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Results: 91 - 105 of 139
Nancy Gardiner
View Nancy Gardiner Profile
Nancy Gardiner
2020-11-24 12:45
In terms of the federal strategy on gender-based violence that we have under way right now, we are funding about 60 projects in the department for just over $50 million. These projects are actually working towards providing the supports and pieces that need to be in place to end gender-based violence in Canada and to support individuals. I have a number of projects at my fingertips, but I will name just a couple.
The project at the YWCA in Montreal is one example. It involves looking at some of the models available to support individuals coming into Canada and the services available to newly arrived immigrants who are survivors of gender-based violence. There are a couple of other examples. In Ontario, the Family Transition Place in Orangeville provides support for rural responses, promising practices to support survivors and their families. Another project I would highlight is one through the DisAbled Women's Network Canada. It looks at evaluating peer support of promising practices for women with disabilities who have experienced violence.
As I said, a number of these projects that are under way look at approaches that can be piloted and what we can learn from those projects so we can implement programming across the country.
We're in the very initial stages of this initiative, the wage portion of the federal strategy on gender-based violence. A lot of these projects have just started within the last year and they're multi-year projects. There are three or four projects really looking at a longer-term analysis, the results of which could inform our future programming
View Andréanne Larouche Profile
BQ (QC)
All right.
How will the department allocate and distribute resources from the gender-based violence program?
What commitments can the department make to evaluating projects and programs included in the program?
Nancy Gardiner
View Nancy Gardiner Profile
Nancy Gardiner
2020-11-24 12:47
That's an excellent question. We have programming, as you know. We have the gender-based violence program. We have the women's program capacity-building fund. Through a number of other programs, we're supporting about 650 projects across Canada, distributed across the country, depending on which organizations apply and depending on the needs in certain parts of Canada.
Often when we have a call-for-proposals process, we look at what applications are coming in and we determine whether there are gaps. In some cases if we didn't see projects in Atlantic Canada or in our territories, we would work with stakeholders on the ground to determine whether there were initiatives that they felt needed to be supported and see how we could actually help them ensure that some of these projects were submitted for application and review. We just want to make sure there is no part of the country that does not have the support and programming required, which is why we pay particular attention to that type of distribution.
Earlier, with regard to the national action plan on gender-based violence, the minister mentioned working very closely with the provinces and territories. That has been very key for us. We have excellent working relationships with our provincial and territorial colleagues across the country on not only gender-based violence programming but all programming that supports women. We're often in close contact with them when we have a call-for-proposals process to ensure that proposals coming in are in line with some of the projects they've seen or with the needs they've seen in their province or territory.
View Andréanne Larouche Profile
BQ (QC)
Those folks are better versed in what is happening on their turf. For example, Quebec's needs are not the same as British Columbia's. Regional differences became apparent during the crisis.
If I understand correctly, the department intends to take into account these partnerships with Quebec and the provinces and be more attentive to what is happening on the ground for the future and for this action plan.
Nancy Gardiner
View Nancy Gardiner Profile
Nancy Gardiner
2020-11-24 12:50
Absolutely. For the COVID response, with the original amount that I talked about for shelters and sexual assault centres and other organizations assisting women fleeing violence, we worked in partnership with the Province of Quebec and provided support to the Province of Quebec for that government to provide support to the organizations on the ground. As you said, knowing exactly what was happening was really critical for us, and working with the province was great.
View Lindsay Mathyssen Profile
NDP (ON)
Thank you, Madam Chair.
We heard from the minister, with regard to the gender-based violence action plan, that there are many consultations still taking place and that she will be coming up with a plan. There weren't any concrete dates, and I think many of the questions were actually about specific deadlines.
Have you been given any expectations from the minister about those specific delivery dates or deadlines?
Nancy Gardiner
View Nancy Gardiner Profile
Nancy Gardiner
2020-11-24 12:51
As the minister pointed out and Danielle referenced earlier, we are in the process right now of looking at, working on and participating in a number of engagements across the country. The Speech from the Throne reiterated the need to have a national action plan for gender-based violence. We are continuing that work, and that work will inform us as to the pieces that absolutely must be included in a national action plan.
View Lindsay Mathyssen Profile
NDP (ON)
This has been going on for a number of years now. Do you have any sense of a potential closing date by which we could actually expect an action plan to be announced, a specific date?
Nancy Gardiner
View Nancy Gardiner Profile
Nancy Gardiner
2020-11-24 12:52
I don't have a specific date, but I can tell you that the national action plan is something that was reiterated in the Speech from the Throne.
We do have a federal gender-based violence strategy, and I'm going to turn to Danielle to highlight some pieces of that. We're building on the federal strategy, informing a national action plan and working with the provinces and territories—because that's a really key part of the national action plan—as well as with our indigenous partners.
Danielle.
Danielle Bélanger
View Danielle Bélanger Profile
Danielle Bélanger
2020-11-24 12:53
Thank you for that, Nancy.
The national action plan was reiterated recently, but on the federal strategy we have been working for a few years now. In 2017-18, there was an investment and a commitment of $200 million over five years and $40 million ongoing. We're working with key departments, federal departments, including the Public Health Agency, Public Safety, Immigration and Refugees Canada and the RCMP, and we're starting to see some early results.
