Finance committee  It's a great question, and I wish I had an answer for you. We've been trying to get this information for many months. We are not a shelter. We provide emergency access to women and girls who need long-term counselling, support and advocacy. However, during COVID, there was no

Finance committee  Good evening, everyone. It's really nice to be with you this evening. The London Abused Women's Centre is a feminist agency that takes systemic action to end the oppression of women and girls while providing immediate access to service for women and girls across this country who

Status of Women committee  First of all, I was also a city councillor and was first elected in 1994. I ran on a platform of affordable housing and women's equality rights. Here I am, 25 or whatever years later, still advocating for the same positions. It's easy to say that there needs to be more collabor

Status of Women committee  I couldn't do this work if I didn't have hope, but I can tell you it's a much easier process to educate children than it is men in their forties and fifties.

Status of Women committee  We partner routinely with the corporate sector. We use the corporate sector money to provide immediate access to service for women and children. The corporate sectors in our communities across the country are very generous, but they oftentimes want to see upfront government mon

Status of Women committee  We are really fortunate in London, and I think in Ontario, that many agencies that are established.... I say this with all due respect to Jayce, because her organization is not funded with core funding, while ours is, although we don't receive 100% of our funding from any level o

Status of Women committee  In fact, women can't wait, because their lives change by the hour. They can't wait three months for a callback. They don't know where they'll be in three months.

Status of Women committee  Could I just respond to that first? It's not specific to any profession. We have a huge crisis, and we need to be providing every sector with education and opportunities to help women. Whether it's the hotel industry, the taxi industry, the health care sector, the real estate s

Status of Women committee  What I'm saying is that there's not one specific sector that needs training. We need communities across this country and individuals to understand the issues.

Status of Women committee  I'm going to give you a specific recommendation, which is that we need to shift the culture by educating young people—we're doing it in our community in kindergarten—about the value of women and the role men have in supporting women. I'm not going to shift your mind, with all du

Status of Women committee  Thank you so much. The London Abused Women's Centre provides advocacy, support and counselling to women and girls over the age of 12 who are experiencing violence from their intimate partners in sex trafficking or prostitution, harassment in the workplace, or harassment by other

Justice committee  I can't comment on that. I am not a lawyer, and it's not my area of specialty.

Justice committee  I can actually respond to that really quickly. Very few women do come forward, because of fear. They're fearful of the police. They're fearful of being killed, because they've been threatened with murder. Also, the criminal justice system is not a woman-centred system. It has num

Justice committee  That's a different situation. That's about sexual violence cases.

Justice committee  Welcome.