Status of Women committee  Just to clarify, if we're talking about custody and access cases between parents if there's a breakdown in the family, there's different evidence that a court might consider. They consider the evidence given in testimony by the parents. The court could consider the child's views

Status of Women committee  Thank you for your question. Unfortunately, we're not really able to offer our own personal opinions about the advisability of the measures. We are here to provide legal information about their meaning and effect.

Status of Women committee  Based on my knowledge of what's in the bill, it could have the effect of increasing the knowledge of judges' provisions. It could remind judges of certain considerations that they should take in considering safety factors when there are offences against intimate partners.

Status of Women committee  Thank you. I hope I understood the question correctly. Yes, we follow what is done in Quebec. Just to increase the accuracy of my answer, I'm going to switch to English. We have been following the measures that are occurring in different jurisdictions, including Quebec, partic

Status of Women committee  Thank you. As departmental officials, we're not really in a position to offer amendments. We're able to speak technically to what the bill does and what the effects of those things would be. If there were amendments that members of the committee wanted to ask us about, similar

Status of Women committee  Yes. I'm sorry about that. I'm having some unstable Internet issues today. We're not able to offer opinions in terms of what types of amendments we think the government should make, but we are able to speak to the technical effects of the bill, as well as any technical effects t

Status of Women committee  Thank you. Just to be sure that I understand your question, are you wondering about how, in custody cases, the decisions are made about children and the protections that exist for children?

Status of Women committee  Okay. When there is violence with a family member, there are different ways that children can be protected by the justice system. There are different areas of law that have different provisions that could be provided to protect children. For example, there's the child protecti

Status of Women committee  Thank you for your question. Melissa is from our judicial affairs group. I'm not sure if she would be able to speak to the issue of judicial education on this point.

Status of Women committee  I might be able to say, though, that based on the content of the bill itself and the way it's worded in what it covers, in any benefits that the bill provides in protecting victims, it doesn't specify the gender of the victim [Technical difficulty—Editor] I think regardless of an

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak today to the reforms proposed by Bill C-233, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Judges Act (violence against an intimate partner). I would like to begin by acknowledging that I am joining you from my home and place of work