Gender-based violence report urges mandatory training for judges, RCMP
Status of Women committee report looks at sex assault and harassment - and how the justice system responds
By Joanna Smith, The Canadian Press
Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu chairs the House of Commons committee on the status of women, which has released a report on addressing violence against women and girls. (Justin Tang/Canadian Press)
All judges and RCMP officers should have to go through mandatory training on gender-based violence and sexual assault, says a new report from the House of Commons committee on the status of women.
"Acts of gender-based violence can prevent young women and girls from leading fulfilling lives as equal members of Canadian society," the committee said in a statement accompanying the release of the report on Monday.
"Young women and girls who are victimized experience both immediate and long-term physical and mental-health problems, reduced economic and social prosperity and lasting pain and suffering," the statement said.
Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu, who chairs the committee that heard from 99 witnesses over the last year on what the federal government can do to reduce violence against women and girls, said the report's recommendations focused on campus sexual assault, harassment in public, such as when women are subject to cat-calling on the streets, and cyberviolence.
Are you serious? 'Cat-calling on the streets'? This is what you spent a year looking into when aboriginal children are committing suicide - which, if you are willing to look, you will find is directly associated with child sex abuse. Did you look into how many children are being abused in institutions in Canada other than Universities? Did you look into the effect of the easy availability of pornography and the effect of semi-pornographic electronic games on adolescents? That is the source of the 'culture of rape' in schools and universities. Did you look at the issue of child brides in Canada, or Female Genital Mutilation? Do you know how many children are sexually abused in Canada? Do you have any idea of the ratio?
Let me tell you that the ratio of girls who are sexually abused in Canada is about one in five, for boys about one in ten. Do you have any idea how many children that works out to? There are approximately 11 million children in Canada meaning 5.5 million of each sex, so one in five girls means 1.1 million girls are being, have been or will be abused in this century by the end of this year. It also means that 550,000 boys have, are, or will suffer a similar fate.
That's a total of 1.65 million children, but lest you be horrified by that number consider this, most of those children are being repeatedly abused. Statistically, 75-80% of abused children are repeatedly abused. God only knows how many times these children are abused, some, certainly only a few times, but there are many who are abused dozens of times and many hundreds of times and even a lot of trafficked women and children who are abused thousands of times. One Mexican trafficking victim claimed she was raped more than 43,000 times in about 10 years.
And you are worried about cat-calling? OMG! Get over it and get serious!
Other recommendations include working with the provinces and territories to figure out how to require all colleges and universities to set up sexual assault centres and exploring whether the Criminal Code needs to explicitly include cyberviolence and online harassment, so long as it would not violate charter-protected freedom of speech.
Gladu said the report also referred to what she calls "rape culture," that can get in the way of helping survivors of sexual assault, including in the justice system.
The recommendation on the judiciary is similar to a private member's bill tabled by interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose that would require mandatory training for would-be judges on issues surrounding sexual assault.
Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef is expected to unveil a federal gender-based violence strategy in the coming weeks, which she has said will look at ways to prevent violence and support its survivors, but also how to improve the criminal justice system.
4 years later and: Today, Aug 6, 2021, the Honourable Maryam Monsef, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development announced agreements that will see almost $200 million over two years flow to shelters, sexual assault centres and organizations supporting women and children experiencing violence.
New Democrat MP Sheila Malcolmson said her party is issuing a supplementary report calling for the government to go a step further by developing a national action plan on gender-based violence that involves the provinces and territories.
"We heard one witness after the next say we need the provinces to work together and provide equivalent level of service and we need everybody pulling in the same direction and this patchwork makes women more vulnerable," she said in an interview last week.
'Violence a daily fact of life:' Monsef
At an event during a trip to New York last week to attend the UN commission on the status of women, Monsef spoke about how violence still affects the lives of women and girls around the world.
Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef is expected to table a federal gender-based violence strategy in the coming weeks. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
"Over these past four years, we have . . . seen a resurgence of feminism and the growth of a global, grassroots women's movement," Monsef said at a side event on how the health sector can respond to gender-based violence, according to a copy of her speaking notes provided by her office.
"But there has been no change in the numbers of women and girls for whom violence is a daily fact of life. Yes, it's 2017! And every day, countless women and girls still suffer at the hands of men," she said.
"The roots of gender-based violence are entwined in outdated, patriarchal values and they are tenacious," she said. "But so are we! As a movement and as allies, we have never been stronger, more connected and better prepared to take on this daunting adversity," she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment