Status of Women committee  What we would recommend as the alternative is, like I've said, funding for social services and for housing and education. Having education for frontline providers, having education for social service workers—that tool box that was being spoken about—I think is a great idea so that people are aware of coercive control.

Status of Women committee  I think there are two main reasons that we've raised. First, if you look at the history of the criminal law and look specifically at something like mandatory charging and domestic violence policies, you'll see that violence and abuse are often treated differently when faced by BIPOC communities.

Status of Women committee  Yes, we do agree with that. We also submitted a brief to the JUST committee that outlines our submissions in more depth.

Status of Women committee  I think that absolutely having a basic income, along with having affordable public services, housing and increased social protections would all assist in helping survivors know that they can be safe if they if they need to leave their relationship.

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  At this point, LEAF does not support a full ban on parental alienation, because we need to do some more internal work on establishing our position on this, but we do think that it is certainly extremely important for courts and judges to be educated on the ways in which litigation is used as a form of abuse.

Status of Women committee  Absolutely.

Status of Women committee  Good afternoon. My name is Roxana Parsa. I'm a staff lawyer at the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, also known as LEAF. I'm grateful to appear today from what is now known as Toronto, which is on the traditional lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Wendat, Anishinabe and the Haudenosaunee nations.

Justice committee  Sure. I think what it was related to was that I was building off situations of dual charging. Oftentimes, specifically dealing with racialized populations, the survivor might be seen as the abuser. In a situation of coercive control, where the behaviours are so subtle and really dependent on the relationship, it's very possible that the abuser would actually portray the survivor as being the perpetrator.

Justice committee  I think that's from our written brief. I do agree with that in certain situations. I think that is one of the benefits that is being put out as a reason for criminalization. However, in our brief, as we say, we do not think these benefits outweigh the many risks that are posed by creating a new criminal law.

Justice committee  Yes, I agree with everything that Ms. Mattoo just said. I just want to point out that the conviction rates that come out of these cases are very low. There's a study in England and Wales that showed that of the 7,000 arrests that occurred during the time span of the study, only 3% had a conviction rate that was successful.

Justice committee  That's a difficult question. I certainly understand groups who are advocating in support of this. I think our experience is based on research and a wider lens in terms of how these laws have been used to—

Justice committee  Of course. I think our main point, when speaking about restorative justice, is really that we want the options. We think that survivors should have the option to pursue whatever form of justice they want and that the criminal justice system shouldn't be the only route forward.

Justice committee  Of course. There has to be consent on both sides to take part in these processes.

Justice committee  I certainly understand this desire to respond, especially when there's imminent harm or a situation of urgency and survivors feel like they need help quickly. I just go back to what my colleague, Ms. Mattoo, was saying, that the problem isn't that there aren't laws or there aren't these tools.