Resource Library

This resource is a report submitted by the Ontario Native Women's Associaton (ONWA) and the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres (OFIFC) as part of the consultations between the Department of Indian Affairs, the Native Women's Association of Canada, and the Assembly of First Nations regarding the topic of matrimonial real property issues on reserves. These issues are discussed in connection with broader social, legal, and cultural contexts, including Aboriginal and human rights, treaty rights, and legal justice processes. This initiative advocates for policy and legislative changes

In this video, counsellors talk about different strategies, ideas, and approaches to supporting women in their shelter. Scenes of workers talking with women are interspersed throughout the counsellor discussion to give constructive examples of the challenges counsellors face and the application of different techniques to work through them. Uses dramatizations to demonstrate practical ways to implement a feminist, strength-based model of support for women who have experienced violence in an intimate relationship.

On February 25, 2013, 25 organizations, including OAITH, signed an Open Letter to Members of Parliament on the need for a National Housing Stategy to ensure the safety and health of women.

This is a statistical overview of family courses cases involving child custory, access and support arrangements for 2009 - 2010.  It covers separation, divorce, custody, caccess, child and/or spousal support arrangements, child protection and guardianship.

The Court Watch program was undertaken to gain a preliminary understanding of how woman abuse influenced custory and access orders in family court decisions. Findings based on  observations of family court proceedings and analyses of case files reveal a number of key issues relating impact of children on outcomes, inconsistency in custody and access to abusive fathers, inconsistency of how abuser access to children was affected by presence of high-risk indicators, delays or adjournments because of lack of interpretation services, and a lack of information avaialble to women about how to use the family court system in cases of domestic violence.

This fact sheet provides statistics, definitions, and short answers in response to frequently asked questions about VAW. Topics covered include:

• Sexual consent
• Crime rates and VAW in Canada
• Domestic  rates
• Types of VAW
• Causes of VAW
• Violence against men compared with VAW
• Why women don't leave abusive relationships
• Who is at risk
• Effect on children
• How to help
• How can we stop VAW

This paper outlines the nature of the gendered problem of domestic violence within an equality framework. The  kinds of redress and remedies needed to stop intimate partner violence are juxtaposed against the inadequate conceptual framework offered by the current legal approach to equality articulated by the Supreme Court of Canada. Some initial and broad suggestions about what some possible legal strategies might look like which engage equality and other Charter rights to address and end the problem of domestic violence in women’s lives are presented. Specifically, it is highlighted that even though the opportunity of posing a direct section 15 challenge in relation to domestic violence has yet to materialize or be seized, the failure of state action in this area - the absence of adequate legal protections for assaulted women - poses a violation of a number of Charter rights that should be actionable.