Justice committee  Sure. I think what it was related to was that I was building off situations of dual charging. Oftentimes, specifically dealing with racialized populations, the survivor might be seen as the abuser. In a situation of coercive control, where the behaviours are so subtle and really

Justice committee  I think that's from our written brief. I do agree with that in certain situations. I think that is one of the benefits that is being put out as a reason for criminalization. However, in our brief, as we say, we do not think these benefits outweigh the many risks that are posed by

Justice committee  Yes, I agree with everything that Ms. Mattoo just said. I just want to point out that the conviction rates that come out of these cases are very low. There's a study in England and Wales that showed that of the 7,000 arrests that occurred during the time span of the study, only

Justice committee  That's a difficult question. I certainly understand groups who are advocating in support of this. I think our experience is based on research and a wider lens in terms of how these laws have been used to—

Justice committee  Of course. I think our main point, when speaking about restorative justice, is really that we want the options. We think that survivors should have the option to pursue whatever form of justice they want and that the criminal justice system shouldn't be the only route forward.

Justice committee  Of course. There has to be consent on both sides to take part in these processes.

Justice committee  I certainly understand this desire to respond, especially when there's imminent harm or a situation of urgency and survivors feel like they need help quickly. I just go back to what my colleague, Ms. Mattoo, was saying, that the problem isn't that there aren't laws or there aren'

Justice committee  That's a big question, but that's something LEAF has been engaged in a lot of research on this past year. What we're talking about is restorative justice and transformative justice models. These can take a variety of different shapes, and they can exist within the legal system o

Justice committee  Good morning. My name is Roxana Parsa. I am a staff lawyer at the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, also known as LEAF. I am grateful to appear today from what is now known as Toronto, which is on the traditional lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Wendat, the An

Status of Women committee  We don't provide direct support at our organization. Something LEAF is very passionate about pursuing is looking at alternative avenues to justice outside the criminal legal system. We recently released a report on restorative and transformative models of justice and how surviv

Status of Women committee  I agree with everything that's been said and I would reiterate that we think it is really time to move our perspective beyond just focusing on the criminal legal system. Prevention work is what is crucial.

Status of Women committee  I would agree with everything that has been said. With respect to the deterrent effect, there is not much evidence showing that electronic monitoring has a deterrent effect. Harshness of penalties does not lead to deterrence, and I also think there are technological faults—

Status of Women committee  I was just going to say that many of the technological barriers that arise can also lead to failures in deterring, because they know it won't work, really.

Status of Women committee  I would agree with that and say that I think we are all here with the same goal, which is ending gender-based violence. Speaking from LEAF, our work is developed through research and consultation with a range of individuals, some of whom are survivors and some of whom are exper

Status of Women committee  I also have a nuanced answer to that.