Countries: Canada
Variables: DACH-PRACTICE-1

"The more than 600 Indigenous communities, known as First Nations, face significant health challenges compared to other Canadians. Suicide rates among Indigenous youth are six times higher than their counterparts and the life expectancy of First Nations people is about 14 years less than other Canadians. Until the 1990s, Indigenous people were mostly treated in racially segregated hospitals, where there were reports of rampant abuse" (par. 21-22). "She told the AP the cost to First Nations peoples of coerced sterilizations was “staggering,” noting the procedures were previously routine in Indigenous residential schools and hospitals" (par. 32). "Dr. Alika Lafontaine, the first Indigenous president of the Canadian Medical Association, recalls times...more

Countries: Canada
Variables: FSCB-PRACTICE-1

"Decades after many other rich countries stopped forcibly sterilizing Indigenous women, numerous activists, doctors, politicians and at least five class-action lawsuits say the practice has not ended in Canada. A Senate report last year concluded 'this horrific practice is not confined to the past, but clearly is continuing today.' In May, a doctor was penalized for forcibly sterilizing an Indigenous woman in 2019" (par. 1-2). "There are no solid estimates on how many women are still being sterilized against their will or without their knowledge, but Indigenous experts say they regularly hear complaints about it. Sen. Yvonne Boyer, whose office is collecting the limited data available, says at least 12,000...more

Countries: Canada
Variables: DV-DATA-1

"In the 12 months prior to a 2018 survey… 3 in 10 women aged 15-24 were emotionally, financially, or psychologically abused by a partner" (para 24). "Overall, in 2021, 17% of homicide victims were killed by a spousal or intimate partner. Unlike homicide in general, most victims of spousal or intimate partner homicide are women. In fact, among spousal and intimate partner homicide victims in Canada in 2021, 76% were women, while 24% were men. Furthermore, the proportion of women (44%) who were killed by their spouse or intimate partner in Canada was approximately seven times greater compared with men (7%). It should be noted that data on the type...more

Countries: Canada
Variables: GP-DATA-3

"When the Canadian government changed Status of Women to Women and Gender Equality in 2017, it erased women from the very departmental agency created for them. This was less than 50 years since the word 'woman' first appeared in the name of a departmental agency. The Office of the Coordinator, Status of Women, was created in 1971 within the Privy Council Office. It became a departmental agency of the federal government on April 1, 1976, when it became known as Status of Women Canada (SWC). This was a timely move -- women were becoming more visible as they moved from the home into the universities and careers. SWC was responsible...more

Countries: Canada
Variables: IIP-PRACTICE-2

"In the 12 months prior to a 2018 survey… 6 in 10 women aged 15-24 from the provinces experienced unwanted sexual behaviours in public" (para 24). "Women were more likely than men to have been sexually assaulted or have experienced unwanted sexual behaviour in public, unwanted behaviour online, or unwanted behaviour in the workplace in the 12 months preceding the survey, and this was the case even when controlling for other factors" (para 36). "Women were more likely than men to have experienced multiple incidents in the past 12 months and to have experienced unwanted behaviour or violence while on the street versus while in another public place, such as...more

Countries: Canada
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

Table 12, titled "Violent victimization in the past 12 months, by type of victimization, gender of victim, and selected incident characteristic, provinces, 2018," shows that 5% of sexual assault cases with female victims are reported to police. 93.4% of such cases are not reported (para 43). Note that this data comes from a survey, not police records. 95% confidence intervals for each statistic are available in the table but are not listed here (ELW - CODER COMMENT).

Countries: Canada
Variables: SEGI-PRACTICE-1

"Visit the Women of Impact in Canada gallery, which recognizes the contributions and achievements of close to 170 exceptional Canadian women and girls who have made an impact in politics, the arts and sciences, and countless other fields" (para 58).

Countries: Canada
Variables: DTCP-PRACTICE-1

"We know that women make up the overwhelming majority of victims of certain types of crimes and represent a growing proportion of the prison population. We also know that victimization plays an important role in many women’s experiences as offenders" (para 47). "Females are currently being forced to share their living quarters with males who identify as women in federal and provincial jails and prisons across Canada... Gender Dissent has already documented the 'lived experiences' of incarcerated females who are forced into being housed with males who identify as women" (para 49, 51).

