Recent Library of Parliament Documents

The Library of Parliament in Ottawa has recently published a number of legislative summaries of important federal bills as well as other documents.

Among them are:

• Gender-based Analysis Plus in Canada: "The Government of Canada uses GBA Plus [Gender-based Analysis Plus ] to assess the impact of legislation, policies, programs and budgetary measures on diverse groups of women, men and gender-diverse people in an effort to reduce inequalities. The “Plus” in GBA Plus includes a range of identity factors – such as age, disability, education, language, sexual orientation, culture, geography, ethnicity, Indigenous identity, religion, social class and income – that overlap in an intersectional way. The “Plus” is thus aligned with the concept of intersectionality introduced in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw, which makes it possible to include multiple intersecting identity factors beyond gender in the analysis of what shapes people’s experiences."
• Scrutiny of Regulations: 50 Years in Review: "Parliament can delegate the authority to make regulations to a person or body specified in an Act. This authority might be given because regulations can be made more quickly than legislation or because Parliament might not have the expertise to legislate technical rules. This authority is usually delegated by way of enabling provisions in legislation that permit ministers, departments, agencies and other authorities to make rules on Parliament’s behalf. The committee’s powers derive from both statutory and sessional orders of reference which make it the committee’s mandate to ensure that this delegated authority is exercised lawfully and appropriately. The committee’s work begins after a regulation has been published in its final form in Part II of the Canada Gazette."
• Legislative Summary of Bill C-20: An Act establishing the Public Complaints and Review Commission and amending certain Acts and statutory instruments: "Bill C-20 establishes the independent Public Complaints and Review Commission (the Commission) to review and investigate complaints against employees of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). The Commission replaces the existing Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) which reviews complaints against the RCMP. Currently, no oversight authority is responsible for reviewing complaints against the CBSA."
• Legislative Summary of Bill C-65: An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act: "The bill amends the Canada Elections Act (CEA) to accomplish several distinct legislative objectives, including: providing for two additional days of advance polling; moving the next fixed election date; regulating voting at long-term care institutions; updating the process for voting by mail (special ballot); regulating voting at post-secondary educational institutions; amending the requirements relating to political parties’ policies for the protection of personal information; amending or creating new prohibitions pertaining to the electoral process; amending the regime applicable to third-party financing; granting new powers to the Commissioner of Canada Elections (CCE); and requiring the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to report to Parliament on potential changes to the electoral process."

Most Recent Issue of the Canadian Law Library Review

The most recent issue of the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR) is available online.

The CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL). It is an open access publication.

Check out the feature article:

• The First Law Book for Women: Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon and A Brief Summary, In Plain  Language, of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women (starts on p. 9): "There have been many books written about the legal status of women, but in England, they had all been written by men. That changed in 1854. That year, long before women had equal rights or could practice law, Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon wrote A Brief Summary, in Plain Language, of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women. This article traces the book’s creation and considers its impact on law reform"

Statistics Canada Article on Court Outcomes in Gender-related Homicide Cases

The Statistics Canada publication Juristat published an article last week about Court outcomes associated with the gender-related homicide of women and girls in Canada, 2009/2010 to 2020/2021.

This type of homicide involves homicides that were committed by at least one male accused who was an intimate partner or a family member of the victim, or who sexually assaulted the victim as part of the homicide, or who killed a victim that police identified as a sex worker.

The article looks at how cases are processed through the criminal court system. It also also examines how these cases' outcomes compare with those of non-gender-related homicides of women and girls (homicides of women or girls with no evidence of the gender-related criteria mentioned above) and with homicides of men and boys.

