FEWO Committee Report

LIBERAL PARTY OF CANADA DISSENTING REPORT: PROMISING PRACTICES TO PREVENT VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

Kirsty Duncan, Member of Parliament for Etobicoke North

INTRODUCTION

This dissenting report first thanks all the witnesses who appeared before the Committee.  The committee heard moving testimony of the struggles women face leaving violence but also inspiring stories of women’s courage and strength. I thank these witnesses for telling their story. I also thank those on the front lines helping women escape violent situations including shelter workers, transition homes, social housing and family law practices and civil society organizations for the tremendous work they do to end violence against women. Unfortunately, two key recommendations the committee heard repeatedly are sadly missing from the report: namely, (1) the need for a national action plan to end violence against women and girls; and (2) a national public inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

While witnesses’ testimony is largely untouched throughout the report, any testimony regarding the two issues has virtually been scrubbed from the report.  This report might best be labelled a “construct, construe, and ignore report”.

Construct

When I first joined the Status of Women committee, I brought forth a motion to end violence against women and girls, but no study followed.

A Conservative motion came from the House of Commons to study promising practices to prevent violence against women in Canada. That is, a motion was “constructed” by the Government to highlight its actions and investments in ending violence. Questioning from government members during hearings reinforced both areas.

Unfortunately, the facts do not support this conclusion.  Rates of violence against women have changed little over the past decade.  The current response to violence against women and girls has failed to significantly lower the levels of violence they experience. But Canadian women and girls fleeing violence, and those working in health and social services serving them deserve better than a report recognizing the Government’s initiatives. Rather, they deserve real action to end the violence.

The committee’s study was therefore fatally flawed from the beginning, as it aimed to recognize and protect the status quo, rather than to recommend new actions, such as a national action plan to end violence against women and girls, and a national public inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls--both of which are likely to lead to a reduction in the violence.

Construe

The committee then construed “promising practices” to mean only practices currently implemented in Canada, rather than promising practices internationally—although no such parameters were in the motion.

The promising practice internationally is a national action plan. The United Nations has called on all countries to have a National Action Plan by 2015.

In 2010, both the United Kingdom and Australia developed such a national action plan. In the case of the United Kingdom, the action plan was updated in 2012 and 2013 in consultation with key stakeholders. Australia is in the midst of implementing a 12-year plan. Currently, Canada has no comprehensive national plan or strategy to deal with violence against women. Initiatives at the federal level lack coordination, rely too heavily on the criminal justice system, and fail to acknowledge the gendered dimension and root causes of violence against women.

This results in insufficient and underfunded services that do not reflect women’s lived realities, or effectively prevent violence and reduce its impact. National Action Plans provide a framework for strengthening the systems that respond to violence against women. They establish national standards and call for collaboration between all levels of government, civil society, survivors, and service responders, and they put women’s needs, experiences, and knowledge at the centre.

Ignore

As previously mentioned, key testimony or evidence by witnesses was ignored. Testimony related to the need for a national action plan and the need for a national public inquiry does not appear in the report.

Instead of honouring witness testimony, the report reflects the government’s position, and stubbornly refuses to endorse a national public inquiry.

This is in stark contrast to the overwhelming consensus that an inquiry is needed. Grieving families, Indigenous leaders, victims’ advocates, civil society, the international community, and every provincial and territorial premier have urged the government to call a national inquiry.

Only a national, public inquiry would have the credibility, scope and resources to address the systemic problems underlying the violence, provide the accountability to ensure implementation of its recommendations, and bring justice and reconciliation for the victims and their families.

Liberals have long-joined Aboriginal communities and Canadian society in calling for a national public inquiry on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendations 1-4 reinforce the status quo : namely, that the Government should ensure ending violence against women and girls is a priority; that the Government should work with organizations (we would all hope so); that the Government should act on the policies and programs in place (again protecting the status quo); and the Government should continue to fund projects.  No ambitious goals or objectives to be found.

