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Results: 1 - 15 of 143
Sean Cantelon
View Sean Cantelon Profile
Sean Cantelon
2019-05-28 9:55
Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee.
The Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services works on behalf of the chief of the defence staff and under the authority of the Minister of National Defence. We provide morale and wellness programs and services that support the physical, mental and social well-being, and the financial well-being of the Canadian Armed Forces members, veterans and their families.
As chief executive officer of the Canadian Forces welfare and morale services, my job is to ensure that our services and programs promote the operational readiness and effectiveness of the Canadian Armed Forces and contribute to the resiliency and self-sufficiency of Canadian Forces members and their families. We do this in a way that combines public and non-public funds in a social enterprise model.
Our activities cover a wide range of services, including retail sales, financial and insurance services, fitness and sports, recreation and family support. We also manage the Canadian Armed Forces' official charity, Support Our Troops.
The Canadian Forces morale and welfare services support prevention and response to gender-based violence in the Canadian Forces community in several ways.
First, as a funded partner of the federal strategy to address and prevent gender-based violence, military family services is implementing teams, at bases and wings across Canada, to provide education and to support those affected by violence. These teams are made up of both military and civilian specialists to provide a wide range of support services and programs, in a multidisciplined, holistic and collaborative way. This includes violence prevention, education and awareness tools, as well as survivor and perpetrator support services.
These teams include staff from the local military family resource centres, such as social workers, family liaison officers; Canadian Armed Forces health services staff, such as social workers, mental health nurses; the Military Police, which may include victim services; chaplains; and personnel support program health promotions. The teams also collaborate with professional health and social service workers from the civilian community to share expertise and increase awareness of community programs and services.
Sean Cantelon
View Sean Cantelon Profile
Sean Cantelon
2019-05-28 9:57
The importance of this initiative is also highlighted as initiative 22 in Canada's defence policy, “Strong Secure Engaged”. As part of this initiative, military family services has administered training on a broad range of gender-based violence topics to social workers who work directly with families and members. In fiscal year 2018-19, military family services provided $380,000 to local Canadian Armed Forces communities to implement activities, workshops and training targeting gender-based violence. Military family services operates a 24-7 family information line, with trained bilingual counsellors, to help support members and families who have been affected by violence. It offers the option of virtual short-term counselling sessions.
Under our personnel support division of the Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services, our health promotions team delivers the Respect in the CAF program. This is delivered directly to bases and wings across Canada. The aim of this program is to promote respect through awareness and understanding, empower CAF members to take a stand against sexual misconduct and educate CAF members on victim support. This program is executed in partnership with the Canadian Armed Forces strategic response team on sexual misconduct.
Another support option we offer for members and their families is the support our troops fund, operated by our non-public funds. This can offer financial assistance, in the form of emergency grants. Individuals who have been affected by violence can access funding for such things as emergency housing, transportation and essentials, such as food and gas.
The Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services will continue to work with all defence and community stakeholders to ensure that CAF members and their families affected by violence are supported. Our organization will continue to focus on education and prevention, while ensuring a variety of intervention services exists, so that those affected can determine how and where they will access support.
That concludes my comments.
View Maryam Monsef Profile
Lib. (ON)
Good morning, and thank you, Madam Chair.
Boozhoo. Aaniin.
As-salaam alaikum. Ramadan kareem to my Muslim colleagues in this space and beyond.
We are on traditional territory that the Algonquin peoples have called home for generations upon generations.
This is my first time meeting with you in this room. I'm thankful to be here to speak with you about the main estimates and how they're going to allow Women and Gender Equality to better implement the mandate that it has been given.
As you know, the focus of our government on advancing gender equality is based on two premises. One, it's the right thing to do. It's the fair thing to do. Two, it's also the smart thing to do. It's the economically advantageous thing to do. When women succeed, everyone benefits.
That pillar, our gender equality pillar, has been a big driver for economic growth for us since we formed government. This plan that we've put together is working: one million jobs, the lowest poverty rate on record and the lowest unemployment rate we've had in over four decades. We have lifted out of poverty 300,000 children who are not going to bed hungry anymore. Also, we've been able to sign three trade agreements. This is all a sign that our plan is working.
I want to thank the members of this committee for your important work. When you collaborated and you worked together, you had tremendous results. As the minister responsible for this file, I tell the stories, especially around gender-based violence, of how you came together and how you made a world of difference for a lot of people. You've eased a lot of suffering, for example, with the conversations you had with Facebook around revenge porn.
When women have choices, when they have a voice, opportunity and the right skills, when they have safety, and when they have role models and social safety nets, they move mountains. Every single one of us knows women in our lives—and those women are around this table as well—who are able to do big things because of those choices, opportunities and means.