Among the highlights:

• 58% of persons who were accused of a gender-related homicide of a woman or girl were found guilty of any charge in the case. This proportion is higher than what was found among persons accused of a non-gender-related homicide of a woman or girl as well as those accused in a homicide case with a male victim (50% each).
• Of all adults convicted of any charge in a case that had at least one homicide charge and where sentencing details were known, more than nine in ten (93%) persons accused of committing a gender-related homicide of a woman or girl were sentenced to custody, similar to those accused of committing a non-gender-related homicide (92%) and persons accused of a homicide against a male victim (92%).
• Of those who were sentenced to custody, adults convicted in a case of gender-related homicide had an average of 12.5 years left to serve after given credit for time in custody, three years longer than those convicted of a non-gender-related homicide of a woman or girl (average 9.2 years), and six years longer than when the victim was male (average 6.1 years).
• Cases of gender-related homicide took, on average, 603 calendar days to complete in court, measured by first appearance to final decision. These cases took 89 days longer, on average, to complete than non‑gender-related homicides of women and girls and 103 days longer than cases involving the homicide of men and boys.
• In cases of attempted murder, aggravated assault and aggravated sexual assault, fewer differences in court outcomes were documented when the case was gender-related compared to when it was not. While cases of gender-related violence contained more charges on average than those with a non-gender-related female victim or male victim, similar proportions of persons accused in these crimes were found guilty of any charge in the case and sentenced to custody. However, persons convicted of a gender-related violent offence received shorter sentences, on average, than those convicted in non-gender-related cases.

CBC Report Card on Implementation of Calls for Justice of National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Canada's public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), has created a report card on the implementation of the recommendations in the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

According to the CBC:

"It’s been four years since the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls released 231 calls for justice."

"Those calls tackled 18 areas needing reform, including education, justice and health."

"To date, only two of the 231 calls have been completed — and more than half haven’t even been started, according to CBC’s analysis."

"Here’s a look at the status of each of them."

That Inquiry final report was issued in June 2019.

After more than 3 years of meetings and gathering testimony, the Inquiry made 231 calls for action to government, institutions and the larger Canadian public to help address endemic levels of violence directed at Indigenous women and girls and what the report calls 2SLGBTQQIA (two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual) people.

One of the supplementary reports explains the legal reasoning behind the Inquiry's declaration that the disproportionate levels of violence suffered by Indigenous women and girls in Canada could be considered a form of "race-based genocide (...)  empowered by colonial structures, evidenced notably by the Indian Act, the Sixties Scoop, residential schools and breaches of human and Indigenous rights, leading directly to the current increased rates of violence, death, and suicide in Indigenous populations".

Among its findings, the report stated that Indigenous women and girls are 12 times more likely to be murdered or to go missing than members of any other demographic group in Canada.

At the time of the release of the final report, the CBC website condensed the calls for action for easier understanding.

Statistics Canada Article on Gender-related Homicide of Women and Girls

Juristat, a Statistics Canada publication, recently published an article on Gender-related homicide of women and girls in Canada.

The article analyzes police-reported data of homicides involving women and girls who were killed by an intimate partner, family member, within the context of sex work as well as those who experienced sexual violence. Some data on the attempted murder of women and girls are also presented. 

As the text explains, although most homicide victims are men and boys, women and girls are disproportionately killed by someone they know, namely an intimate partner or a family member.

Among the article's highlights:

• Between 2011 and 2021, police reported 1,125 gender-related homicides of women and girls in Canada. Of these homicides, two-thirds (66%) were perpetrated by an intimate partner, 28% a family member, 5% a friend or acquaintance and the remaining 1% a stranger.
• While the rate of gender-related homicide of women and girls has generally declined since 2001, there was a 14% increase between 2020 and 2021 (from 0.48 to 0.54 victims per 100,000 women and girls), marking the highest rate recorded since 2017.
• In 2021, the rate of gender-related homicide in Canada was more than 2.5 times greater in rural areas compared to urban areas (1.13 versus 0.44 per 100,000 women and girls).
• Between 2011 and 2021, of all gender-related homicides of women and girls, the largest proportion died by stabbing (34%). About four times as many victims of gender-related homicide died of strangulation, smothering or drowning (17%) compared to victims of non-gender-related homicides (4%).
• One-third (32%) of gender-related homicides of women and girls were reported by police as motivated primarily by the accused’s anger, frustration or despair, almost triple the proportion found among non-gender-related homicides (12%).
• Over the 11-year period (i.e., 2011 to 2021), one in five (21%) persons accused of a gender-related homicide where at least one woman or girl was killed resulted in the suicide of the accused, seven times higher than what was found among persons accused of committing a non-gender-related homicide (3%). 
• Data between 2011 and 2021 show that of all gender-related homicides of women and girls, 21% (n=233) of victims were Indigenous, despite comprising only 5% of the female population in Canada in 2021.
• Between 2011 and 2021, the largest proportion of gender-related attempted murders of women and girls occurred at residential locations, involved the presence of a weapon and resulted in physical injury.

