Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, the woman can be asked individually or interviewed by the officer asking whether she is being forced to get married. Again, the age criterion should be that she be about 18 years of age, at a point at which she feels mature enough to speak.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We feel that there are cultural and language barriers, and there are employment issues as well. Definitely there have to be training programs relevant to the job market, because our goal is to get them financially independent. Again there is a catch-22 situation, which is, if th

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It is an issue when culture plays a role, when women feel that the man is a breadwinner, that's an issue. Again, we can't say that all the women who are sponsored by their spouses are living in slavery. We will not make that statement. We have not seen that. There are pretty libe

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We haven't yet dealt with a forced marriage case, but I trust in the principle that there has to be an evidence-based study to find out how many cases there are of forced marriages, polygamy, marriage of convenience, marriage of fraud, all those cases, and do a policy analysis to

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, definitely I agree, because we have many, many cases where after four years, five years, they are not even able to find employment. Forget underemployment; they are not able to find the jobs. That creates significant mental health issues. In fact, a lot of tax dollars go tow

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It should certainly go.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There has not necessarily been any evidence-based research conducted to say how many cases of sponsored spouses being abused, being victims of violence, have been reported. However, it makes the position of women weaker and there is not equality, and then a woman is always under

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would suggest that at the embassy in their home country, when they are issued a visa, at that time they be given something in their language about their rights. Also, any husbands who sponsor their spouse should be made aware at that time that when they bring a wife into Canad

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, and honourable members of the committee, thank you for inviting us today. We would like to focus on two aspects. We would like to highlight the common barriers faced by newcomer women, and I'm sure many witnesses have mentioned similar aspects, and present recommendat