Our government has worked to apply an intersectional gendered lens throughout everything we do and every decision in cabinet. Now it's the law to apply that lens to budgets. More and more, we're seeing committees do a really good job of that. There are still some inconsistencies around the application of GBA+, but we intend to make sure that we get better.
I do want to thank my parliamentary secretary, Terry Duguid, who has been working very hard with other parliamentary secretaries to make sure that the GBA+ is something that committees apply as well.
The Canada child benefit is giving more money to single moms and helping them make ends meet. The lower taxes for the middle class and the raised taxes for the 1%, along with lower taxes for small businesses, mean that Canadians have more money in their pockets. For seniors, especially for women—I know you've done a study on this—the guaranteed income supplement and the fact that we brought the eligibility age back to 65 is lifting tens of thousands of seniors out of poverty, many of whom are women.
There's the national housing strategy, with over $50 billion now over 10 years to stabilize the housing market in communities across the country. In Peterborough, my own community, the rental vacancy rate is 1.1%. We know that women are the first to lose housing and the last to get housing.
We know that housing is a social determinant of health, but it's also a determinant of gender-based violence. To have a carveout in the gender-based violence strategy—about a third—designed specifically for women-led families is a solution that's going to make a world of difference. There are 7,000 shelter units either being renovated or built anew. That's going to mean that she has a place to turn to when she works up the courage to leave an awful situation.
If we're applying an intersectional gendered lens, talking about feminist governments and working to ensure that we bring others along with us, it's because there has been a women's movement, an equality-seeking movement, that existed long before any of us got here. It will be here long after we're gone. The sustainability of that movement is my number one priority; we know, and results show, that the most effective way to advance gender equality is by investing in them.
For the first time ever, they've received funding over five years, capacity-building funding, with over $50 million as part of the gender-based violence strategy. The point here is that they don't always have to look inward, applying for grants one year at a time. They can have some predictability and stability with five-year grants that go beyond an election cycle.
We also know there are barriers for those women who choose to enter STEM fields, or trades. We're working to remove them. We know that only 16% of Canadian entrepreneurs' businesses are majority-owned by women—16%. Surely we can do better than that in Canada. We have a strategy to double that number by 2025.
We know that care work is most often a big responsibility for women. What if that responsibility and privilege were shared with the second parent, often the father? We have new shared parental leave that allows for just that. Child care is very much in line with that. Our investment in child care means there will be at least 40,000 new child care spaces. Importantly, there are spaces, through a distinctions-based approach, for indigenous children. We have a new child care framework for indigenous kids—Métis, Inuit and first nations. That's been a smart collaboration between our governments in a nation-to-nation way.
Over half the boil water advisories have been lifted, and we know there's a direct link between women and water. We know that in indigenous cultures and in many others women are the keepers of the water. Water is sacred; water is life. To have lifted half the advisories and be on track to lift the rest of them by 2021—in the next two years—is a big step forward. What that means for those communities, too, is that they suddenly become open for economic development. It's hard to invest if there's no clean drinking water in a community, but we're changing that.
Evidence matters. Data matters, so bringing back the census, and the ability of scientists to do what they need to do.... For example, the shelter survey results from a couple of weeks ago indicated where the gaps and opportunities are. Also, the fact that Stats Canada has a centre for diversity and inclusion statistics, a one-stop shop for all the data we're working on, to create better intersectional, gendered lenses, is really important. That's something that stays long after we're gone. Data and evidence anchor the progress we have made.
The billions we are providing to support education, infrastructure, skills, housing and leadership in indigenous communities mean that we are in this era of reconciliation and that we will not be turning back. Communities have more opportunities to self-determine the paths they want to take.
These accomplishments are significant, and many of them have been happening ahead of schedule—for example, the indexation of the Canada child benefit, not once, but twice, and the lifting of people out of poverty. We are ahead of schedule, with one million jobs. Who would have thought, when we formed a government in a recession, that we'd be talking about a million jobs and three trade agreements three years later? This is happening because our government isn't alone, but is working with our partners to do this.
We know that for all the progress that's been made, more work remains, and we're committed to that work. There are some institutional challenges that we're working to address. The fact that GBA+ is now in law for gender budgeting is an important way that we're addressing some systemic barriers.
Indeed, we are taking that diversity lens to the appointments that the federal government makes, and we have instituted a new appointment process. Thousands have been appointed to really important roles in federally regulated jurisdictions. Now, 47% of those who sit around those important tables, and who make decisions, whether it's port authorities, VIA rail or other important agencies and bodies, are women. The Senate of Canada is also at parity right now, at a time when on corporate boards in Canada, only one in five seats is filled by a woman. Again, surely we can do better in Canada.
