Status of Women committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the invitation. To begin, I would like to say that we have seen a lot of progress in recent years when it comes to violence against women and spousal violence. In the circumstances of the pandemic, in particular, some of our work has shown that feminist organizations, especially, have been very innovative in making sure that the needs of women and children experiencing spousal violence are met.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question. In fact, I have been working on the subject of spousal violence for several years, and, in my opinion, if there is one important issue at this time in how spousal violence is addressed, it is the confusion that exists between spousal violence and separation-related disputes, when the couple or parents are separated.

Status of Women committee  Exactly. The subject of coercive control, or controlling and coercive conduct, is an interesting avenue for gaining a better understanding of all the complexity and diversity of the dynamics of spousal violence. However, that concept has to go beyond the Divorce Act and be applied uniformly in all the various fields.

Status of Women committee  I have looked into it a little. What we know is that yes, violence is present in couple relationships and intimate relationships in adolescence, so it is important to work at earlier points. We have to work on prevention, even with the youngest ones. However, what we know about violence in romantic relationships among young people is that often, that violence does not correspond to the traditional model of spousal violence where we see a man or a boy who is physically violent against a female partner who is relatively passive and will have physical marks.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question. In the last few years, research concerning children who live in a spousal violence situation has evolved considerably, whereas not so long ago, we thought that this violence only affected the adults. Then we talked about child witnesses. At present, the research and work on coercive control tend to show that spousal violence is not an act that lasts an instant, or a series of acts that last an instant; rather, it is a dynamic of control and deprivation of freedom that is used on an everyday basis applying varying violent and non-violent strategies.

Status of Women committee  At this point, when we try to make rules or criminalize certain incidents that occur in spousal violence situations, the children are relatively invisible. Getting a better understanding of spousal violence and criminalizing coercive control would make it possible to protect women better, but also to see children more clearly as co-victims of this violence, and implement measures that will protect them better.

Status of Women committee  In my opinion, the Scottish model, first, and then England and Wales, second, are the two models that show the most potential when it comes to coercive control. Scotland has gone a bit further when it comes to children, so its model shows a bit more potential in terms of the victimization of children in this context.

Status of Women committee  When we look at coercive control as a behavioural pattern in which various violent and non-violent strategies are used to deprive the victim of her freedom, the research increasingly shows us that when a man adopts this pattern of behaviour when he is in a couple relationship with a woman, it is generally not going to stop when they separate.

Status of Women committee  That's a good question. When you compare the different countries, you see that feminist groups are definitely the most important element. The countries that have made the most progress in solving the problem of violence against women and spousal violence are the ones where feminist groups are the most vibrant and the strongest.

Status of Women committee  Personally, I think we have to prioritize both things. First, action needs to be taken on coercive control. I'm talking about criminalizing coercive control, but we also need a clear definition of coercive control, one that could really be integrated into the various fields I referred to.

Status of Women committee  What we have seen happen in Quebec in recent years is extremely interesting. I was on the committee whose work led to the "Rebâtir la confiance" report, and I am personally quite impressed to see the extent to which the government has implemented many of the recommendations that came out of that report.