Justice committee  I think the conceptions of what violence is are not clear. With something like coercive control, which is an emerging understanding, I think the courts need assistance to figure out what that looks like. The other thing is that courts tend to look at discrete acts of violence r

Justice committee  I think the evidence is overwhelming that it's women. There is more recent talk about gender-nonconforming people experiencing high levels of violence. I'm not familiar with where that comes from, so I can't speak to that.

Justice committee  It's overwhelmingly women.

Justice committee  It depends on what you're looking at. Statistics Canada stats that say there are approximately equal numbers of men and women, 4% or 7%, are one thing, but when you look at the nature of the violence, you see that women experience much more lethal, severe, and persistent violence

Justice committee  No.

Justice committee  It's across the board. There are a couple of things. One is that lawyers aren't trained about it, so it's an uncomfortable topic. Unless you're comfortable talking about it, you tend to avoid it. I think that's one of the reasons why it gets removed. The other thing I've heard

Justice committee  It's clear to me, after all these years of observing family court and now actually looking at the outcomes of these cases, that courts need guidance on how to interpret this issue. A gender-neutral notion of violence is why we are where we are, not making better progress. The cou

Justice committee  That's what I said: They do underestimate. It doesn't show up as often as it ought to in the pleadings, so I agree absolutely that it's underestimated in the pleadings. What we were looking at were cases where custody and access were to be determined, so violence may be relevan

Justice committee  Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to appear today. I've been sitting here throughout the afternoon, noticing the improved tenor over the last time I was here before this committee 20 years ago, and I appreciate it very much. I stated in my brief that we support