Evidence of meeting #9 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 indigenous.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
I have to move you on. I'm sorry. I'm trying to get everything rolling, and our time is just crushing right now.
4:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Possibility Seeds
I understand that, but I'm going to finish my sentence.
4:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Possibility Seeds
—they experience high rates of violence, and when they experience that, it's really important to understand that transphobia makes it difficult for them to be safe. If we don't address transphobia and hatred for transpeople, we won't end that.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Perfect. Thank you very much.
I'm going to remind everybody that we are tight on time. Please, let's be respectful of everybody's time. I really appreciate that.
I'm going to now move it over to Anita.
You have three minutes only.
March 22nd, 2022 / 4:45 p.m.
Liberal
Anita Vandenbeld Liberal Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair. My first question is for Ms. Khan.
You mentioned some really alarming statistics about young women—women aged 15 to 24—experiencing intimate partner violence or at least being in proximity to it. You very briefly touched on the digital sphere and the role that social media and online violence might have in propagating that.
I wonder if you could elaborate on that.
4:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Possibility Seeds
The digital fear is huge. What we see right now is the trading of nudes. We see people putting out intimate images without consent. We see students harassed in lots of ways. We see young people solicited online and catfished. We see the ways in which families also survey and monitor and stalk their siblings or their family members using phones.
Online harassment is huge. We have to recognize that it also happens within domestic violence relationships and within the family. That is a huge issue. It's devastating, what we're seeing online.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Anita Vandenbeld Liberal Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
My other question is for Ms. MacDougall, but if we have time, I'd like the others to answer that.
You spoke about systemic inequities. We often think about GBV and intimate partner violence in terms of BIPOC newcomer and racialized communities experiencing it in larger numbers. You said something about there being racism through service provision and policies, so when they actually go out to seek that help, there's also racism in the experiences of BIPOC women.
I wonder if you could elaborate on that.
4:50 p.m.
Executive Director, Battered Women's Support Services
Overarchingly, it is the result of endemic and systemic racism, attitudinal and behavioural, that is then acted out in what a survivor experiences when they attempt to access services. It's also the way in which services are created and delivered.
This is not to disparage our incredible workers all across these lands, who are under-resourced and undersupported. It is a recognition that we are talking about historic inequities that exist.
We want to redress that. We want to disrupt that and to shift it by centring an anti-racist approach, which is to really understand these behavioural and attitudinal challenges.
It's also with respect to how we think about violence in general. That means we have to think about policing and about child protection and child welfare and the health system, which are all, of course, infused with the same inequities and racist attitudes and practices.
It's an ongoing piece of work, which I think is laid out in some ways through the national action plan on missing and murdered indigenous women in terms of those pieces. It's also described and laid out very well through the road map to a national action plan, which I understand the committee has.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Awesome. Thank you so much.
We're now going to be moving it over for the last minute to Andréanne.
You have one minute, please.
4:50 p.m.
Bloc
Andréanne Larouche Bloc Shefford, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to thank all three witnesses in the first panel.
I'm not sure whether it was Ms. MacDougall or Ms. Khan who brought up coercive control, so my question is for both of you.
Why is it important to broaden the definition of violence to include coercive control?
4:50 p.m.
Executive Director, Possibility Seeds
It's so important, because right now there's such a limited view of what happens in domestic violence—things like controlling your whereabouts, where you go, and how violence is actually manifested. Oftentimes it isn't physical or sexual.
Allowing us to have a wider view of that to include coercive control, and to make sure that survivors know that what's happening in their households, in their families and their intimate relationships, is wrong, enables us to do better education, and it gives people more methods of providing support. We need that right now.
4:50 p.m.
Executive Director, Battered Women's Support Services
If I could jump in quickly, coercive control is kind of a rebranding of power and control, which is an idea that we've been working with since the 1990s. That's another important consideration. Often we think about physical and sexual violence, but we're not thinking about all the other tactics of power and control that exist in an abusive relationship.
The legislation piece is an important consideration. We have a situation right now that is not—
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Thank you very much. Excuse me. I have to cut people off, because we have had people in the waiting room, trying to get in, since 4:30 p.m.