Recommendation 5 represents a missed opportunity. Instead of recommending putting sexual violence and assault in post-secondary institutions on the next Status of Women federal/provincial/territorial meeting agenda, the report recommends that the Minister “work to putting” the issue on the agenda. 

The Minister for the Status of Women has a powerful tool to convene meetings with her provincial and territorial counterparts in order to work toward mutually agreed upon objectives.  Putting this issue on the agenda would send a strong message that the government will not stand for such conduct on Canadian campuses.

According to a 2013 Statistics Canada of police-reported data, women aged 15 to 24 experience the highest rates of sexual violence in the country. As a result, I have written to the Minister of Status of Women Canada to ask that she  put the issue of sexual assault at Canadian post-secondary institutions on her next federal/provincial/territorial meeting agenda, as an estimated, nearly one in five women are likely to be sexually assaulted as students.

Recommendation 6 says little, except that the Government should “support efforts to engage men and boys”. What are the current efforts, how should the Government support efforts, and what strategies should be used to engage boys and men?

Recommendation 7 focuses on maternal, newborn, and child health, an important initiative internationally.

It is more than ironic, however, that while the Government focuses on protecting the health and safety of children internationally, it refuses to create a federal, independent advocate for Canadian children, as the UN recommends, and for which my Liberal colleague MP Marc Garneau advocated.

This refusal is particularly concerning, as in 2012 the United Nations reviewed Canada’s performance with respect to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and expressed concern that “vulnerable Canadian children may be falling through the cracks of a fractious federal system that lacks accountability and a clear strategy”. “The UN’s committee on the Rights of the Child said that Canada needs to raise the bar in how it protects the rights of children, especially when it comes to aboriginal, disabled and immigrant children.”

Recommendation 8 calls for continuing the practice of calls for proposals on preventing violence against women and girls with a focus on Aboriginal Women. How much money is available for these calls from Status of Women, and is it even a fraction of what is needed?

Recommendation 9 is particularly offensive, as it calls on the Government to support its own Action Plan to address violence against Aboriginal women and girls.

Unfortunately, the action plan does nothing new to stop violence against Indigenous women and girls.  Instead it is a laundry list of existing federal government initiatives, many not even specific to Indigenous women and girls. 

Moreover, the $25 million highlighted in the fall 2014 announcement is not “new money.” It is simply a re-announcement of funding from Budget 2014, which is an extension of temporary funding of $25 million over five years, first announced back in 2010. 

Recommendation 10 also protects the status quo, as it suggests that the Government should help newcomer women through its existing pamphlets, and again, protecting the status quo.  How might a newcomer come to know about these pamphlets, particularly when settlement services have been so drastically cut?

WHAT IS MISSING

While poverty and a lack of affordable housing, shelters, and transition homes prevent women and children from leaving their abusers, there is absolutely no recommendation that addresses these fundamental issues.

The lack of any such recommendation is in sharp contrast to the needs and the testimony heard throughout the study. In our country, on any given night, 4,600 women and their 3,600 children are forced to sleep in emergency shelters as a result of violence. And on a single day 379 women and 215 children were turned away from shelters in Canada, usually because they were full. 

CONCLUSION

Violence against women and girls is abhorrent, it is a human rights violation, with devastating and serious impacts that may last generations.

The time has come that we no longer talk about reducing violence against women, but actually end emotional, financial, physical, psychological, and sexual violence.

To do this, there needs to be a concerted and sustained effort to develop a National Action Plan to end violence against women and girls, with real consultation with those women who are fleeing violence, with shelters and support services, with the provinces and territories, etc., and we need a national public inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls immediately.

It is time for all of us to stand up and say that violence against women is not okay, and that the time for action is now so that no woman will ever again face violence at the hands of a man.

This report could have sent a bold message and recommend a re-thinking of Canada’s approach to violence. Instead, it is a fierce affirmation of the status quo.