This joint report is a brief summary of some of the major developments in federal policy and practice as they impact on immigrant and refugee women in Canada, covering the period 2006 - 2011. This report attempts to capture some of the major concerns regarding policy and practice developments, taking into account that the economic disadvantage of immigrant and refugee women, and particularly racialized women, can make them more vulnerable to unintended and negative impacts of legislation, policy and practice. Areas covered include: immigration, refugee protection, temporary migrant labour, citizenship and immigrant settlement, plus a separate section on trafficking of women.
Report by: Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR), Ontario Coundil of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI), Metro Toronto Chinese And Southeast Asian Legal Clinic (MTCSALC), and Colour of Poverty Campaign (COPC)
This community report is the first phase of a broader research study to explore women's experiences with criminal justice and other agencies that respond to intimate partner violence (IPV, also referred to as Domestic Violence). The analysis takes the perspective that an "effective" criminal justice system has the primary goal of making victims safer. The report summarizes focus groups with a range of constitutents, focusing on experiences with the criminal justice system, conceptualizations of safety, and women's experiences. Areas of the criminal justice system explored include:
- police arrest and charging practices
- prosecution policies
- protection orders
- partner assault response (PAR) programs
- victim support services
- community agency services
By Holly Johnson and Jennifer Fraser, Department of Criminology, University of Ottawa
This report focuses on the health of the province's poorest residents. Analysis of Statistic Canada's 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey revealed that social assistance recipients have higher rates of poor health and chronic conditions than non-poor counterparts, as well as higher suicidality rates. The working poor had higher rates of some chronic conditions and had worse self-reported health and mental health and suicidality than the non-poor group in the data. For a variety of reasons including low rates of health insurance coverage, the poor groups were less likely to access health services, including preventative care.
Produced by the Community Social Planning and Research Council of Toronto (CSPC-T), University of Toronto Social Assistance in the New Economy Project (SANE) and the Wellesley Institute.
This paper focuses on the impact of the corporatization of human services on the feminist anti-violence sector and the needs and issues to which it responds. Issues such as the blurring of public and private funding strategies, the conversion of social perception about the value of civil vs. corporate influence on governance, severe cuts to health and social programs, and restrictive interpretation of charitable activities are all part of the corporatization effect, and not only limit how feminist anti-violence workers can do their work in line with their principles and mandates, but also point to the shrinking space for anti-oppression activism and advocacy.
Paper presented at the 2005 Canadian Social Welfare Policy Conference Forging Social Futures, by Mandy Bonisteel and Linda Green.
A research paper that was commissioned by the Domestic Violence Advisory Council in 2007 to help fulfill the mandate of developing recommendations that could be achieved by making better use of existing resources and building on promising practices. The report examines how the trend toward gender-neutral language in talking about intimate partner violence results in misrepresenting the research on the nature of violence. Rather than being more inclusive, gender neutral - or bi-directional - language promotes understandings of woman abuse / domestic violence as mutual, reciprocal, or bi-directional. This is contrary to our understanding and research on context, injury, sexual assualt, and women's experiences of violence. The use of language has large implications for policy and research, and it is important that we understand how we use langague to ensure the needs and interests of women who experience violence are served.
This report was written by Walter S. DeKeseredy and Molly Dragiewicz for development of Transforming Our Communitites: Report from the Domestic Violence Advisory Council for he Minister Responsible for Women's Issues.
This Final Research Report on funding issues for on-reserve women's shelters in Canada was instigated by the concern that the rate of INAC (Indian and Northern Affairs Canada) funding would lead to the closure of some shelters permanently. The existing funding formula looked at 4 categories: staff, salaries, other expenses, remoteness. However, this formula does not take into account a number of factors which impact on the ability of shelters to operate, including:
- province of operation
- shelter size
- remoteness details
- supports for staff training and facilities upgrades
- standards for shelter services
- governance structure of shelters
- reporting requirements
In this analysis of the impacts of the Progressive Conservative government's budget cuts and policy initiatives on women and their children, OAITH raises several key points, including that the scope of core services for abused women has become too narrow, access to legal aid and other essential supports for women in the criminal and family justice systems has been significanlty reduced, supports and benefits like social assistance, housing and child care are even lower than prior inadequate levels, and programs and advances in training, anti-racims and anti-discrimination work, pay equity and other positive changes will suffer under the cuts. Women's access to shelters and the full range of services they need from them will be severely limited.
This report is from Phase 3 of a larger multi-phase system-change initiative of YWCA Canada launched in 2001 Beyond Shelter Walls. This phase focused on dialogue among key stakeholders at the national, provincial/territorial and community levels to identify concrete workable solutions towards real and lasting change. The report describes the emerging themes from these consultations, looking at key themes, starting with issues impacting women beyond shelter such as poverty, housing, legal issues, northern communities, and marginalized women.The main body of the report examines supports for women beyond shelters, including advocacy, training and prevention initiatives, promising practices in custody and access, healthy families, and mental health protocols. Recommendations for long term change are included based on the findings.