Countries: Canada
Variables: MURDER-DATA-1

"Indigenous women and girls are more likely to experience violence than non-Indigenous women and girls in Canada. The true extent of the violence remains unknown because of poor data collection on the Indigenous identity of victims of violent crime, but testimony gathered by the National Inquiry into Missed and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, demonstrated that the scale and scope of violence against First Nations, Inuit, and Métis women, girls, and two-spirit persons – and Canada’s failure to prevent, address, and redress this violence – remains one of the most egregious and urgent human rights concerns in Canada. The release of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women...more

Countries: Canada
Variables: IRP-LAW-1

"The criminalization of sex work, and the current state of the law in Canada with respect to sex work, creates barriers to the realization of the human rights of sex workers in Canada" (10). "In December 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada in Canada (Attorney General) v. Bedford declared that three provisions of Canada’s Criminal Code were unconstitutional: section 210 (keeping or being found in a bawdy house), section 212(1)(j) (living on the avails of prostitution), and section 213(1)(c) (communicating in public for the purpose of prostitution). These provisions were struck down by the Court for violating the right to security of the person under the Charter of Rights and...more

Countries: Canada
Variables: GP-DATA-3

"States are specifically required to have 'executive policies or plans of action to eliminate violence against women.' Despite playing a leading role in promoting National Action Plans at the UN Human Rights Council, Canada has failed to live up to this obligation domestically. Many governments specifically called on Canada to commit to developing a National Action Plan when Canada’s human rights record was reviewed by the UN Human Rights Council in May 2018. In June 2017, the federal government launched It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence. Alongside a broad coalition of women’s rights and equality-seeking organizations, Amnesty International has underscored the strategy’s insufficiency because it only...more

Countries: Canada
Variables: FSCB-LAW-1

"In December 2018, the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) affirmed that forced and coerced sterilization of women in Canada is a form of torture – because this practice is intentional, committed by state officials, causes serious harm, and is rooted in discrimination – and called on Canada to take steps to investigate the issue, halt the practice, ensure justice for survivors, and report back to the Committee on progress made within a year. In August 2019, the House of Commons Health Committee called on the federal government to take urgent action on the issue of forced and coerced sterilization in Canada. While expressing concern that the practice has continued in...more

Countries: Canada
Variables: PRN-LAW-2

"Deepfake porn involving minors falls into a 'grey area' of Canada’s laws around consent, revenge porn and child exploitation, said Suzie Dunn, an assistant law professor at Dalhousie University whose research centres on deepfakes. Although deepfake porn isn’t clearly defined as illegal in the Criminal Code, the provision for child pornography could apply, Dunn said. It considers material child pornography, 'whether or not it was made by electronic or mechanical means.' There is also a provision that makes it an offence to share explicit images of another person without their consent. However, on a plain reading of the law, Dunn said that only includes authentic nude images of someone. Regulations...more

Countries: Canada
Variables: PRN-PRACTICE-1

"He has your nudes. She got the message by text from a girl she barely knew: Your friend, he has your photos on his phone. How could that be, the 16-year-old Toronto high school student remembers thinking. The boy with the photos was a close friend, someone she trusted. And besides, she thought, she had never sent a nude to anyone. 'I was like, ‘What? That’s not possible,’' the girl said. Her mind drifted to the worst-case scenario — 'Has someone taken photos of me while I was asleep?' In late January of this year, a group of teens between the ages of 15 and 17 went to Toronto police...more

Countries: Canada
Variables: PRN-LAW-1

"In late January of this year, a group of teens between the ages of 15 and 17 went to Toronto police to report what they thought was a crime. They said a boy they knew had made naked pictures of all of them — his classmates, friends and girls he only knew through social media. Using artificial intelligence tools, he put their faces onto someone else’s naked body, creating explicit “deepfake” porn of them without their consent, essentially out of thin air. To the girls and their parents, the act should have been illegal. However, in a move that illustrates a growing dilemma facing investigators and lawmakers tasked with handling...more