Justice committee  Oh, all right. I'm almost done.

Justice committee  Bill C-75 is very difficult to wade through, which makes it inaccessible to almost all victims, and particularly women who've experienced violence or sexual exploitation. For the most part, sexually assaulted, tortured, prostituted, and trafficked girls and women have no idea tha

Justice committee  Thank you so much for having me here today. It's lovely to see you and lovely to have London North Centre MP Peter Fragiskatos with us at the table today. The London Abused Women's Shelter provides advocacy, support, and counselling to women and girls over the age of 12 who expe

Justice committee  Thank you.

Status of Women committee  Thank you so much, Madam Chair. I'm representing the London Abused Women's Centre, which is an agency in London, Ontario, that provides women who are being abused by their intimate partners and women in prostitution with counselling, support, and advocacy. During our last fiscal

Justice committee  I think that this bill removes a number of obstacles that women currently face reporting to police.

Justice committee  I do believe that. I also think that we need to remember that nothing happens overnight. There's been some mention of that: how are we going to get this information out? I think that's an important issue to address. Maybe I'm not as up to date on politics as I was at one time, bu

Justice committee  But you do have the ability. You are the largest force, as a federal government, to make sure that you direct how information is distilled through to the provinces.

Justice committee  I'm not saying you have to increase funding.

Justice committee  I responded to the immunity issue and the restitution, but I want to speak specifically about cross-examination. One of the big fears, of course, that women have in testifying as witnesses when they're victims of domestic violence is that their abusive partner is going to be cr

Justice committee  I think there are a few things. I think that there needs to be a process that's very clearly outlined because right now what happens—and again best intentions are put forward—is sometimes the police think the crowns are doing it, and the crowns think the police officers are doing

Justice committee  First about the restitution, it's very simple. I'm just so delighted to see that now emotional abuse will be covered under that. It's something that women have been asking of us for a long time. Of course, now they can ask for restitution for their car windows that have been smas

Justice committee  I think this bill will actually streamline our current resources. I think our best practices now will actually become consistent across the country through legislation. So what's going on in London, Ontario, will actually be carried on in Saskatoon. That's what should happen. Vic

Justice committee  I disagree with it interfering with the crown's work. I think this is going to be really positive for the crown because, as I say, it's going to streamline the work. I didn't read it, as Mr. Krongold did, as adding procedures as a result of the increased participation of victims.

Justice committee  We can't narrow it down to one problem, because every woman who comes in to our office, in the same way as every man coming in to your office or your organization, would identify a multitude of problems. There is tremendous fear of their partner, should they have to testify again