Thank you, Madam Chair.

My name is Sunder Singh. I am the executive director of the Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women, otherwise known as the EHCW, located in Toronto and in the city of Vaughan.

Victims of domestic violence visit these centres, and anywhere from 100 to 300 cases come in every year. We witness the victims' helplessness in fighting the legal system and law enforcement, including child protection agencies that, as we have experienced in many cases, do not understand the terror of the abused victims who are being threatened with having their children being taken away due to their emotional outbursts. Emotional outbursts are recorded as mental instability.

We have seen cases of mothers being accused of having a mental disturbance when it was an emotional outcry at losing their children. They are crying for help, but the children are taken away because the abuser is perceived as polite, calm and convincing—but he is a chronic manipulator.

At the centre, we witnessed a classic story of a woman arriving from another country as a new bride. She married out of love to a man who had been previously married. His first wife ran away from him. Now he was seeking a new wife so that his abuse could continue. When the new bride, whom I will call Cindy, arrived in Canada, full of love for her husband, she faced domestic violence from him and her mother-in-law.

When Cindy was pregnant, he broke her arm, affecting her elbow. She went through surgery to save her elbow. He broke the same arm again, seriously affecting the movement of her elbow. She gave birth to a child, whom she carried precariously in one arm. The other arm was damaged. Her husband continued to beat her.

She came to the centre asking for help. She was placed in housing and landed a good job in her field. She was an accountant. She was on her way to self-sufficiency, away from her husband, but then the luring and apologies started, and false promises were made to her by her husband. She agreed to go back to him. The man started to record her each and every movement. She was not aware.

Her mother-in-law spread oil all over the kitchen for her to slip on and fall at night when she came to fetch milk for her child. She fell and permanently damaged her elbow.

The husband recorded a video in which she was precariously changing the diaper of the child with one hand and the other damaged arm. The child was kicking and she was stopping the child from kicking. He took a portion of that video and gave it to the police. The police handed the video to the child protection agency, which threatened Cindy with the removal of her child. This started a panic. She talked non-stop with the loud cry of a torn mother and repeatedly tried to express to anyone who could hear her that she was alone in this country and violently abused, and now law enforcement and the child protection agency were taking her child away.

When the EHCW inquired, it was revealed that the child protection agency was not at all aware that the husband had been violently abusing Cindy.

The child protection agency provided evidence to the court projecting Cindy to be a mother who was mentally unstable. The child was given to the father.

Cindy's doctor, her teacher and the police had reported the abuse and wrote letters clearly stating that the child should remain with the mother. Because she was unable to control her emotions, this went against her with some of the organizations she was supposed to trust.

Disgusted by the legal system, she left the country and went to the United States to live with her family. She's now using a fake account to remain secretly connected to her son. Mother and son are patiently waiting until he is of an adult age so that he can be reunited with his mother.

Are bodies that provide protection effectively safeguarding mothers and children? Law enforcement is doing good work. However, it needs to be aware of how mothers become traumatized when threatened with being ripped apart from their children.

Shelters are running at full capacity, and housing for women facing violence is not easily available either. Why is this issue not a serious societal problem for the government?

Why are the abusers placed in jail for two days, two weeks or two years when the life of a woman is completely destroyed emotionally? She is as good as dead. Children are affected permanently. Why are the abusers not in jail for a lifetime? If they were, violence would be reduced instantly.

Please make domestic violence training for all judges in the court system a mandatory requirement. This would help safeguard women.

Thank you.

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