Justice committee  What you mentioned is actually extensively addressed in the literature. Racialized groups have significant problems with elder abuse, to my knowledge and also theoretical elaboration. That's why we address the collaboration among multiple disciplines. In the literature, elder abuse happens in multiple diverse cultural backgrounds.

Justice committee  I think this question is better answered by a group of experts. With this being such a brief meeting, we're here serving as content experts. I think a group of multidisciplinary experts should be gathered together to contribute to this idea. Actually, I know that experts, scholars, in different universities in different provinces have been working on these issues.

Justice committee  I could answer briefly to that. If Patrick has anything to add, please do so, because I have two other paragraphs to finish in my report. The CASW is proposing to have a collaborative national strategy to work on that. Legal definition is definitely one important issue, but another thing is that all related agencies should work together to get training and do public education on the signs and risk factors for elder abuse.

Justice committee  Thank you. I wanted to add one last point, that the estimated prevalence of rate across the studies is 16% to 18% in every country, in every study in Canada and North America. Based on that estimation from the literature, I think some legal efforts are needed here.

Justice committee  I can speak briefly to that. Yes, I would definitely support that, although it is very difficult to have a universal definition. Right now in the Criminal Code there is no inclusion of such things as verbal abuse, emotional abuse or neglect. Yes, I would support that idea, but I'm not a legal expert.

Justice committee  Thank you, Patrick. Good morning, everyone. My name is Hai. I'm an associate professor with the faculty of social work at the University of Manitoba. I'm also a research affiliate at the Centre on Aging. As the committee members are aware, the provinces and territories have various acts and legislation to protect residents' safety and rights while living in a communal setting.