Status of Women Committee on June 9th, 2026

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Good morning, everyone. Today is a day unlike any other. Welcome.

I call this meeting to order.

First, I want to let you know that there will be votes today, so that will disrupt our proceedings a bit.

This is meeting number 43 of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. For the first hour today, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on Thursday, April 23, 2026, the committee will resume its study on women's shelters and transitional housing.

During the second hour, we were supposed to begin a new study, which will focus on menopause. Before I came into the room, I spoke to my colleagues—who will let me know publicly if they still agree—and I received their consent to proceed with the study on shelters during the first hour and to postpone the study on the impact of menopause on the labour market. The goal is to ensure we do not run out of time for this meeting. We don't want to gloss over it, since it's quite important. We will resume it by the end of the session or, at the latest, in the fall.

Is it still the will of the committee to move forward with this plan?

[Voices]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Thank you very much for your understanding.

Before we proceed, if members agree, I move to adopt the budget for the study on menopause. That way, it will get done. You received this information yesterday. The budget is $36,400.

Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt this budget?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Thank you very much.

There's also another item on the agenda regarding the study on menopause, and we will address that right away, as well.

If members of the public wish to submit briefs and comments on this matter, we give them the opportunity to do so until September 30, as usual. Since everyone seems to agree on this, we have covered all the points regarding the study on menopause. We're ready to begin it, but we won't start it today. September 30 is the deadline, but I forgot to mention that submissions are limited to two pages, or approximately 1,000 words.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the Standing Orders. Members are attending in person in the room and remotely using the Zoom application, as usual.

To ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to make a few comments for the benefit of witnesses and members.

Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. For those participating by video conference, click on the microphone icon to activate your mike and please mute yourself when you are not speaking. If you wish to speak, please raise your hand. For members on Zoom, please use the “raise hand” function.

For those on Zoom, you can select at the bottom of your screen the appropriate channel for interpretation: English, French or floor. For those in the room, you can use the earpiece in front of you and select the desired channel. I want to remind the witnesses that members of the committee can ask their questions in French or English. If interpretation is needed, please take a moment immediately to select the desired channel. That will save us valuable seconds.

I remind you that all comments by members and witnesses should be addressed through the chair, but since I don't want to disrupt the flow, participants don't have to address me directly. They can address the members who are asking them questions directly. That will make the discussion flow more smoothly.

Before we welcome our witnesses, I would like to provide this trigger warning. We will be discussing topics related to gender-based violence. This may be triggering to viewers with similar experiences. If any participants feel distressed or need help, please advise the clerk. For all witnesses and members of Parliament, it's important to recognize that these are difficult discussions, so let's all try to be as compassionate as possible.

I will now welcome the witnesses.

I will now welcome our witnesses. We have, from Faye Peterson House, Debbie Zweep, executive director.

From SOS violence conjugale, we are welcoming Claudine Thibaudeau, who is the lead for issues involving intimate partner violence.

From the Women's Centre for Social Justice, we have Nneka MacGregor, executive director; and Sonya Boyce, director of stakeholder outreach and engagement.

Welcome. We will begin with opening remarks.

Ms. Zweep, the floor is yours for five minutes.

Thank you.

[Debbie Zweep, Executive Director, Faye Peterson House]

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.

I'm going to try to keep my speed relatively slow.

My name is Debbie Zweep. I've been the executive director here at Faye Peterson House in Thunder Bay, Ontario—

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Ms. Zweep, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but we seem to be having a problem with the interpretation.

Can you speak a little, to see if it's working?

Go ahead, Madam Zweep.

[Debbie Zweep]

My name is Debbie Zweep, executive director of Faye Peterson House. I've been working here for 28 years. I'm happy to speak to you today about violence against women and the role that shelters play.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Everything is fine, Madam. Go ahead.

[Debbie Zweep]

Again, my name is Debbie Zweep. I'm here at Faye Peterson House in northern Ontario, where spring has not really reached us yet. I'm happy to be with you to talk about the role shelters play in violence against women here in Canada, specifically in Ontario.

Today, I wanted to talk to you about second-stage housing. We have just built, on our same property here, eight units. It took us 10 years to build this property, and we finally got funding from the feds, from the City of Thunder Bay, and from, of course, fundraising within this community. I wanted to acknowledge that the federal government's initiative for funding housing navigators was certainly the key to our success, both at a federal level and also at a local level.

Once we started working with Women's Shelters Canada and their navigators and the city, we were able to put all the funding together. I also wanted to let you know that we had envisioned a bricks and mortar version, but we then switched to a modular build, which reduced our capital costs probably by at least 50%, if not more, and that we were successful in starting on time, completing in time, and—I'm happy to tell you—coming in under budget.