Canadian Bar Association Podcast on the Canadian Charter and Gender Equality Rights

In the most recent Modern Law podcast on the Canadian Bar Association website, host Yves Faguy speaks with law professor Kerri A. Froc about gender equality rights, the notwithstanding clause and why the Supreme Court’s composition matters:

"For the past 41 years, Section 28 of the Charter has required that the rights and freedoms guaranteed in it be implemented without discrimination between the sexes. But counterintuitively, as our latest guest Kerri Froc reminds us, s. 28 has rarely been used in practice to secure women’s equality. Indeed, successful challenges before the courts involving women as claimants have mostly been argued based on  s. 15, which sets out the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law for all without discrimination."

"But s. 28 has been argued in the challenge against Bill 21, Quebec’s secularism law, which prohibits Quebec citizens who work in public service from wearing religious symbols and which some argue affords unequal treatment to women -- Muslim women in particular."

"That's the jumping-off point of our wide-ranging Charter discussion today with Froc, who is an Associate Professor at UNB Law. We also discuss the notwithstanding clause, medical assistance in dying, and the increasing use of social science evidence in our courts."

"Froc is also a Trudeau and Vanier Scholar. She has taught courses at Carleton University, Queen’s University, and the University of Ottawa on feminist legal theory and various aspects of public law."

Recent Justice-Related Documents from the Government of Canada

The Government of Canada's Weekly Acquisitions List can be a great way to discover new research reports published by various public bodies and agencies of the federal government. It is a record of all publications catalogued in the previous week.

Here are a few recent additions of justice-related documents:

• The Voice of the Child in Family Law: Exploring Strategies, Challenges, and Best Practices for Canada (original publication date 2019): "The objective of this project is to collect and collate research, describe existing methods to include the children’s voices in family law in Canada (and internationally where relevant), to identify themes, and to develop a comprehensive and accessible literature review. This review provides descriptions of promising practices applicable to various aspects of the voice of the child and discussions of case law."
• Victims’ Rights in Canada in the 21st Century (written in 2021): "This report will not revisit the well-known territory of theory and philosophy in any significant manner; however, Part I of this report will still explore the relationship between theory and practical change in order to provide some context and framework for the remainder of the report. Part II will explore any significant changes, and the studies which have evaluated these changes, with respect to the rights of victims to participate at trial in the past twenty years and with respect to statutory provisions designed to protect the privacy and dignity of the victim as a witness at trial. Parts III and IV will present similar, but briefer, explorations with respect to the welfare rights or entitlements of victims, as well as developments relating to restorative justice."
• Victim Privacy and Open Justice: 2.0 At the Frontiers of Change (written in 2020): "The purpose of this report, commissioned by the Research and Statistics Division of the Department of Justice, is to review and update changes to open court and victim privacy principle since 2003, which was the year that Victim Privacy and the Open Court Principle report was written (hereinafter referred to as the 2003 Report). This update maintains symmetry with the structure of the 2003 Report in its review of Supreme Court of Canada jurisprudence and legislative changes since then. By 2003, the Supreme Court strongly endorsed and protected open court, adopting a strong standard of justification that required a sound evidentiary basis to warrant limits to the principle. The “second generation” jurisprudence is consistent with that conception of openness, but notable for accepting restrictions more readily and, in some instances, explicitly on grounds of a victim or participant’s vulnerability (...) The update would not be complete without discussion of two “frontier” developments: the impact of technology, and transformation of public and cultural discourse about sexual offending. First, the challenges to openness posed by technology are briefly identified and analyzed: this includes electronic court records and documents, the electronic courtroom, as well as electronic publicity and publication bans (...) Second, unexpected and major shifts in the narrative of sexual transgression represent a gamechanging development for victims of such offences and their role in the criminal justice system, including their privacy interests. Frustration with the typical justice system response to sexual assault have led some advocates to lobby for changes within the criminal justice system and sanctions that may fall outside the formal justice system. One of the more obvious and interesting points about the three watershed events discussed – #BeenRapedNeverReported, Unfounded, #MeToo – is that the transformation in discourse is for the most part driven by forces connected to, but outside the formal processes of law. Social media activism and investigative journalism have been at the forefront of change. Through the momentum of these broad-based movements, the social, psychological and cultural environment of sexual transgression has undergone fundamental change, with positive results for the reporting of offences, their handling by Canadian police forces, and victim perceptions of their status in criminal justice and willingness to step forward on their own and in solidarity with others, whether anonymously or not. "
• Review of International Child Support Models Volume I – Main Report (written in 2019): "As part of ongoing legal policy work, the Department of Justice Canada contracted with Kelly Sears Consulting Group to conduct an extensive review of international models used to determine child support amounts. The overall purpose of the research was to review and analyze child  support models with a focus on how selected issues are addressed. The jurisdictions included in this study were: the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, and the American states of Wisconsin, Delaware, Illinois, and Vermont. "
• Review of International Child Support Models Volume II – Jurisdictional Summaries

