Status of Women Committee on Feb. 8th, 2022

[Giulia Carpenter]

We are assisting any women if they're looking into.... Like our response to the question earlier with regard to employment, we have some child care supports, so we are able to help on the children's side. We also work with a variety of different organizations that work specifically with children to offer different programming for them, so we will offer those referrals and those supports to any of the women who have children and who need them in that situation.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Ms. English, do you have any recommendations for or comments on the funding on the COVID side and the federal linkages to the provinces' core funding?

[Lorie English]

As was mentioned, we did not see a match from the provincial government here in Manitoba, so the funds that we accessed didn't come through Women's Shelters Canada. We aren't a shelter; we're a resource centre. However, we did receive funding through the Canadian Women's Foundation, specifically to respond to gender-based violence. Had that not been provided, it would have been extremely difficult for us to keep pace with the demands on our services.

What I really want to add is that a partnership between the federal government and the province is the best way forward for us to provide much-needed services beyond a 30-day shelter stay. We all know that transformation to the sector is needed in order to break the cycle of violence, and that won't come without partnerships between the federal and provincial levels of government.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

I have less than 30 seconds.

Ms. Martin, I know you're involved in the national action plan and we'll get a chance to talk a bit about that. Thank you so much for your involvement in the national action plan and looking at leveraging that 10-year span to make some systemic changes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

That's awesome. Thank you so much.

We're now going to move it over to Louise.

Louise, you have six minutes.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good afternoon, everyone. I am happy to be with you today, shouldering the heavy responsibility of replacing our colleague Andréanne Larouche, the member for Shefford. Let me tell you right away what school students are told when they have a substitute teacher: be nice.

My thanks to our three witnesses.

Thank you for your testimony, ladies. We have certainly been affected by your experiences in your organizations and your situations. I congratulate everyone for their commitment. We know how important your work is. It always is important, but it is particularly so during this pandemic when we are seeing a increase in intimate partner or domestic violence, which then affects the children.

My first question is for you, Mrs. Carpenter. You gave us the example of an abuser who had three victims, three different women. That reminds us how important it is to put measures in place. We know what the problems are and it is good to explore them in detail, but it is also good to find solutions for them.

In Quebec, spousal violence has become a major issue, resulting in measures both political and legal. They include a specialized court to deal with it and tracking bracelets. This is unique to Quebec.

Let me ask you this in terms of the abusers and the women who fear them: could the federal government follow Quebec's lead by adopting similar measures?

[Giulia Carpenter]

On our end of things, that would be a really.... I don't know too many details with regard to the bracelets, but it may be a very interactive way to be part of that. I also overheard at the Friday meeting that there was an app in development; I can definitely see that being very beneficial for our clients, as well, enabling them to have a safe place to text.

We currently just work with partners in our community and work closely with one another to be able to link. We're part of various “end violence against women” coalitions and human trafficking coalitions, so we're trying to make those linkages and trying to partner and do the best that we can.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Thank you.

One part of this very broad study [technical difficulties] deals with what is called coercive control. It manifests itself in different ways. They are all violent but, in situations of intimate partner violence, they often tragically lead to the murder of women or men. That is the issue that a number of governments have wanted to tackle in terms of prevention, before the situations that we are all too familiar with unfortunately lead to femicide. I am thinking about Australia and about various European countries, such as Spain and the United Kingdom, as you mentioned earlier, Ms. Martin.

In terms of the concept of coercion, Ms. Martin, are things being done elsewhere that we could consider and implement at federal level?

[Lise Martin]

There have been developments in the United Kingdom and a certain amount of experience has been gained. That also answers the other question about policies and about looking at other countries' experience.

The entire matter of coercive control has been studied by a parliamentary committee, and we believe that the study should be continued. Clearly, it's a major issue.

Furthermore, we currently have a campaign to show that violence is much broader, that it has a number of manifestations, of which it is important to be aware.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Okay, thank you…

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You have 20 seconds left.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

I was going to ask you whether you have anything else to add. However, in 20 seconds, I am just going to emphasize that, in terms of penalties for major offences, Quebec as a province cannot act alone if there is no response at federal level. That's where I wanted us to go.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you.

I'm going to pass it over for six minutes to Leah Gazan.

Go ahead, Leah.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

I would like to thank all of the witnesses for your excellent presentations today. I wanted to start out with Ms. English.

You spoke about the need to fund it with the urgency it deserves, as we need to do for all other health crises that we're currently experiencing, and I couldn't agree with you more on that. You mentioned that in Manitoba we currently have the highest rates of violence in the country. You spoke to the desperate need to use an intersectional approach, especially with under-represented and underserved populations, including indigenous, Black, 2SLGBTQ+, newcomer communities and disability communities.