What is unique about our second stage is that our vision is, or our dream is, to have two women share a unit. These would be single women, typically over the age of 55. There's not a lot of research on that, but we have begun. There are two single women we had housed here within our first-stage shelter who have now been living together for the last month. We also have a family with two teenagers. We are using lots of information from our sister shelters, but also the document that was produced by Women's Shelters Canada with best practices or the practical guide for second-stage housing in developing policies, but really it is the women who are guiding us as we move through this process.

I think one of the things that are of the most importance at this moment as we implement second-stage housing is that there is no operational funding. I'm sure you have heard that before. While they are supported by workers here within the first-stage shelter, transitional housing and support, with maybe a family court support worker and certainly a little child care, there is no sustainable funding. A community of 120,000 in the north here has committed to raising $30,000 a year to contribute to that break-even that we have to provide to what was CMHC. I'm not sure whom we'll be providing that to now.

With the second stage, I think it's important to recognize that women have moved out of crisis but haven't moved out of danger, and that's why we've built second-stage shelter: We can keep them safer right on this property with the same systems, but they do need specific programming. Their children need specific programming in order for us to evolve with them, so that they can be fully active participants within our community and live safe as well. Our vision is that they will probably be here two to three years and, with our work with them, we will move them forward into the community, into regular housing. That's our goal, anyway.

The second thing—I know I have only five minutes—is to talk to you a bit about custody and access, and how difficult this period of time is for women. Women are often spending $10,000 at least if they are trying to negotiate custody. It is a long process. If a woman chooses to go to trial, they are at $100,000, and if they are on legal aid they are not usually going to trial and their outcomes are often not as successful.

One of the difficulties with custody and access is certainly the process, working with defence lawyers on both sides or family law lawyers who are dragging this out in regard to the participants. It is often taking two to three years, and within that time women are living in poverty. They aren't getting support payments. They can no longer manage to have their house or their vehicle. They have to use public transportation to move their children to appointments, to activities. There continue to be long battles on section 7 and extracurricular activity.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Thank you, Madam Zweep. It's all the time you have.

Good morning, Ms. Thibaudeau.

You have the floor for five minutes.

[Claudine Thibaudeau, Lead, Issues Involving Intimate Partner Violence, SOS violence conjugale]

Good morning.

Madam Chair, members of the committee, I want to begin by thanking you for the opportunity to speak today. Like Ms. Zweep, I have been working in the field of domestic violence for 28 years.

I represent SOS violence conjugale, which serves as the central resource for referring victims of domestic violence to shelters throughout Quebec. For nearly 40 years, our mission has been to provide information and referral services to victims, their loved ones and professionals on a 24/7 basis. Every year, we receive from 50,000 to 60,000 calls, text messages and requests by chat. We also offer this service 24 hours a day, and seven days a week.

Behind every one of those requests is a person trying to regain their power, improve their safety and, sometimes, save their own life. Among the services we provide, one of the most critical ones is to quickly find a space in a first-stage shelter for a victim who wants to leave a violent situation. Each year, we receive from 15,000 to 20,000 requests for shelter.

Data from our most recent activity report reveals an extremely concerning reality. Year after year, our ability to find an available space continues to decline. Six years ago, we managed to find a space for nearly two out of every three requests. Today, that placement rate is down to just 45%. In other words, more than one in two people who contact us to escape violence cannot be referred to a shelter with available space when they need it.

This provincial average masks even harsher realities. For example, in Montreal, where a significant portion of the requests are concentrated, we find a space in only 37% of cases. In Laval, the rate is 41%; in Mauricie, it is 42%; and in the Outaouais, it is 44%. These figures reflect tremendous pressure on the specialized shelter network.

However, the reality is even more worrisome when we consider that available spaces are not always in the area the person prefers. So, when we can't find a space nearby, we at SOS violence conjugale will always suggest going a little further—and sometimes even much further.

This year, for the first time, we measured the proportion of placements made outside the local area—for example, women from Montreal placed in Sainte-Thérèse or Joliette, women from Gatineau placed in Lachute, or women from Sherbrooke placed in Lac‑Mégantic. This exercise made us realize that more than half of the victims we were able to refer to an available space were placed outside their local community because no spots were available nearby.

In concrete terms, this means that these women have to leave their city, their support network and their job. It also complicates their overall efforts to regain power, as well as their legal or medical-social efforts, for example. We know that once we've connected people with a shelter resource, many women will refuse the placement because the distance makes the process impossible. That's why a placement outside the local area can't really be considered a true success.

Therefore, when we consider only placements made within the right area, our actual placement rate for women seeking shelter drops to only 22.4%. In other words, across Quebec, barely one in five victims who request a shelter placement can be referred to a resource that truly meets their needs and reality.

