The National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence
Date: October 20, 2020
Classification: Unclassified
Fully releasable (ATIP)? Yes
Branch / Agency: CSCCB / CPCCJD
Proposed Response:
- As stated in the Speech from the Throne, it is a priority of this Government to continue to advance with a National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence; it is paramount to the creation of strong and safe communities for everyone.
- Gender-based violence is one of the most pervasive, deadly and deeply-rooted human rights violations. It is a significant barrier to individual and community safety and wellbeing.
- A comprehensive Plan must provide concrete solutions to address persisting gaps in order to end gender-based violence, including addressing the root causes and systemic issues that perpetrate violence and address the factors that serve as barriers to accessing supports, services, and protections.
- Our Government has taken action on a comprehensive gun control agenda to combat violent crime. On May 1, we delivered on a key element of this agenda by banning over 1,500 models of assault-style firearms and ending the proliferation of these dangerous firearms in our communities.
- We have committed to working with provinces and territories to enable municipalities to further restrict or ban handguns and we will establish a dedicated funding stream for cities to fight gang violence and support prevention programs for youth-at-risk.
- In addition to these initiatives, our Government will also introduce measures to reduce gender-based violence and suicide by temporarily removing firearms from individuals who pose a danger to themselves and those around them, including their partners or kids.
- Public Safety Canada also continues to support the implementation of the Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence. Through Budgets 2017 and 2018 Public Safety Canada received investments of $11.4 million over five years, and $2.3 million per year ongoing to support the implementation of theStrategy to raise awareness of child sexual exploitation and cyberbullying.
Background:
On December 5, 2019 Statistics Canada released a Juristat report titled “Gender-based violence and unwanted sexual behaviour in Canada, 2018: Initial findings from the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces”. This new self-reported survey of 43,000 Canadians examines the following dimensions of gender-based violence: experiencing unwanted sexual behaviours while in public spaces, while online, or while in the workplace, as well as experiences of assault and sexual assault since the age of 15. The development of this self-reported survey was funded by Women and Gender Equality Canada as part of It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence. Results from the survey will assist in the development of indicators used to track progress and monitor trends related to the elimination of gender-based violence (GBV) and harassment and the promotion of security of the person.
Key Highlights
- One in three women (32%) and one in eight men (13%) felt uncomfortable or unsafe in public due to experiencing some form of unwanted sexual behaviour in the past 12 months. Young, non-heterosexual women were most likely to experience these behaviours in public.
- One in five women (18%) experienced online harassment in the 12 months preceding the survey, slightly above the proportion for men (14%). The proportion of Indigenous (30%) women experiencing online harassment was higher than for non-Indigenous women (18%).
- Three in ten women (29%) were targeted by inappropriate sexual behaviour in their workplace compared to 17% of men. For both men and women, the most common behaviours experienced in the workplace were sexual jokes, unwanted sexual attention and unwanted physical contact.
It's Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence
(led by Women and Gender Equality – WAGE)
It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence (the GBV Strategy) was launched in June 2017. This horizontal initiative coordinates the efforts of six departments/federal entities (WAGE, Public Health Agency (PHAC), Public Safety (PS), National Defence (DND), Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)) in addressing and preventing GBV in Canada.
The GBV Strategy is designed to support action across three pillars: prevention, support for survivors and families, and legal and justice system responses. Budget 2017 committed investments of $100 million over five years, and $20.7 million per year ongoing, for the implementation of the GBV Strategy.Through these commitments, PS received $1.3 million annually in funding to implement activities to prevent online child sexual exploitation.
Budget 2018 proposed new investments of an additional $86 million over five years, starting in 2018/19, and $20 million per year ongoing, to expand the GBV Strategy. This included a new investment for PS of $4.9 million over five years, beginning in 2018/19, and $1 million per year ongoing to enhance and develop preventative bullying and cyberbullying initiatives.
The COVID‑19 pandemic has highlighted gaps in the very systems designed to keep people safe and amplified the urgency for a National Action Plan (NAP) to end GBV. It has created unprecedented challenges for those experiencing GBV and the organizations that provide supports and services to them. The government has committed a total of $100 million to GBV organizations in COVID-19 emergency relief funding to ensure continuity of services at women’s shelters, sexual assault centres and other organizations providing GBV services at this challenging time.
The GBV NAP has been informed by years of departmental engagement with survivors, direct service providers, experts, advocates, and academics as well as by domestic, parliamentary and international reports and calls to action.
The Department for Women and Gender Equality is advancing the development of the GBV NAP by engaging with other federal government departments; engaging and collaborating with strong support from provincial, territorial, and Indigenous partners; and validating gaps and areas of action with stakeholders.
Finally, Public Safety activities to deliver on mandate commitments to strengthen gun control and ban assault-style firearms also directly contribute to reducing domestic and gender based violence (see note on Firearms and Gangs).
Contacts:
Prepared by: Ana Stojanoska, Senior Policy Advisor : 343-572-5513
Approved by: Trevor Bhupsingh, A/ADM, CSCCB, 613-769-3042
- Date modified: