Status of Women Committee on March 30th, 2023

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You have 20 seconds to reply.

[Monica Abdelkader]

Under the resettlement assistance program for government-assisted refugees, we are mandated to provide that housing, and IRCC does fund temporary housing in those communities.

When we're resettling refugees, we tend to be really good. Where we're not really great is with refugee claimants.

My colleagues at FCJ can tell you for days—and now, too, in Newfoundland with our experience with the recent arrivals from Roxham Road—that those are some of the groups most at risk for lack of affordable housing.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Do we have stats on that?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thanks very much. We have to move on to the next round of questioning.

I am now going to pass it over to Jenna Sudds.

Jenna, you have five minutes.

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata—Carleton, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you to all of our witnesses for being here with us today but, more importantly, for the incredible work you are all doing in your communities and across the country.

I will start with Monica.

First, I just want to share some good news, Monica. You had commented on the sexual and reproductive health fund. I am happy to share that it was in the budget yesterday for 2024, so you will see it there, which of course is critical funding and great news.

In preparing, I had done a bit of research about your organization. I saw on your website that you opened a number of satellite locations in order to accommodate the increase in immigration and refugee entry that you've seen.

I wonder if you can elaborate for us on some of the changes or the trends that you are seeing on the ground there.

[Monica Abdelkader]

This is a really great question. It's something that is a really special part of our work at the Association for New Canadians.

As you mentioned, we are located in nine communities, including eight communities that are outside of the urban core. Those offices are sometimes in really remote communities, like Forteau, Labrador, Labrador City, which are part of mainland Canada as opposed to the island of Newfoundland. Among all of our offices we more or less cover the entire geography of the province.

As you mentioned, what we are actually seeing in those offices, particularly for this study, is that the farther and more remote the newcomers travel, the greater the immediate risk they are at for human trafficking. In fact, of the cases that have come forward since we started the WAGE project, only one is located in the urban centre of St. John's. We really found that the current phase of our project is going to these remote rural communities.

We've seen this quite a lot with the Ukrainian folks who have arrived in our community, where they get offers, both from overseas as well as from inside the country, and then they travel to these communities. Then when they get there, the offer wasn't as expected or the behaviour of the employer isn't as expected. In fact, sometimes we even struggle as an organization to get employers to come forward with the details of the employment offered to newcomers.

Some of the more significant cases, even the non-Ukrainian cases, are happening in places like Labrador. Some of the information that is being shared with us includes concerns from newcomers of involvement greater than the just the employer, from people like police and from local people in power. These cases are extra disheartening because of how remote they are. They are so removed.

Some of the colleagues have mentioned, and MP Gazan mentioned quite briefly, the status issue. In a lot of the cases we're seeing they're terrified of coming forward but also are missing information about status and how to regularize those pathways.

Like Jovana from FCJ mentioned, the issue is not so simple as getting a TRP from IRCC when there's no clear pathway to how you reach permanent residency, or how you share your story and get that permanency without having to file criminal charges. That is in fact the most common thing we're hearing, the fear people have even when we have incredible colleagues here from the RCMP, from IRCC, telling them they're going to be safe. It doesn't matter. They're still not coming forward with these cases. Ultimately, the pathway doesn't really exist in practice, even though it's there in theory.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You have one minute.

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata—Carleton, ON]

Incredible. Thank you very much for that answer and those insights. It's very helpful for our study here.

I have a minute left. I'd like to go to Raman from Indus Community Services, who referred to the need to ensure cultural considerations in referrals to service providers for victims.

I would love if you could take my last 30 seconds here to expand upon what that needs to look like.

[Raman Hansra]

Thank you.

As I mentioned earlier, cultural considerations are the key. For example, sometimes we feel that one approach can fit all, one-size-fits-all, but I think that when we are working with survivors it's important for us to remember that these people are coming from different backgrounds, they belong to different cultures. What can we do, as policy-makers and as service providers, to actually make them feel safe and heard?

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Perfect, thank you so much.

We're now going to pass it over for two and a half minutes to Andréanne Larouche.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I will follow up with Ms. Abdelkader.

Ms. Abdelkader, you were addressing the topic of Roxham Road. We started talking about the issue of status regularization and how to be humane when someone comes here. I was talking about language earlier. From what we hear in relation to Roxham Road, it is important and critical to provide health and housing services.

The other concern is about people who are not welcomed in a regular way and whose status is not regularized. It is easier to lose track of them and then it becomes impossible to track them down to provide appropriate services. This is when they find themselves vulnerable in society.

On the one hand, what consequences might this have in terms of human trafficking?

On the other hand, how do these people end up in an inhumane situation where they are received, sometimes in handcuffs?

[Monica Abdelkader]

I'm sorry. I'm going to say this in English.

I would like to give my time to Jovana and Chiara. Jovana and Chiara, with the FCJ Refugee Centre, are the experts on the question of claimants. They advise us at the association on our human trafficking project.

At the Association for New Canadians, we've just started working with claimants, whereas FCJ has more experience.

[Jovana Blagovcanin]

Thank you, Monica.

Without status, traffickers, employers, abusers or anyone can exploit the victims in ways...because they know they can't access any services. They can say, “If you don't do this for me or if you don't work under these conditions, we will report you to immigration and you'll be deported.” People become dependent on their jobs. They become dependent on their traffickers, and they are usually also dependent on them for housing, as mentioned several times.

Many services and supports aren't available to people without status. Even if they gain some status, there are still limited services that they can access, such as financial assistance. A lot of housing subsidies are not available to people with temporary status. That leaves them in a situation where, again, they may be vulnerable to exploitation, and traffickers are using the housing crisis to their advantage.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

We're now going to pass it over to Leah Gazan for two and a half minutes.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you so much, Chair.

I have another quick question for Ieesha.

I put forward a bill for a guaranteed livable basic income. It's Bill C-223.

We're talking about sex trafficking and protecting women, girls and gender-diverse folks from being sex trafficked. Give me a yes or no. Would a guaranteed livable basic income be a tool of prevention?

[Ieesha Sankar]

Definitely.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you so much.

I want to move over to Indus.

I'm a former post-secondary educator. I know many international students. First of all, they're paying high fees and they get no support. It was on the news just yesterday.

I have put forward a bill for a guaranteed livable basic income. Would a guaranteed livable basic income protect women, girls and gender-diverse folks against being sex trafficked?

My bill includes temporary foreign migrant workers, refugee claimants—it's very inclusive—and anybody over the age of 18. Give me a yes or no.

[Raman Hansra]

Yes, for sure.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Because I don't have a lot of time, I want to ask a question of the refugee centre.

I know that your organization advocates for open work permits for migrant workers in Canada. I mentioned the dangers of making people illegal, and I think we've had several examples today of why making people illegal...why I support #StatusForAll. It's a necessity to keep people safe.

Why are open work permits important?

[Jovana Blagovcanin]

Open work permits are important because the alternative is an employer-specific work permit that locks someone in and ties them to one employer, with one role. That employer can use that power advantage to exploit the worker. They know that the worker can work only for them and that they're relying on that job for status in Canada. They can then say that they need to work under very abusive conditions, which no domestic worker would ever work under, and that worker has very little means to change their employment. It's a challenging process and a very lengthy process.

Many workers will continue to work for the abusive employer simply because they don't have any other choices. If they had an open work permit—

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thanks so much, Jovana.

Michelle, I'm passing it to you for three minutes.

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

Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, all. It's great information that's coming out.

Jakki, it says in your bio that you've been working in this—not necessarily in human trafficking—for 23 years. What I would love to know—and if anybody wants to jump in again—is how you have seen human trafficking change in that time.

What's different now from how it was before? I'm 43 years old, but I don't remember hearing of human trafficking the way that we hear of it today.

[Jakki Buckeridge]

I've been in this for 26 years, but I've been in anti-violence prevention for longer than that, not to age myself. All forms of violence, for me, need to be eliminated.

I will tell you that language has changed, for sure. Legislation has clearly changed to a certain degree. I know that women, 20 years ago, would not come forward, because they knew that they would be arrested and charged. Now, we're holding the actual traffickers and johns accountable, and a woman cannot be charged if she is selling sex. You can only be charged if you buy sex, so that has changed significantly.

I think there's more of a collaborative effort. We as service providers are more willing to support individuals with very complex needs. I think we were very structured in the way that we provided support 15 or 20 years ago. I'm hoping that we are more collaborative in the way that we do things, that we do have more funding and continue to get funded for programs, and that we continue to change systemic barriers for folks who are being trafficked.

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

Thanks so much for that.

Chiara, you had your hand up in that last round of questioning I had. I just want to give you an opportunity to share your thoughts.

[Chiara Rossi, Coordinator, Anti-Human Trafficking Women’s, FCJ Refugee Centre]

Thank you.

I just want to endorse what Monica was saying in terms of housing and services.

From FCJ's perspective, we work for a lot of people who don't have status or have temporary status, and this is a huge, added challenge to accessing services like housing. Even when some of the services are available for domestic victims of sex and trafficking, these same services are not available to people with temporary status, even when we get a TRP.

This access to service is essential, and it would help if this was granted to victims regardless of their status.