Even these annual figures are merely averages. Some days are much more difficult. For example, on May 16, 2025, we received 79 requests for shelter across Quebec. Only 18.7% of those who applied could be referred to a shelter with an available space. The majority of those spaces were outside the area the person had requested.

Certain populations also face additional barriers. We found that allophone women were placed in shelters in only 37.5% of cases this year, likely because fewer of them were able to accept a placement outside their preferred area.

This data leads us to a clear conclusion: Access to housing for victims of domestic violence is currently critical in Quebec. When a person decides to leave an abusive partner, the window of opportunity is often fragile and time-limited. If there are no spaces available when she is ready to leave, the consequences can be major for her safety and that of her children.

Shelters are doing remarkable work under intense pressure. However, the figures show that the needs currently far exceed the network's capacity. As a society, we must understand what these figures are telling us. Behind every percentage are women and their children, who are seeking a safe place to rebuild their lives. When a victim of domestic violence seeks refuge in a shelter, there should always be a logical and accessible solution.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Thank you, Ms. Thibaudeau.

Good morning, Ms. MacGregor and Ms. Boyce. Welcome.

Ms. MacGregor, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Nneka MacGregor, Executive Director, Women's Centre for Social Justice]

Good morning, Madam Chair and honourable members. Thank you for this opportunity.

I am Nneka MacGregor, co-founder and executive director of the Women's Centre for Social Justice, better known as Women at the Centre. I'm appearing today with my colleague Sonya Boyce.

We're a survivor-led organization of diverse women, gender-diverse and trans survivors. Our community shapes our priorities, our research and our policy recommendations. Over the past five years, Women at the Centre led a groundbreaking initiative entitled “Truth & Transformation: Advancing Gender Equity For Black Women, Girls And Gender Diverse, and Trans Peoples In Canada”. It was funded by Women and Gender Equality Canada, and we engaged over 700 participants from across every province and territory. It is, to our knowledge, the first pan-Canadian study to centre Black survivors' and advocates' experiences of gender-based violence in their own words. The peer-reviewed literature on this specific population and their experiences of the shelter system is very thin, and this study, in significant part, begins to fill that gap.

Black survivors are the proverbial canary in the coal mine. Their experiences reveal the structural gaps within the shelter and transitional housing systems that might otherwise go unnoticed—gaps that affect many survivors across Canada but are experienced differently across populations. We know that you've heard that women and children are turned away from shelters every day, and Women at the Centre's evidence is on the survivors who never reach the door. We're going to share three key findings from our research.

Canadian scholar Patrina Duhaney found that Black women who sought institutional help for intimate partner violence frequently experienced increased scrutiny, monitoring and criminalization as a direct result of disclosure. Our research confirms this pattern at scale, with survivors describing encountering the trope of “angry Black woman” when seeking safety. Expressions of fear, distress and self-advocacy were viewed as aggression. They described having to adjust their tone, body language and facial expressions, all while in crisis and trying to find support. Survivors also described avoiding shelters entirely, because entering a shelter meant contact with police and child welfare and immigration systems, which are sites that research has shown to be embedded with gendered anti-Black violence.

When they did access shelters, Black survivors described spaces without culturally appropriate food or products for black skin or black hair, and with staff not equipped to recognize violence that was both gendered and racialized. In the north, survivors described a Black woman who was fleeing violence and was turned away from the only shelter in the community.

I'll pass it over to Sonya.

[Sonya Boyce, Director, Stakeholder Outreach and Engagement, Women's Centre for Social Justice]

Survivors also told us that when GBV systems fail, they turn to their kinship networks. This includes grandmothers, aunties, sisters, faith groups and Black-led organizations like ours. This is where many survivors found housing, child care, transportation, emotional support and advocacy. In the words of one survivor, “The shelter turned me away. My auntie took me in. The church helped me with groceries and my kids' school. A Black women's organization helped me find a lawyer. None of that would show up in any government data. But that's what kept me alive.”

These are not informal coping strategies. They are culturally grounded approaches to safety and healing that are rooted in Afrocentric values of kinship, collective responsibility and community care.

I'm going to share five recommendations with you now.

First, expand the scope and language from intimate partner violence to gender-based violence to capture the diverse range of survivors in need of emergency shelter.

Second, establish a dedicated funding stream within bilateral agreements for housing that is specifically designed by and for Black survivors. Funding must include capital investment and operational costs.

Third, fund Black-led, indigenous-led and survivor-led organizations as primary providers of safety and support.

Fourth, mandate the collection of race-disaggregated data across shelter, housing and gender-based violence systems.

Last, require all federal GBV policies, bilateral agreements and shelter funding frameworks to explicitly address gendered anti-Black violence and misogynoir.

