Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good afternoon. My name is Queenie Choo and I'm the CEO of S.U.C.C.E.S.S. I'd like to start off by thanking you for the opportunity to contribute to the committee's important study on settlement services, particularly on pre-arrival. S.U.C.C.E.S.S

Citizenship and Immigration committee  From the service provider agency point of view, I think it is now even more significant and vital to provide these vulnerable immigrant women with the information they need should those circumstances arise so that they know who to talk to when there's an issue, so that they're no

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In fact, this example speaks to the importance of pre-arrival information. They need to understand what the Canadian system is in terms of their relationship, what they can do in those abusive situations, how they can get help, and what legal assistance they would be able to acce

Citizenship and Immigration committee  My example actually illustrates the fact that it might not be helpful in those abusive situations under those conditions.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The second example is an Arabic-speaking client who was sponsored by her husband. When she came, she was psychologically abused by her husband by the fact that her husband lied to her about his living conditions in Canada. He told his wife that he was living in very nice conditio

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We concur with Ms. Douglas' point with regard to the language requirement.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We provide about 20-plus languages. We also work with the language bank to offer their services depending on the person, where they come from and the language they speak, in an attempt to make sure they understand the intent and the message and the rights and responsibilities.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's provided they know how to access the service and what services are available for them.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's correct.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Let me put it this way. It's hard for a layman to interpret law. I want to share with you some examples. I didn't have time for the second example. Even the person who knows the language does not necessarily understand the legislation and the implication of the laws. I think it's

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I think we are splitting hairs. If they don't have basic language skills, they would not be able to understand even day-to-day talk. Some of them come with minimal literacy or are even at the preliteracy stage in their country of origin. That means they are illiterate in the

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't believe they all understand their rights and also their responsibilities of being in Canada. This is what we're trying to say: make sure through education sessions that we are able to help them understand what their rights are and what their responsibilities in Canada are

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In terms of the age, as long as we make it reasonable, we make it less of a barrier to people, I think that would help the vulnerable women to get on with being economically independent.