Citizenship and Immigration committee  When you say officers, do you mean immigration officers?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Keep in mind that we're sharing with you experiences from our counselling programs, which are called stopping the violence and children who witness abuse. The only women we are seeing are the ones who have been through this process. We're not seeing those who are coming for langu

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sure. I'll let Ms. Virk answer that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, we don't receive any federal funding for our spousal abuse counselling at this time. Our funding for our stopping the violence counselling is currently provincial.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Oh my goodness, yes sir, I would. One of the stories that stands out the most for me is we run the relationship violence prevention program. This is a program where men who offend are mandated through the court system to come for a 17-week counselling program. This program has a

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That also helps to address the issues that many families face towards a lack of trust of the authorities. The stigma of calling 911 and having police come to the house with lights flashing and sirens blaring can be a massive deterrent for many of our clients.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, most definitely. That is something we would like to see happen, some sort of mandatory training on the rights and responsibilities of individuals in Canada as Canadians. That would be something put in place in order to even obtain a permanent resident card. You couldn't do i

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think taking it one step further, what came to mind for me, when you just read that out, was the definition of spousal abuse. My perception of spousal abuse, as a born and bred Canadian, is different from somebody's perception of spousal abuse when they may come from a country

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I could. Let me just get to my last point then. We recently completed a focus group to address why immigrant women do not reach out to the police. Some suggestions included that there be a centralized phone number, something similar to 911, that women can call to reach someone w

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good afternoon. My name is Katie Rosenberger and I'm presenting with my colleague Swarandeep Virk. I'm the manager of counselling services at DIVERSEcity Community Resources Society and I'm an active member of the Network to Eliminate Violence in Relationships. Swarandeep is a