In closing, and just to reiterate, there's no robust peer-reviewed literature on the experiences of Black women, girls, gender-diverse and trans survivors in the shelter and transitional housing system in Canada. Our research exists in large part because the literature does not.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Thank you, Ms. Boyce.

We'll begin the discussion between members and witnesses.

Ms. Cody, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

Thank you.

Through you, Chair, I want to thank the witnesses for coming today. It's been a very engaging topic and a lot of information has been shared.

My question is for Debbie Zweep.

It's nice speaking to you again. As you're aware, Thunder Bay is very much like my community of Cambridge, in that we both share a major concern about human trafficking. Stats Canada states that Thunder Bay had “the highest average annual rate of human trafficking”.

What factors do you see playing a role in making Thunder Bay a major hub for human trafficking?

[Debbie Zweep]

It's such an easy question to answer.

One of the things is that we are on the highway. The highway has to come through Thunder Bay, so there's lots of access for transporting people.

We also have the water right in front of us, so you can use the shipping methods of moving women across the water. That form is definitely alive and well here.

We also have a number of gangs. They're from the Ottawa and Toronto regions, mainly. They are very active in Thunder Bay in substance use. Although the local police and the Ontario Provincial Police work collaboratively to try to get a handle on that, our courts are definitely backed up with these perpetrators. It really provides the ground for this kind of work to happen.

It is a difficult situation, for sure. It isn't getting any better here in the north.

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

Do you see the shelter systems being able to accommodate survivors of human trafficking?

[Debbie Zweep]

There are a couple of things around that, Connie, that I would comment on.

First of all, when survivors come into shelter, it has to be their choice, and that doesn't always happen. The police may come with a referral, but the woman may not want to stay. There's that piece I want to respect.

The other piece is that, as much as we can, we like to allow that woman individual space. I have eight bedrooms, and I have 26 beds. If we are not full, then I'm definitely providing an individual space for someone who has been trafficked, but that is not always possible. Both Beendigen, my sister shelter down the road, and my shelter are often full, so that does make it more difficult.

I have women on the crisis line asking directly, “Will I get a room to myself?” If we can't provide that, then they aren't coming in for service.

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

You mentioned the justice system. If section 810 of the Criminal Code is not effectively being applied within the justice system to protect women victims of intimate partner violence, would it be safer for women if these violent offenders were kept behind bars rather than being released on bail? Would this improve the safety of shelter spaces, especially if the locations of shelters were made known to the abusers?

[Debbie Zweep]

That's an interesting topic for sure, because we have very limited jail space here in Thunder Bay, so we are often seeing perpetrators of abuse against women released, and then they are in our community, which definitely escalates the opportunity for risk to both women and children.

I don't believe everyone deserves to be behind bars. I want to see first offenders, for instance, in that early intervention program. However, I do want repeat offenders to have that accountability within the justice system. I'm hopeful that, when the new jail that they're building opens and we have the additional spaces, we will have some more accountability.

I do believe our Crowns are working very hard in regard to listening to risk assessments that we provide to them to keep perpetrators within the jail system or within corrections. However, there just isn't the space. I don't think there is an unwillingness, but in regard to repeat perpetrators, we have Canada Court Watch reports and many other reports on that, and we do believe that the repeat offender has to do some time.

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

Thank you.

I'd like to move on to Claudine Thibaudeau with some questions, if I might.

Elder abuse is an under-reported yet growing concern, and senior women are less likely to reach out. Are you hearing more from seniors experiencing violence?

[Claudine Thibaudeau]

We are, but there's still quite a lot of work to be done. We've released some new promotional material lately, some of which has been aimed at women over, say, 55, because we've portrayed a grandmother in our new sign. We really hope that we can better reach people to help them recognize violence as it is but also recognize that the stakes are different when you reach a certain age.

Leaving a violent partner is often a long-term safety plan. It's something that will bring more peace to someone's life, but rarely in the short term. It will be in the mid to long term. As you advance in age, differences in stakes will change decisions, because you may not have as long and you may choose to be as peaceful as possible. That also needs to be taken into account.

We have second-stage shelters. As I said earlier, they're too full. They might not be well adapted to someone over a certain age in terms of physical adaptation, but, also, the environment might not be a comfortable one for some women. There's also the question of what's going to happen afterwards.

The same goes for women who have handicaps. If a partner plays a support role in any sort of way, whether it's physical support related to a handicap or financial support, how are these people going to have a truly safe life later on?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Thank you very much, Ms. Thibaudeau.

Colleagues, I'd like to make a brief aside. As you can see, the bells are ringing.

Is it the pleasure of the committee to continue the meeting and vote using the app?