Victorian Law Reform Commission Final Report on Stalking

This week, the Victorian Law Reform Commission tabled its final report on responses to stalking to the state parliament.

The state of Victoria is in south-eastern Australia and its capital is Melbourne.

The report contains recommendations to improve the ways that the justice system treats people who have experienced stalking in a non-family violence context. 

It says that victims should have easier access to financial and practical support, such as technology to prevent cyberstalking. Victims should be supported by independent advocates to guide them through every stage, from reporting the stalking activity to accessing support services and any court actions.

Another recommendation calls for the Crimes Act to be amended to make the stalking offence clearer and easier to apply.

Related posts that deal with stalking include:

• Handbook for Police and Crown Prosecutors on Criminal Harassment (May 21, 2013): "The Handbook was developed by a working group of federal/provincial/territorial criminal justice officials in consultation with criminal justice professionals. It was  first published in 1999 and updated in 2004. The development of these  guidelines was prompted by the findings and recommendations of the 1996 Department of Justice Canada review of the criminal harassment provisions in the Criminal Code. The updates have been published in response to positive feedback regarding the usefulness of the Handbook and requests for more current information."
• Law Reform Commission of Ireland Report on Domestic Violence Law (December 5, 2013): "The second issue discussed in the Report is whether the offence of harassment in the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 addresses sufficiently the problem of stalking in domestic violence cases. The Report notes that most prosecutions for harassment involve domestic cases, and usually involves stalking by former spouses and partners. The current law requires that the harassment must involve “following, watching, pestering, besetting or communicating” and must be done “persistently.” The Commission’s Report points out that the requirement of “persistence” means that a person can be convicted of harassment where stalking involves a single long episode of continuous following or pestering. By contrast, under English law the harassment or stalking must involve at least two separate types of conduct. The Report concludes that the current requirements in the 1997 Act impose appropriate legal thresholds and standards that should be met in order to convict a person of stalking."
• Irish Law Reform Commission Report on Harmful Communications and Digital Safety (October 1, 2016): "The Report also recommends reforms of the existing offence of harassment, to ensure that it includes online activity such as posting fake social media profiles; and that there should be a separate offence of stalking, which is really an aggravated form of harassment."
• Statistics Canada Article on Family Violence in Canada (January 22, 2018): "The 2016 edition of the report features an in-depth analysis of self-reported stalking in Canada, using data from the 2014 General Social Survey on Canadians' Safety (Victimization). This featured section examines the nature and prevalence of self-reported stalking, including how stalking behaviour has changed over time. A particular focus on intimate partner stalking is also presented, including an overview of how stalking that occurs in the context of these relationships differs from other kinds of stalking in important ways."

