Question Period Note: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent And Address Gender-Based Violence

How is the Government of Canada working to prevent and address GBV through a comprehensive and inclusive approach?

• Canada is committed to preventing and addressing gender-based violence against women, girls, LGBTQ and two-spirit people.

• It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence, launched in 2017, has received over $200M in new investments and over $40M per year ongoing to advance efforts in three areas: preventing gender-based violence; supporting survivors and their families; and promoting responsive legal and justice systems.

• In 2017, Canada launched the first ever GBV Strategy. Since then we have implemented a number of actions, including:
-funding projects to prevent teen/youth dating violence; launching the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline; and, strengthening the sexual assault provisions in the Criminal Code.

• Building on this, we are moving forward to develop a National Action Plan on Gender-Based Violence with a focus on ensuring that anyone facing gender-based violence has reliable and timely access to services.

Many Canadians face violence every day because of their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or perceived gender. Gender-based violence (GBV) is a significant barrier to achieving gender equality.

It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence (the Strategy), was launched in June 2017, and has received over $200M in new investments and over $40M per year ongoing. Led by WAGE, the Strategy brings together the GBV-related efforts of all federal departments and agencies. The GBV Knowledge Centre (WAGE), is the focal point of the Strategy and is responsible for governance and coordination, reporting and evaluation, data and research, and knowledge mobilization. As a whole-of-government approach, the Strategy includes federal GBV initiatives, regardless of their source of funding; however, six departments currently receive funding for specific initiatives under the Strategy. Some early results include:

Pillar 1: Preventing GBV
• Funding to 22 projects re: preventing teen/ youth dating violence (PHAC)
• Amending the Canada Labour Code to strengthen existing frameworks for the prevention of harassment and sexual violence in the workplace (Justice Canada)
• Development of Framework to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence at Post-Secondary Institutions (WAGE)

Pillar 2: Supporting Survivors of GBV and their Families
• Launching the GBV Program which provides funding to organizations working in the GBV sector to implement innovative interventions (WAGE)
• Launching the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline (PS)
• Funding 26 Military Family Resource Centres to improve responses to GBV (DND)

Pillar 3: Promoting Responsive Legal and Justice Systems to GBV
• Raising awareness of survivor’s rights and sexual assault myths, and improving capacity to respond in culturally-safe manner (RCMP)
• Strengthening sexual assault provisions in the Criminal Code (Justice Canada)
• Creating the Sexual Assault Review Team, which has completed a review of over 30,000 “unfounded” sexual assault case files (RCMP)

GBV Knowledge Centre
• The KC’s online platform launched in December 2018 (WAGE)
• Three new national surveys were developed to establish baselines on the prevalence of different forms of GBV (WAGE and StatsCan)

Research shows that women are more likely than men to experience GBV and that some people are at an even higher risk of experiencing GBV, including: Indigenous women and girls, women with a disability, young women, women living in Northern, rural, or remote communities, and lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

The Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces (SSPPS), funded through the GBV Strategy, released provincial findings on December 5, 2019. Results show that women were nearly four times more likely to have experienced unwanted sexual behaviour in public than men in the 12 months preceding the survey, and that young women, students, bisexual and lesbian women and women with a disability were at an increased risk of having experienced unwanted sexual behaviour in public spaces. Results for the provinces also show that:

• 30% of women were sexually assaulted at least once since the age of 15;
• 29% of women experienced inappropriate sexual behaviour in the workplace in the 12 months preceding the survey; and,
• 33% of women ages 15-24 experienced online harassment in the 12 months preceding the survey.

Future releases will include data for the territories (March 2020), LGBTQ2 people’s experiences of GBV (May 2020), and experiences of intimate-partner violence (late 2020).

The Minister has also been mandated to build on the foundation laid by It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence and move forward to develop a National Action Plan on Gender-Based Violence, with a focus on ensuring that anyone facing gender-based violence has reliable and timely access to protection and services, with the support of the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

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