I'll pass it over to Leah for a final minute.
4:50 p.m.
NDP
Leah Gazan NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Thank you.
Madam Khan, women with disabilities are twice as likely to be sexually assaulted. There's almost zero attention given to this reality. Can you speak to that, please?
4:50 p.m.
Executive Director, Possibility Seeds
I would add to that children of all genders who have disabilities. I have a son with a disability, and it's something I worry about every day.
It's something we need to address in terms of how our service provision is done, how we access services and what services we're looking at. We also need to be expanding who we see as the people who commit gender-based violence, looking at people who are caregivers, people brought in as nurses, and people who support children with disabilities, people with disabilities and specifically women with disabilities.
Again, if we're not centring the most marginalized in the approaches we take with the NAP, then we're leaving people behind. We need to centre people with disabilities, specifically women, trans and gender non-binary folks, so that they can get the support they need. We cannot leave them behind. We have to centre them.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Awesome. Thank you so much.
On behalf of the status of women committee, I would really like to thank Battered Women's Support Services, Possibility Seeds and the South Asian Women's Centre. If you have documents, briefs and additional information that you would like to send, please feel free to send them to the clerk.
Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day.
We'll now take a break in order to switch panels.
5 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Thank you to everybody who's joining us. We are in our final panel of the day.
On our second panel we have, from L’Alliance des maisons d’hébergement de 2e étape pour femmes et enfants victimes de violence conjugale, Sabrina Lemeltier and Maud Pontel; from the Awo Taan Healing Lodge Society, Josie Nepinak; and from the BC Lions football club and the Ending Violence Association of British Columbia, joining together, we have Jamie Taras and Ninu Kang.
I'd like to thank you all for coming here. We'll start by giving each organization five minutes for an opening statement. At the four-minute mark, I will start letting you know that you have one minute left.
I will now pass the floor over to the alliance for five minutes.
5 p.m.
Maud Pontel General Coordinator, Alliance des maisons d’hébergement de 2e étape pour femmes et enfants victimes de violence conjugale
Good afternoon.
I'd like to thank the members of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women for the opportunity to contribute to your study on intimate partner and domestic violence.
The Alliance des maisons d'hébergement de 2e étape pour femmes et enfants victimes de violence conjugale is a provincial organization with 34 shelter members.
Today, I will be presenting solutions based on protection and support mechanisms for victims of intimate partner violence in relation to post-separation domestic violence, coercive control and consistent government support.
Before delving into the technical side of our recommendations, I want to take a few moments to share a real-life case with you. Any time legislative solutions are being considered, it is important to keep in mind that domestic violence affects real people in a very real way.
Exactly five years ago today, March 22, 2017, a young woman named Daphné Huard‑Boudreault was killed by her ex‑partner. After leaving a toxic relationship with that individual, Daphné was repeatedly harassed by him. She went to police, but unfortunately did not meet with a proper response, receiving inadequate support and advice. Alone, she went to retrieve her personal belongings at her ex‑partner's home, where police were supposed to meet her. Before they arrived, she was brutally murdered by her ex‑partner.
This tragic case highlights what can happen when victims do not receive adequate support. Although a protocol did exist, it was not implemented owing to a lack of training. A life was lost and many others are forever destroyed.
Today, on top of grieving for his daughter and dealing with a wound that will never heal, Daphné's father, Éric Boudreault, is fighting for justice and more support for victims. With great generosity, he has allowed us to read you an excerpt of his message to his daughter Daphné.
Today, my sadness must contend with frustration and anger. Five years later, I am more than convinced that you were abandoned, but unfortunately I cannot abandon this fight. I will rest later because the systemic normalization of domestic violence is more real than ever and must stop. The fight is just beginning, and I am counting on you to hold me up, as you always have.
5 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Thank you very much. I really appreciate your doing that.
We're now moving over to the BC Lions football club and the Ending Violence Association of British Columbia.
Jamie and Ninu, I'm going to let you decide who goes first. I pass the floor to you.