We have a gender results framework that provinces and territories have agreed to use with us—a common set of indicators to measure our progress. We have proactive pay equity legislation, Bill C-65 and Bill C-51.
Of course, come June 3, the inquiry on missing and murdered indigenous women wraps up its work.
I wanted to give you an overview. Thank you again for all the ways you've been a part of this work.
Madam Chair, I'm happy to take any questions colleagues may have.
View Bob Bratina Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Minister. It's great to have you here.
To be specific because our time is limited, the government launched the independent National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in 2016. I thought at the time that this took a great deal of courage because we knew it would be a difficult file. It's not just collecting some data and releasing a report, but it's far deeper than that.
The commissioners have been examining the systemic causes behind the violence, the greater vulnerability to violence and why these higher levels occur. The report will be presented on June 3. In advance of the release of the report, what steps has the government been taking or will it take to combat gender-based violence, specifically against indigenous women?
View Maryam Monsef Profile
Lib. (ON)
There have been hundreds of inquiries before. This one was a national one. It meant that provinces and territories had to be a part of it. As you said, it was always going to be difficult. What we promised when we started the inquiry was that we wouldn't wait until we received the report to take action.
The gender-based violence strategy that this committee helped develop was an important step. It is the first time that there has been a federal strategy to prevent gender-based violence, to support survivors, and to ensure that we have a legal and justice system in place that is responsive to the needs of survivors. You helped do that.
Over $200 million has been set aside for it. Part of the funding that's been set aside is to focus specifically on those groups that disproportionately experience gender-based violence in communities across the country. Those include indigenous women and girls, as well as two-spirit and LGBT individuals.
We have also started, based on the results of the interim report, a commemoration fund to honour our stolen sisters, to make sure families are a part of it.
I will say that with regard to those job numbers that I shared—one million Canadians are working today—these are jobs that didn't exist three and a half years ago. There are more indigenous people working now than ever before. There are more young people working now than ever before. We know that economic insecurity is a predeterminant of violence in some cases. It's not always the case because people who are of good economic means also experience and perpetrate gender-based violence, but it's one risk that we can avoid.
We know that, with regard to the boil water advisories and the respect and the honour that need to be in place, we're getting there. However, we have a lot more work to do. This problem was created over one hundred years of colonization, oppression, racism and sexism. Together, we are on that path. The path is long and is not always easy, but we're together. We're committed to doing it.
View K. Kellie Leitch Profile
CPC (ON)
Okay. Thank you very much.
One of the Status of Women mandates of focus has been dealing with gender-based violence on campus. It was a substantive issue when I was a minister—
View Karen Vecchio Profile
CPC (ON)
In the last five minutes, we have had to stop multiple times. Any time there's a motion, or anything like that, I've asked the clock to stop. That has been granted to both sides. Thank you. I'm perfectly aware of the time, as I have stopped it during those times. Thank you.
Go ahead, Kellie.
View K. Kellie Leitch Profile
CPC (ON)
I'll be very quick.
I know that Stats Canada is doing a series of surveys with regard to public spaces and how safe they are. Could you provide to the committee the specific questions that Status of Women Canada will be asking, on behalf of young women on campus, and how those questions will facilitate their being protected? I recognize that you won't have time to answer that question, based on my time, but it would be helpful to this committee if those specific questions from Statistics Canada could be provided to us in writing, so that we can evaluate them as well. I think it's an important issue.
View Karen Vecchio Profile
CPC (ON)
Okay. Thank you very much.
You're just asking for something in writing coming from the minister, showing that information.
View Maryam Monsef Profile
Lib. (ON)
We've worked with an advisory council to help develop a framework to address and prevent gender-based violence on campuses across the country. They've been doing that work diligently and will be providing us with the report. As you mentioned, there's going to be a survey of post-secondary students, because we know that 41% of sexual assaults on campus were reported by students. Parents care about it. We care about it. There'll be more to come, shortly.
View Emmanuella Lambropoulos Profile
Lib. (QC)
I'll be splitting my time with my colleague, Eva Nassif.
Minister, it's always a pleasure to have you at our committee to answer our questions, and we appreciate that you're here today.
Obviously, we know that gender-based violence is still a huge problem across the country, not just with indigenous communities—although there is a higher percentage there—but within all communities across Canada. We know that as much as our government's been taking that lead and fighting it as much as possible, it's still an issue. Part of the reason is that a culture doesn't just go away within a couple years. These things are taught from a very young age. Toxic masculinity plays a huge role in this.
I was wondering what our government is doing to get men and boys involved in the solution to eventually—and we hope, completely—get rid of gender-based violence.
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