Victoria Law Reform Commission Consultation on Stalking

The Victoria Law Reform Commission (VLRC) is conducting a public consultation on stalking.

It has issued a consultation paper and will be gathering input until August:

"Stalking is a set of behaviours that can cause great harm to victims’ mental and physical health. If not addressed, it can also escalate to include other types of serious offending, more serious offending, including serious violence and—tragically—homicide and suicide."

"Due to technological advancements, types of stalking behaviour have evolved and can be carried out remotely, without physical proximity to the victim."

"The VLRC is asked to review and report on Victoria’s legal responses to stalking, harassment and similar conduct, including the statutory framework for and operation of the Personal Safety Intervention Order (PSIO) system, drawing upon best practice from the family violence system, criminological research and victim support services. The review should identify barriers to current law effectively responding to stalking, harassment and similar conduct, and make recommendations to address these barriers and improve the justice system’s response, with victim safety and wellbeing the paramount consideration."

"Stalking behaviours can occur in both a family violence and non-family violence context. However, while a specialist, cohesive approach to these behaviours has been developed in a family violence context, less attention has been devoted to the non-family violence response. Additional measures may be required to maximise victim safety and wellbeing and perpetrator accountability, and to allow for more effective early interventions in cases of high or escalating risk. The review may consider mechanisms from the family violence context, such as family violence safety notices and the prohibition on cross-examination by the respondent/accused person. New measures responding to stalking in both family violence and non-family violence contexts should also be considered, such as electronic monitoring as a condition of an intervention order, and responses that address technology-facilitated abuse."

"While stalking is committed by people of all genders, the VLRC is requested to note that most perpetrators of stalking are men, and most victims of stalking are women."

It intends to produce an interim report by 31 December 2021, and a final report by 30 June 2022.

The state of Victoria is in south-eastern Australia and its capital is Melbourne.

The Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

 Melanie O’Brien, senior lecturer in international law at the University of Western Australia, wrote yesterday about the legacy of United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who passed way last week.

The article, The RBG Legacy: Equality and Inspiration, was published on the blog Opinio Juris:

It is impossible in a blog post to mention all of the cases RBG had an impact on; but there are myriad articles and books written about these. As a lawyer and a Supreme Court Justice, RBG specifically contributed to changing the law for the better. Her actions resulted in the reduction of discrimination on the basis of gender, and other grounds, throughout the United States. Her work affected every woman in the country, expanding their rights to education, to make claims against workplace pay discrimination, to access military benefits, and beyond. Every case that was about one person became so much more. RBG said that there would be enough women on the Supreme Court “when there are nine”, noting that nobody was ever shocked that for most of the Supreme Court’s existence, there have been nine male judges. Her engagement with and use of foreign and international law demonstrate an openness of legal perspective that benefited her work as a professor, lawyer and judge, and confirms that looking beyond one’s borders makes one a better jurist. People around the world admire RBG – themselves practicing this open perspective, to learn from her as a foreign, domestic judge – learning how to be a better professor, lawyer or judge.

Opinio Juris is associated with the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). The ICJ brings together senior judges, lawyers, and legal academics representing the world’s many legal systems to promote and protect the rule of law.

Juristat Article on Gender-Based Violence and Unwanted Sexual Behaviour in Canada

The Statistics Canada publication Juristat has published an article entitled Gender-based violence and unwanted sexual behaviour in Canada, 2018: Initial findings from the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces:

"Gender-based violence comprises a wide range of behaviours, some of which are not defined as criminal under Canadian law ... In addition to overt acts of violence, gender-based violence also includes behaviours that can be more subtle, yet may cause victims to feel unsafe, uncomfortable or threatened because they were victimized because of their gender."

"Unwelcome comments, actions, or advances while in public—despite not meeting a criminal threshold—may cause individuals to withdraw or to not otherwise fully engage in their daily activities or access spaces in which they have the right to freely use and enjoy ... These behaviours can also serve to normalize, create, or support a culture where certain individuals feel targeted and discriminated against. Indeed, while some research suggests that unwelcome gendered behaviours may be considered minor or trivial, especially in comparison to other types of sexual violence, they nevertheless come with their own set of consequences and negative impacts on daily life ... When these behaviours are sexualized and/or gender-based, they can serve to create or reinforce sexist or discriminatory stereotypes or norms that can be harmful to everyone."

