Thank you for the question.
Coercive control is a very important topic that we wanted to address.
I'll give you a very real example.
I am also the director of a shelter that offers first and second stage emergency housing. This weekend, a woman housed in our first stage shelter went to a garage to have her tires changed, and the mechanic discovered a GPS tracker. Her ex‑spouse, from whom she had recently separated, put the tracker on to follow her every move. Imagine the panic this discovery caused. This woman, who was in a shelter with a confidential address, had her safety jeopardized.
With regard to coercive control, it is important to realize that domestic violence can be physical or sexual, but it can also take other forms, which are much more difficult to detect. It is necessary to offer training to all the stakeholders in the field so they can understand that, even if the woman does not have a black eye, she is still a victim of domestic violence.
Women often go to second-stage housing a few months after a separation, and one might think that domestic violence stops at that point. Instead, it takes another form, called post-separation spousal abuse. This violence can manifest in many ways, including harassment on social networks, maintaining financial control, retaining a woman's immigration documents or denying supervised right of access, which impacts children's safety. Control continues and increases over time. The time after a separation is the most dangerous for women and, I repeat, for children.