Justice committee  With the research investments we've made and the national surveys I've spoken of, what we learned is that people often have not intervened when they witnessed violence because they didn't recognize it as violence. Another reason people noted they didn't intervene is because they didn't think it was serious enough to report.

Justice committee  I'm going to have to get back to the committee on that. The short answer is yes, but in terms of specifics, I will need to come back to the committee, perhaps in writing.

Justice committee  The impact of this type of violence on children is noted in the literature as varied. It ranges, for example, from mental health impacts—and long-term mental health impacts.... Children show symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety. Children also show school disengagement and less success in school, difficulty concentrating.

Justice committee  Perhaps, Madam Chair, I'll begin and then pass it over to my colleagues at justice, to comment. As I have said, the law is certainly outside of my area of expertise, but what I will say is that it points to the patterns that the member has noted in the research, the fact that events do tend to escalate, and the fact that when one woman is killed every seven days by a partner, that isn't the first violence that they have experienced.

Justice committee  A perfect example of how some organizations have adapted their services or have leveraged to the best of their ability in the pandemic context is the Canadian Women's Foundation hand signal when they're isolated, not able to access or call for support or to access organizations.

Justice committee  I don't have these exact statistics in front of me, so I'm going to have to follow up with you on this, but they are astounding. I will follow up on the increase in reports of child exploitation during the pandemic.

Justice committee  I do know that Public Safety Canada and others in the safety portfolio are working on this issue of child exploitation, in terms of making sure that there are services available and making sure we can leverage technology to recognize victims. Again, I don't have the specifics in what we're doing.

Justice committee  What the pandemic has shown us is the critical services and support that community organizations provide to women every day. Making sure that we're providing funding to support the gender-based violence sector is one of the most important things we can do to support survivors, to prevent and end gender-based violence.

Justice committee  As I said, to date we've invested over $24 million in researching data. We're developing three new national surveys to fill data gaps with respect to this issue. In particular, we have put out a survey on gender-based violence. Right now we're analyzing data specifically with respect to intimate partner violence to get a better picture of intimate partner violence.

Justice committee  With respect to women living in rural areas, according to 2018 police-reported data, women in rural areas experienced the highest overall rates of intimate partner violence in the country. I think that is significant to note for this study. Given that fact, it's important to ensure that women living in rural areas particularly have access to supports and services in their area.

Justice committee  As I mentioned, since the start of the pandemic, $100 million has been distributed to over 1,000 shelters, sexual assault centres and organizations providing services to women and children experiencing violence. This has allowed the organizations to keep their doors open to continue providing these critical services.

Justice committee  It's a very heavy question. Given the complexity of gender-based violence, there is no single thing that will fix this issue. One thing that the government is doing right now is advancing a national action plan to end gender-based violence. As you've all heard here today, the pandemic has reinforced the fact that we need a national action plan.

Justice committee  We do know that creating more supportive and responsive justice and legal systems is important. In fact, it's one of the pillars under our strategy to address gender-based violence in Canada. With respect to other offences, we also know from data that only 5% of sexual assaults are reported to police.

Justice committee  The Government of Canada has since March invested over $100 million in more than 1,000 shelters, sexual assault centres and organizations providing supports to women and children experiencing gender-based violence. We've been working with these organizations very closely. What we're hearing from them is that they are extremely appreciative of this critical support, which has allowed them to keep their doors open and to provide safe, critical supports and services to those who are experiencing violence during the pandemic.

Justice committee  As the member notes, the Government of Canada does have a federal strategy to address and prevent gender-based violence. To date, there has been over $200 million in investments and an ongoing commitment of $40 million per year. In that strategy, we consider various forms of gender-based violence, including forms related to coercive and controlling behaviour.