5 p.m.
Ninu Kang Executive Director, Ending Violence Association of British Columbia
Thank you, Madam Chair and the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, for inviting Jamie Taras of the BC Lions football club and me to present on the importance of engaging boys and men in our national gender-based violence strategy.
I'm Ninu Kang, executive director of the Ending Violence Association of BC, and I am calling from the unceded, ancestral and traditional territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
EVA BC is a provincial association working together with nearly 300 member programs to provide frontline support services across B.C. to end gender-based violence, harassment and hate. Additionally, we provide cross-sectoral supports by bringing community together, and we deliver prevention programs by engaging boys and men through our internationally recognized and award-winning program, Be More Than a Bystander, to break the silence on gender-based violence. It's a partnership with the BC Lions football club, which Jamie will also speak to in a minute.
Why is engaging boys and men through the Be More Than a Bystander program so important? Well, we know from previous panellists that intimate partner violence represents 26% of all violent crimes that come to the attention of law enforcement. We also know that sexual assault is the most under-reported of all crimes—less than 5%. One in three women is sexually assaulted in her lifetime, and 66% of female sexual assault victims and survivors are under the age of 24.
You can see that raising awareness on gender-based violence, and providing simple tools to boys and men to intervene and respond to various forms of gender-based violence, is critical. It's empowering boys and men to be part of the solution instead of being part of the problem.
Gender-based violence has been seen as a women's issue, and we raise our hands to all the women who came before us, who fought the fight, and who influenced the policies, systems and structures we have today. However, there is a critical resource we left untapped: men who are ready and willing to stand up next to women to end gender-based violence.
In 2011, EVA BC approached the BC Lions to partner with us and join us in the work to end gender-based violence. We worked with a male educator named Jackson Katz, who argues that while women have been at the forefront of this work, it is not a women's issue. In fact, he argues that this is a men's issue.
The approach really resonated with us and, together with the BC Lions football club, we developed the Be More Than a Bystander program. The program utilizes professional sports icons—BC Lions football players—who go into high schools with anti-violence workers to speak to thousands of boys and girls to raise awareness to end gender-based violence.
The program also implemented a province-wide promotion and awareness strategy, utilizing TV, radio, social media, game-day ads and other media to promote the Be More Than a Bystander message to Lions fans and followers throughout our province.
I'm going to send it over to Jamie to talk more about the BC Lions experience.
5:05 p.m.
Jamie Taras Director of Community Partnerships, BC Lions
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Ninu. It's an honour and a privilege to be here today.
Before I start, I want to recognize the true heroes on this call: all of the women who have dedicated their lives to making our society safer when it comes to gender-based violence. Thank you sincerely for your efforts.
For those of you who don't know, the BC Lions football club is a professional football team that competes in the CFL. The only reason we entered this arena is that we were asked to help. Gender-based violence is a complex, challenging and difficult reality, and, well, we play football.
I remember that when we first discussed getting involved with our leadership team, I expressed concerns about how our own organization's reputation might be at risk of skeletons coming out of the closet, or of current players or coaches having an incident and the press jumping all over us, dragging the BC Lions' good name through the mud. However, it was our head coach at the time, the legendary Wally Buono, who stood up and stated emphatically, “We should do this because it's the right thing to do. Our community has a problem. They've asked for our help, so let's do our best to give it.”
It turns out that Wally had experienced domestic violence in his own home growing up, and had to intervene on behalf of his mother. He went on to say that if we have challenges within our organization, we will deal with them. We won't hide from them. We will do what's right. So we took a giant leap forward alongside our partner, EVA BC, and launched the Be More Than a Bystander program.
Over the past 11 years, we have visited many locations throughout our beautiful province, teaching high school students about gender-based violence, sharing with them the tools to safely intervene, and ultimately encouraging them to be more than a bystander and break the silence on gender-based violence. It's safe to say the program has been a success. The silence has been broken, and the dialogue about this topic has been embraced by the students we have visited.
From an organizational perspective, we are among the first professional sports leagues to adopt a gender-based violence policy.
Is my time up here?