Can you explain why there is a need, and what that looks like on the ground in terms of urgency?

[Lorie English]

What we have seen is that typically the shelter model has been set up pretty traditionally, and not a lot has shifted, at least not in the shelter model here in Manitoba.

We often find that it underserves folks who have perhaps more complex needs. That's due in part to the fact that our shelter system is underfunded. To support people with complex mental health or substance use disorders, for example, those needs cannot be met with the current levels of staffing, based on the amount of funding shelters receive.

Also, we hear frequently from the community we serve that shelters are often ill-equipped to support women, for example, who don't have English as their first language. They don't have the knowledge or the capacity to support different cultural practices inside their shelters.

When women get there, they're often disconnected from their cultural communities. They're disconnected from their friends and families of support. The shelter staff are all they have to depend on. When those shelter staff aren't equipped to meet the needs they're presented with, women won't stay. It's one of the reasons they leave the shelter and return to violent situations. Ensuring that we have shelters that have the capacity to support people in a culturally safe way is critically important.

Another barrier we see frequently here in Manitoba is that folks who are part of a gender-diverse population—folks who are trans, non-binary or gender non-conforming—typically don't find that shelter spaces are safe environments for them, so often they will not access shelter services. What we can offer them is literally nothing. Exploring options to provide an alternative, more specialized type of shelter, I think, is critical for us in ensuring that we're meeting the needs of the folks who are the absolute most vulnerable in these situations of violence.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

My next question is actually for Ms. Martin. It's a follow-up to the comments of Ms. English.

I looked at key take-aways from your study. One of them talks about voices and the experience of people most affected at the centre, people living in rural and remote areas, indigenous people, Black people, people with disabilities, racialized people, non-binary and trans people, 2SLGBTQ+ people and migrant people. It's important to hear the voices and experiences of those people most impacted.

How does that impact actually being able to come up with one of your other key take-aways, for systemic solutions to systemic problems that already exist?

[Lise Martin]

You need to have the voices of those most impacted inform the systemic change that needs to happen. They are the ones who are falling through the cracks. You need to hear from them directly.

We have a large bureaucracy that does really good work and keeps the wheels turning, but it doesn't have its ear to the ground. Having that ear to the ground is critical to being able to inform the work that needs to happen.

It's not enough just to have a policy. For example, there are the bracelets. This is a new thing. It's starting in Quebec. It has been implemented in certain jurisdictions in a haphazard testing mode, but if the police aren't going to follow through, there's no point in having these bracelets.

That is an instance of how you need to be talking to people on the ground, those most affected, to see if your policy is actually working.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Ms. English, you talked about how gender-based violence is one of the pathways to experiencing homelessness. Can you please expand on that?

[Lorie English]

When women exit a shelter, if they don't exit with a plan for housing beyond that, they are likely to return to the violent situation they recently left. One of the critical pieces when considering a funding model and a sustainable pathway forward is to look at housing options connected to folks who have experienced violence. Those options can be for transitional housing or permanent housing, but without housing solutions, the cycle will continue.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much.

We are going to go on to our second round, but I'm going to modify it a little because in 10 minutes we are going to be starting another panel.

I'm going to ask for two questions from the Conservatives, two questions from the Liberals, one question from the NDP and one question from the Bloc. This should provide us 10 minutes. I'm looking at three and a half to four minutes starting off with the CPC.

Ms. Ferreri, you have the floor.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thank you so much, and thanks for everyone's patience.

This question is for Lorie English. In your 2020 annual report you mentioned funding received from the federal government that helped women at risk access temporary hotel stays.

What was the dollar amount for this funding, and how was it allocated to your organization?

[Lorie English]

We received funding through the Reaching Home agreements for our housing program. Part of the intention of that funding was to house folks in a hotel who either couldn't be served by gender-based violence shelters because they had reached their capacity, particularly with reductions in capacity due to COVID-19, or weren't a good fit for shelter service.

I would have to pull up my annual report to give you an exact number, but it was somewhere in the neighbourhood of $250,000 that we received. Over that time we were successful in housing over 50 women through that program.

It was out-of-the-box thinking in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that actually produced really exceptional results, and we would love to continue to see that kind of thinking used in a plan moving forward.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

I think my colleague is next. Am I allowed to have a follow up to that, Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

No. I'm afraid we don't have time.

I'm going to pass it on to Dominique.

Go ahead with your question.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Good afternoon, everyone.

I find that we are not talking a lot about boys, men, and about breaking the cycle of violence, which is so important.

In your organizations, what do you see when children witness domestic violence? What kind of continuum do you see later in the behaviour of those children, and particularly of the young boys? How do you engage with them at home or in shelters?