"In 2018, Statistics Canada conducted the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces (SSPPS) with the goal of advancing knowledge of gender-based violence in Canada by collecting information on experiences and characteristics of violent victimization as well as the continuum of other unwanted experiences while in public, online, or at work."

Statistics Canada Report on Violent Crimes Against Young Women and Girls in the North

Statistics Canada reported last week that young women and girls in northern Canada were disproportionately victims of violent crimes in 2017.

The agency defines the North as comprising the territories and the northern parts of most provinces.

While young women and girls in the North accounted for less than 7% of Canada's female population aged 24 and younger, they represented 17% of young female victims of police-reported violent crime. As a result, the rate of violent crime against young women and girls living in the North was nearly three times higher than it was in the South.

Violence against young women and girls is an ongoing human rights issue and a significant barrier to gender equality. In addition to gender, where people live can also influence the risk of violent victimization. Crime rates are higher in northern Canada and its geographic remoteness can be a barrier to accessing victim services and escaping violence. These factors are especially critical for young women and girls at risk of violence in the North.

Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Earlier today, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls released its final report at a public ceremony in Gatineau, Quebec.

One of the supplementary reports explains the legal reasoning behind the Inquiry's declaration that the disproportionate levels of violence suffered by Indigenous women and girls in Canada can be considered a form of "race-based genocide (...)  empowered by colonial structures, evidenced notably by the Indian Act, the Sixties Scoop, residential schools and breaches of human and Indigenous rights, leading directly to the current increased rates of violence, death, and suicide in Indigenous populations".

Among its findings, the report stated that Indigenous women and girls are 12 times more likely to be murdered or to go missing than members of any other demographic group in Canada.

After more than 3 years of meetings and gathering testimony, the Inquiry made 231 calls for action to government, institutions and the larger Canadian public to help address endemic levels of violence directed at Indigenous women and girls and what the report calls 2SLGBTQQIA (two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual) people.

The website of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has condensed the calls for action for easier understanding.

New Collection on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women In Canada

The Bora Laskin Law Library at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law recently announced a new collection of documents about the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada:

"This collection was developed by the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action and has been subsequently expanded on by the Bora Laskin Law Library...

I.  Civil Society Reports
II. Government Reports
III. Secondary Resources
IV. United Nations Documents
V.  Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Documents"

Library of Parliament: Seven Facts to Better Understand Violence Against Women in Canada

The Library Parliament blog HillNotes published an article last week entitled Seven Facts to Better Understand Violence Against Women in Canada.

It appeared on December 6, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women that marks the 1989 École polytechnique massacre of 14 female engineering students in Montreal.

The 7 facts that the post lists are:

• Victimization rates are higher for women than for men
• Women are over-represented as victims of some crimes 
• Some groups of women are at greater risk of experiencing violence (due to racism, homophobia, discrimination based on physical ability)
• Homicide rates are six times higher for Indigenous women than for non-Indigenous women
• Eighty-five percent of crimes committed against women are committed by people they know
• Only about 12% of police-reported sexual assaults result in a conviction
• Violence against women has significant impacts on victims and on Canadian society

Most Recent Issue of LawNow: #MeToo Movement

The most recent issue of LawNow is available online.

The magazine is published by the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta.

The issue features a series of articles on the #MeToo Movement.

Statistics Canada Article on Violent Victimization of Women with Disabilities

Last week, the Statistics Canada publication Juristat published an article on Violent victimization of women with disabilities, 2014 that shows that persons with a disability were overrepresented as victims of violent crime.

