physical violence. It is very important for people to be more familiar with those forms of violence, both in order to recognize them more easily when they fall victim, and in order to ask themselves questions more quickly when they may be needed.
So we developed a prevention tool for teenagers and young adults. The tool is called “It's not violent”, but you can see that the “not” is crossed out. These are interactive text messages where young people are invited to take part in discussions and to put themselves in the shoes of the victims in order to help them recognize the more subtle forms of violence. The objective is also to increase young people's awareness of the reality of victims of violence, to increase their empathy for those victims, and to raise [technical difficulties] about their own personal positions against violence, in their own lives and in our society.
These interactive capsules are hugely successful in Quebec. They are now used in many school settings. There is even an online guide that lets anyone involved, even though they are not an expert in spousal violence, to lead workshops for young people. We are really very happy with them. The application was launched in 2019 and, last year, it won an American prize called the Purple Ribbon Award.
Since November 2019, the site has been visited more than 385,000 times. The reaction is extremely positive, in both educational and response circles. We are really very happy with them. We now have tools on paper to go with the online application, which is in English and French. Those tools on paper are available in French, English, Arabic, Spanish, Cree, Innu, Atikamekw and Algonquin. That is the first tool I wanted to talk to you about. I invite you to take a look at it by visiting itsnotviolent.com.
The other tool I would like to tell you about is an interactive questionnaire exploring the realities of spousal violence. Over the years, we noticed that, when people called SOS violence conjugale, they would hang up before speaking with a counsellor. Many apologized for calling us because they were afraid they were taking the place of those who deserved our support more or whose situations were worse. But when they started to talk about their own situation, it became clear that it was often very serious and they were already experiencing forms of physical violence that could sometimes be life-threatening. We therefore developed an information and self-assessment tool for those with concerns about their relationships. It's an interactive questionnaire: people answer the questions with “yes” or “no”. The questionnaire was launched at the end of November 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, and it has [technical difficulties], mostly in Quebec.
It is available in French and in English. The questionnaire has been very successful and it gives victims very much easier access to resources.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Thank you so much. This has been a fantastic panel. I'm sorry I'm having to wind you up so quickly. I just know everybody's ready to get to the questions.
I'm going to pass it over to Dominique for the first six minutes.
February 8th, 2022 / 4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Thank you, Ms. Vecchio. It's actually very useful.
I have a number of questions to ask all at once; the first ones go to you, Ms. Dunn.
You listed some recommendations. If we don't have the time to go through them all, could you provide details about them and send them to the committee?
More specifically, you said that the law must be amended to end violence against women. Could you tell us specifically what that means? You certainly provided some ideas just now, but I'd like you to tell us a little more about them.
Ms. Chabot talked about Quebec's Bill 24 and I would like to know what you think about it.
You also talked about appropriate funding. Can you put a figure to that?
I also have a question for you, Ms. Thibaudeau. You said that your telephone line also takes calls from abusers. I am very interested in knowing what exactly the abusers tell you, how you respond, and what you learn about them. I feel that we also must involve boys and men. We have to break the cycle of violence by including them in the process.
You have some very interesting initiatives, especially the “It's not violent” tool. Could you tell me about what has emerged from that very interesting tool?
Those are my questions, Ms. Dunn.
Executive Director, London Abused Women's Centre
Thank you very much for your questions. I did plan on sending a brief in as well, with detailed recommendations, so I can definitely do that.
Your question to me was around the legislation to end men's violence against women. We recommend including amendments to the Criminal Code to identify violence against women specifically—violence against women, intimate partner violence and family violence.
Right now there are multiple stand-alone sections in the Criminal Code, and this really and truly does a disservice to women and girls when they are going through the criminal justice system. We believe that the separate stand-alone sections of the code need to be drawn together to really recognize the impacts of violence against women and their children, and that's what we mean by family violence as well. We feel that would better protect and provide support to victims and survivors as they go through the criminal justice system.
Did you have another question about our recommendations as well?
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Yes. You said that you need core funding and that it should be increased in order to support your programming. Do you have a figure in mind? What are you thinking of when you say that it will need “appropriate funding”? At least, those were the words that the interpreter used.