We do have a GBV federal strategy annual report. We have already released two annual reports and we have a third coming up that will demonstrate some of those accomplishments to date.
As we mentioned earlier, engagements are happening across the country because we know there are many recommendations for an integrated national action plan with our provinces and territories. That is something we're working on in parallel with the federal strategy. That is going to be happening over the course of the coming months.
Thanks.
Barbara Grantham
View Barbara Grantham Profile
Barbara Grantham
2020-11-19 15:36
Okay, thank you.
Thanks, everyone. I apologize for the technology glitches at the start.
Thank you for having us today.
COVID-19 outbreaks are devastating in every context at this time, but nowhere will they be more profound than for the two billion people who are living in fragile and conflict-affected settings around the world.
In the past, CARE has responded to public health emergencies caused by the Zika, Ebola and West Nile viruses. We have also carried out a rapid gender analysis on the impacts of COVID-19 in nearly 40 countries and regions since March.
These analyses bring three key messages into focus. First, COVID-19 outbreaks have aggravated existing vulnerabilities, particularly for women and girls. Second, the secondary impacts—economic and social—can be even more devastating than the pandemic itself. Third, the after-effects will reverberate for years to come.
I'd like to highlight three key areas in particular need of attention. The first is health care. As health care resources are channelled into COVID-19, other areas are being neglected. Access to sexual and reproductive health services, including clean and safe deliveries, contraceptives, and pre- and post-natal care are among the worst casualties. For example, 73% of women surveyed by CARE in Afghanistan say they now have no access to family planning.
The second is the gender-based violence “shadow pandemic”. Quarantine measures have trapped many women with their abusers. The UN estimates that for every three months that lockdown measures continue, an additional 15 million gender-based cases of violence could occur. An additional 13 million child marriages may take place. Fragile and conflict-affected states are experiencing the worst increases. Venezuela, for example, reported a 65% increase in femicides between April 2019 and April 2020. Zimbabwe's national gender-based violence hotline reported a 70% increase over their pre-lockdown trends. Sadly, Somalia has seen a rapid rise in female genital mutilation.
The third is the hunger pandemic. Hunger hot spots are seeing exponential rises in food crises. Today, four countries are bordering on famine: the DRC, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen. Because women and girls play a greater role in the production, procurement and preparation of food, but tend to eat last and least when food is scarce, they face a much greater risk of hunger and malnutrition.
View Kerry Diotte Profile
CPC (AB)
Thank you very much.
Thanks for all the good work you all do. It's absolutely vital, especially in the kind of times we're having right now.
On that note, I'm just wondering what particular countries are most in need of help from Canada due to COVID? Whoever wants to lead off with an observation on that is free to do so. I'm also wondering if you can give a concrete example of what kind of specific help they would need.
Who wants to go first?
Barbara Grantham
View Barbara Grantham Profile
Barbara Grantham
2020-11-19 16:21
I'll give you a concrete example. I was on the phone this morning, for a good chunk of time actually, with a woman named Ruth, who works for CARE in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. I asked Ruth what the impact of COVID has been in Cox's. She runs the gender-based violence and the gender emergencies programs for CARE in Cox's Bazar and oversees 152 staff.
Ruth talked of how they've had to decrease the staff in the camp by 50% so that they now work on a rotational basis. She talked about the horrific increase in cases of gender-based violence, particularly intimate partner violence, because of the restrictions on movement. She shared with me the increase in child marriages as a coping mechanism for families because of the loss of livelihood; they need the child marriage in order to meet a dowry requirement.
She is fearful, deeply fearful, as a younger woman, about the loss of the gains we have made in sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence over the last 15 to 20 years. We have to use this opportunity, with aid from countries like Canada, to reverse that trend line we are seeing, which has happened so quickly. We've worked so hard as a global community to make these gains over the last 15 years, and we are at risk of losing them in less than 12 months.
Then I asked her what gave her hope. She said that she wakes up every day knowing that she is making change, no matter how small it is, and that gives her the urge to continue on for a just and more equal world.
I'd like to think there's something Canada could do in a constituency like Cox's Bazar—and there are many Cox's Bazar equivalents around the world—where we could make a difference for the women and girls that Ruth and her team of 150 others are working with every day.
View Kerry Diotte Profile
CPC (AB)
That's excellent. While we have you here, my riding of Edmonton Griesbach has a really vibrant Somali Canadian community.
I believe, Ms. Grantham, you said that there has been a spike in female genital mutilation. Can you explain why that is? Why is that due to COVID? Is it because they're home more? What is happening there?
Maxime Michel
View Maxime Michel Profile
Maxime Michel
2020-11-19 16:24
Certainly there are some links with child marriage as well, which we've seen in other areas where school is closed and where families are having trouble making ends meet. FGM is sometimes a necessity to have a daughter be married off. There are a lot of different elements that factor into that, but those would be some that are affecting the families for sure.
Results: 91 - 105 of 139 | Page: 7 of 10

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