Status of Women committee  It's the way in which South Asian women have been socialized. This is part of their journey. Even the man is selected for them, or whoever it is, and they have to complete that particular role as a wife, a mother, a daughter-in-law and a sister-in-law. A South Asian woman is esse

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. The only thing I would request from you is to ensure that it's a realistic livable income, and not something that.... Rents in Toronto for a single bedroom are about $1,500, and I'm being conservative. If you're talking about a livable income for a woman who's trying

Status of Women committee  I want to say and add to all of these solutions that I don't think there is a concrete one type of solution to fix all of the issues that have emerged post COVID or during COVID. We know that the women we serve come from two countries, sometimes even three, and therefore, when

Status of Women committee  Was that question for me? I couldn't get the interpretation.

Status of Women committee  No. I know I had to press this button, but I wasn't able to. I'm sorry. I'm new to this.

Status of Women committee  Farrah alluded to some of the issues, but what I want to say, as an immigrant woman and a racialized South Asian woman.... I don't know. In our home, this was something that wasn't even discussed. There was no talk about gender identity. You were raised to listen. You were not al

Status of Women committee  Farrah—

Status of Women committee  Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to speak. I appreciate the time you've given me. Thank you so much, each and every one of you from the standing committee, for listening and hearing the voices of the South Asian women I have been trying to represent through many y

Status of Women committee  Okay. I'm also going to very quickly touch on the work we did with St. Michael's Hospital. We were called in to work with St. Michael's Hospital. They got a grant to work on looking at the issue around the girl child, the girl baby, the sex selection abortion. We worked on that i

Status of Women committee  Some of the things we did when we were doing this project and a previous project were to bring young men and fathers into the room. We had separate sessions with them to talk about how they would support their daughters or their spouses. Some of the results were startling. Some o

Status of Women committee  We are not a shelter. We are a centre, but we work closely with shelters. Quite often we are told there is no space in one shelter, so try another shelter. We go to central intake and then, of course, we get the runaround. It's very hard sometimes to find enough space. I think

Status of Women committee  It's a cycle.

Status of Women committee  Here's the thing that we do, and we do it best. When a woman walks in through the door, first of all, we have to make sure she's comfortable to disclose her issue. Then we do what is known as an intake and an assessment. Based on the assessment, we look at the number of units of

Status of Women committee  I think the education system is a critical factor, and it's a critical piece of this whole issue. The issue is getting people into that educational system, growing them through that educational system, and understanding the complexities that occur as a result of young South Asian

Status of Women committee  You would be surprised how most of the clients come to us through word of mouth and referrals and even through agencies from the government, from doctors, from police officers who refer them to the South Asian Women's Centre. They come from as far away as Ajax, Brampton, Scarboro