Status of Women committee  Thank you. My comments mostly deal with the new 810 section, otherwise known as the peace bond provisions, because what Senator Boisvenu has done is very clever. He's created a two-tiered 810 system, in a way. We already have an 810 system, but that 810 system is somewhat limited.

Status of Women committee  I think it's really valuable. At an absolute minimum, just providing their input and making them feel more involved will give them a better sense of security. In addition, as I alluded to, even the peace bond provisions giving a greater breadth of the remedies available to them can assist.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for having me here. Senator Boisvenu, thank you for bringing forward this bill. For those who don't know me, I am a lawyer. I practise predominantly family law, with some criminal law, and I've been doing that for about 15 years. I bring a bit of a unique element to my experience because, as was alluded to before, I am the stepfather of Keira Kagan, who was involved in a murder-suicide that ended up resulting in Keira's law being passed through Bill C-233, along with provisions for ankle monitoring.

Status of Women committee  Jen hit the nail on the head. We have these amazing changes to the Divorce Act, but what was the missing piece? It was the educational component. Very little has actually changed, and that wasn't the intention of those changes.

Status of Women committee  That's an interesting question. I don't fully know what the answer would be. I could only suspect that some judges are going to welcome it with open arms and some judges are going to be offended. The truth of the matter is that the judges who are offended are actually the ones who need it more than the judges who aren't, because the judges who aren't are usually the ones who actually go out and seek that training themselves.

Status of Women committee  No. The e-bracelet wasn't necessarily part of Keira's law. I used to do criminal law. Under judicial interim release, when somebody is charged with a crime of intimate partner violence, the justice of the peace or the judge needs to consider certain conditions to impose. What this bill does is specifically direct their mind to whether it is in the interests of justice to order an electronic monitoring device.

Status of Women committee  Let me start by saying, number one, that if judges are able to understand what abuse looks like in the year 2022—that it's not just bumps and bruises and black eyes—that is one of the first and biggest things that is super-important, because right now when judges dismiss them, all they've done is enabled an abuser to continue almost in perpetuity, with the abuser saying, “The judge said it's okay; I can continue this.”

Status of Women committee  Thank you. Yes, that is one of the biggest complaints and problems that we're facing today. It's that you don't always get a judge who has a background in family law. Quite frankly, even when you do, it doesn't mean that their specific background was abuse-informed. They could have dealt with high-income net worth or property cases.

Status of Women committee  Okay, yes.

Status of Women committee  It's the biggest 15 seconds. The only one amendment that we are really seeking is under section 3 of the Judges Act. It's section 3(b), about new judges having to undertake to participate in continuing education. Right now it's with sexual assault, social context, systemic racism, etc.

Status of Women committee  It's my turn to thank everyone for allowing us to testify here today, especially MP Dhillon, MP Damoff and MP Saks for really assisting and championing this bill. Thank you again for allowing us to speak here today. We believe this is an incredibly important bill. Jennifer's case is actually the poster child for why this bill is so necessary.

Status of Women committee  Oh, my apologies.