Among the highlights:

• According to the 2014 General Social Survey on Victimization, women with a disability were twice as likely as women who did not have a disability to have been a victim of violent crime. A similar trend was evident among men.
• Women with a disability were nearly twice as likely as women without a disability to have been sexually assaulted in the past 12 months.
• Among victims of violent crime, women with a disability were almost twice as likely as women without one to have been victimized more than once in the 12 months preceding the survey (36% versus 20%).
• The rate of violent victimization among women and men with a cognitive disability or a mental health‑related disability was approximately four times higher than among those who did not have a disability. Among women and men with a sensory or physical disability, the rate of violent victimization was roughly twice as high as among those who did not have a disability.
• Victims of violent crime who had a disability were more likely to make use of victims' services. Six in ten (61%) victims of violent crime who turned to formal support services in 2014 had a disability. Women with a disability were more likely than their male counterparts to contact or use any services.
• Canadians with a disability were more likely to be victimized in their own home, as close to one‑third (30%) of violent incidents against a person with a disability occurred in their private residence (compared to 17% of incidents where the victim did not have a disability).
• Four in ten (40%) Canadians with a disability at the time of the survey were physically and/or sexually abused during their childhood, compared to about one‑quarter (27%) of those who did not have a disability.
• About one‑quarter of women with a cognitive disability (24%) or a mental health‑related disability (26%) were sexually abused by an adult before they were 15 years of age.
• Among victims of spousal violence with a disability, women were more likely than men to have experienced the most serious forms of spousal violence (39% versus 16%), to be physically injured due to the violence (46% versus 29%), to fear for their life (38% versus 14%), and to contact or use formal support services following the violence (71% versus 29%).

Law Library of Congress: First Women Lawyers and Judges

To mark International Women's Day later this week, In Custodia Legis, the blog of the Law Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., asked foreign law specialists, analysts, and interns of the institution to list who the first women lawyers and judges were in different countries around the world.

The questions they were asked were:

"When did a woman first graduate from law school? When were women first admitted to the practice of law? When was the first female judge appointed?  How many of the current judges of the highest court are women?"

Canadian Federation of Library Associations Statement on Quebec's Anti Face-Covering Law

The Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA) has issued a statement on Quebec's Bill 62 on "religious neutrality" (essentially an anti-niqab bill):

"The Canadian Federation of Library Associations / Fédération canadienne des associations de bibliothèques (CFLA-FCAB) maintains that diversity and inclusion is a core value of libraries and central to our country’s identity. Libraries have a responsibility to contribute to a culture that recognizes diversity and fosters social inclusion."

"Policy and regulation that restrict freedom of expression and belief conflict with the fundamental right of Canadians of access to information and resources, regardless of, race, religion or gender."

"CFLA-FCAB supports our Québec colleagues in ensuring that libraries remain open, inclusive and welcoming places for all."

More on the new law:

• Breaking down Bill 62: What you can and can't do while wearing a niqab in Quebec
• Quebec justice minister explains how ‘niqab ban’ would be applied after widespread criticism
• Bill 62 panders to anti-Muslim feelings outside Montreal: critics

Statistics Canada Report on Women and the Criminal Justice System

Statistics Canada yesterday published a report on Women and the Criminal Justice System that looks at violence against women in Canada as well as women's involvement in the criminal justice system as offenders.

Among the highlights:

• Since 2004, self-reported victimization rates have declined among women for physical assault, while self-reported rates of sexual assault have not changed.
• According to 2014 statistics, women reported being the victim of 1.2 million incidents of physical assault, sexual assault or robbery in the previous year. Self-reported violent victimization rates were higher among women (85 per 1,000 population) than men (67 per 1,000 population). This difference was largely attributable to higher rates of sexual assault among women.
• Females aged 12 and older accounted for about one-quarter of people accused of committing a Criminal Code offence in 2015, according to police-reported data. Although there was an overall decline in police-reported crime in Canada among adults aged 18 and older from 1998 to 2015, the decrease was more pronounced for crimes involving a male accused.
• In 2014, Aboriginal women were 2.7 times more likely to have reported experiencing violent victimization than non-Aboriginal women.
• The number of Aboriginal female victims of homicide has increased over the past several decades, while the number of non-Aboriginal female victims has declined. As a result, Aboriginal females account for an increasing proportion of female homicide victims, rising from one-tenth (9%) of all female homicide victims in 1980 to one-quarter (24%) in 2015.