Executive Director, London Abused Women's Centre
Yes. When we talk about appropriate levels of funding, we are referring to appropriate levels of core funding. Right now, our core funding comes from the provincial government. We have funding from the federal government as well, but typically the funding that we receive on that level is in the form of funding for a certain amount of time—two years, three years, five years, depending on what it is.
Then what we have to do is answer another call for proposals, so when we're speaking about core funding, we want and need funding that is around all of the time, so we do not have to use resources to continually reapply for funding for our work to continue.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
For community organizations, especially, applying for funding requires a lot of time.
Let me go straight to Ms. Thibaudeau, so that I can make sure I don't run out of time. But I understand that you are going to send us your brief, Ms. Dunn, and we will have more details on your requests and your recommendations.
Social Worker and Clinical and Training Supervisor, SOS violence conjugale
To answer the question about the calls from abusers, I will freely admit that it is a small minority of the calls that we receive. It's about 1% of the calls, but 1% of 50,000 is still a good number.
We are the gateway to the resources, meaning that we are not the ones who respond. So, often, when abusers contact us, we actually look at what the person needs and refer them to a resource.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Allow me to interrupt you, Ms. Thibaudeau.
Would you say that there are enough resources to which violent men can be referred?
Social Worker and Clinical and Training Supervisor, SOS violence conjugale
That is one of our recommendations for the groups who provide resources to men who perpetrate violence. There aren't enough resources available at night, on the weekend or in the evening. Services for violent men are available weekdays, and those service providers are often busy, so they don't always answer calls from the people we refer to them when they reach out. Someone needs to be there to pick up the telephone when a victim or an abuser reaches out for help.
Yes, then, there needs to be a service for abusers available 24‑7, to answer their questions, and help them move towards non-violence and question their behaviour.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Perfect, and thank you so much.
I'm now going to pass it over for six minutes to Emmanuella.
Emmanuella, you have six minutes.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
I'll begin with thanking all of our witnesses.
Thank you to all the witnesses for being here today. You have given us considerable insights that will inform our study.
It brings us to the angle of youth and education. That's my background, so I'm going to be asking a bit about that as well.
As a teacher who has taught sex ed and ethics in Quebec high school classrooms, I always believe [Technical difficulty-Editor] at a young age.
I know that Ms. Dunn and Madame Thibaudeau both touched on youth and making sure we teach our young people from an early age. Could you speak a little more to that?
I know it was one of your recommendations, Ms. Dunn. I guess we'll begin with you. If you could, just say a bit more on what type of education you think would benefit kids in a classroom in order to help stop and break the cycle.
Executive Director, London Abused Women's Centre
When we're talking about young women and girls specifically, they see a lot through media, online—I touched on this when I was speaking—in schools, and even with their families. Young girls are growing up learning that their worth comes from being sexually desirable to young men. Boys learn from the same outlets of media, online, school, friends and family, that it's acceptable for men to maintain power and control over women.
Really, having a national mandatory curriculum from kindergarten all the way up to high school is what we would recommend. I say national, because I think it would be very important for the provincial and federal levels of government to work together to create consistency across the country, so all children learn about the impacts of violence against women throughout their entire school career. One of the most important things is to talk about it.
To be honest with you, I have two very young children who are in grade 2, and I know I can have conversations at that age about how to treat people. I think starting from a young age is very important.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
Thank you very much.
My question is for Ms. Thibaudeau. You talked about your organization's programming and the application it had recently created.
Do you work with schools and school boards? Do they know about these services?
Social Worker and Clinical and Training Supervisor, SOS violence conjugale
We've tried to raise as much awareness of the initiative as possible in a number of ways. We are using social media and working with the education department. We hope to have as many schools as possible participate in the It's Not Violent program. The feedback from educators has been very positive.
We would often get calls from people asking us to give violence prevention workshops at schools or youth centres, through youth protection services. We can't cover all of Quebec, but we know that our shelter partners do similar work. They, too, have very limited resources, so they can't deliver hundreds of workshops a year or visit every school in the area.
That is why we decided to build a program that people could use on their own. Anyone can go to itsnotviolent.com, where they'll find a strategy guide, as well as different animation modes, from large groups and subgroups to kiosks. The program features vignettes based on five themes: pressure to consent, isolation, sexual exploitation, geolocation and harassment. The exercise fosters conversations in which young people are asked to answer questions from the victim's standpoint. This makes it easier for them to participate, since they aren't speaking for themselves, but by putting them in the victim's shoes, we help them understand the feeling of powerlessness a victim has in dealing with her abuser, no matter what she tries.
The response to the program has been very positive. In fact, we've had a lot of interest from young boys, and that really surprised us at first. Many wrote to us to say that they had exhibited similar behaviours in the past but didn't think they constituted violence.
We think we got through [Technical difficulty—Editor] because that's what a lot of young people think. They are able to recognize physical violence and clear insults, but they have trouble identifying pressure, insistence and veiled threats as violence. We hear from a lot of educators who really appreciate the platform. Even though they aren't experts in the field, with this tool, they can facilitate workshops all over the province. The tool has the potential to be extremely effective.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
In one sentence, if you could, please tell us how the federal government could help organizations like yours do what they're doing?
Social Worker and Clinical and Training Supervisor, SOS violence conjugale
Organizations like ours need time and money for these types of initiatives.
We chose to invest in this program because it's such an important issue. We have plans for other projects. Another witness brought up the idea of raising awareness among younger children, and we agree with that. We are actually thinking about a new platform to do just that. Instead of focusing on violence prevention, we plan to promote equality-based relationships and help young people define who they want to be.
Society focuses on what they want to do in life, what type of job they want. They aren't asked what type of boyfriend or girlfriend they want to be or what they want to be like as a person. The idea is to help young people define who they want to be, something society doesn't do enough of.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Thank you so much.
We're now going to pass it over to Louise Chabot.
Louise, you have six minutes.
Bloc
Louise Chabot Bloc Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses. My first question is for Ms. Thibaudeau.
Ms. Thibaudeau, I want to commend you on all the work you are doing with your organization in Quebec to dispel misconceptions around this issue, raise public awareness and eliminate violence in all its forms.
I looked at your website, and you have an informative page called Power and coercive control in situations of intimate partner violence. It helps readers understand what coercive control is.
Some 60% to 80% of women ask for help after experiencing intimate partner violence or coercive control. Do you think that's an issue the government should address?
Social Worker and Clinical and Training Supervisor, SOS violence conjugale
Absolutely. We need a broader understanding of what constitutes intimate partner violence, which ranges from basic violent behaviour to the power dynamics in the relationship.
Intimate partner violence happens when one person in the couple uses violent behaviours to gain power they feel is legitimate. There is no denying that, in the vast majority of cases, that person is the man.
That is why we work so hard at SOS violence conjugale, always alongside sector stakeholders. We do a tremendous amount of work with shelters across Quebec. My counterpart at the Fédération des maisons d'hébergement pour femmes is here; her organization also works extremely hard.
We endeavour to build tools to help people in all of those settings, and we ask victims whether those tools reflect their experiences. You brought up the SOS‑Info section on our website. It contains short articles to help victims and their loved ones understand all aspects of violence, the various forms of violence and ways they can get help. We try to provide information that is as tangible as possible. The section has 20 articles, and we post new ones every year. It's another tool we use to raise awareness.
We also have a section on the website with testimonials, to help people understand intimate partner violence. The site has a more analytical component with explanatory information, in addition to the testimonials, which focus on the emotional element. An interactive questionnaire is available to users of the site, so we use various tools to help people understand what violence is. That's the hardest part.
We have received countless comments on the site, especially regarding the interactive questionnaire. People told us they never imagined that they were victims of intimate partner violence, but the questionnaire had piqued their interest. After answering yes to eight of the 25 questions, for instance, they realized that they were victims.
At the end of the questionnaire, behaviour X is categorized as emotional violence [Technical difficulty—Editor], behaviour Y is categorized as isolation and so forth. We help participants find the words to describe what's happening, and it is clearly having a significant impact.
