Public Safety Canada implementation of Canada’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security

Public Safety Canada and women, peace and security

Public Safety Canada and its various portfolio agencies are playing an important role in advancing the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda over the span of Canada’s National Action Plan (the Action Plan) on WPS 2017-2022. In leading Canada’s domestic response to radicalization to violence, Public Safety ‘s Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence (Canada Centre), coordinates and develops policy expertise, mobilizes community outreach, and enhances research in countering radicalization to violence. In addition, Public Safety Canada leads the Government of Canada’s effort to combat human trafficking domestically, including support of Canada’s G7 commitments in this area. The Correctional Service of Canada, an agency within the Public Safety Portfolio, is the federal agency responsible for administering sentences of two years or more, along with supervising offenders under conditional release, as well as capacity building activities in international correctional services.

Countering radicalization to violence

The Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence (Canada Centre) leads domestic efforts for preventing and countering radicalization to violence (CRV) and violent extremism in Canada. The Canada Centre continues to bolster its CRV initiatives by integrating key tenets of Canada’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), as well as a thorough consideration and analysis of social identity factors, including gender, and their intersectionalities within the public safety and public health nexus. Additionally, the Canada Centre is working with domestic and international partners to address key evidence gaps for prevention and intervention programming to counter radicalization to violence, including explicit focus on areas relevant to and directly involving the WPS agenda. Much of this work involves joint or coordinated investment on projects such as systematic evidence reviews, and developing resources to more effectively and appropriately measure and evaluate CRV programs.

The Canada Centre, through the Community Resilience Fund, provides funding to support the efforts of researchers, front-line practitioners, and community-based organizations to prevent and counter radicalization to violence across Canada, with $7 million available each year for new and existing projects. The 2019 call for proposals was based on the three priority areas identified within the National Strategy on Countering Radicalization to Violence (National Strategy) including: 1) building, sharing and using knowledge, 2) addressing radicalization to violence in the online space, and 3) supporting interventions. The 2019 CRF call for applications also saw the addition of a fourth funding stream – youth-led projects. This stream was made available to empower projects for youth, led by youth, using a streamlined version of the application to ensure enhanced accessibility of the fund.

Human trafficking

Canada’s 2012-16 National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking underwent a formal horizontal evaluation and the findings were published in December 2017. The evaluation recommendations called for improved capacity to collect national data on human trafficking; a mechanism to connect victims with access to dedicated services; and closer partnerships with other levels of government, Indigenous communities, civil society, the private sector, and bilateral and multilateral partners. The evaluation will help inform the Government of Canada’s way forward in combatting human trafficking.

In September and October 2018, Public Safety Canada (Public Safety) held human trafficking consultations across the country to gather stakeholder views on challenges and gaps in the federal response to trafficking in persons, to inform the development of Canada’s new national strategy to combat human trafficking.

Federal Budget 2018 announced $14.51 million over five years and $2.89 million per year ongoing to put in place a National Human Trafficking Hotline. In October 2018, following an open call for applications, the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, a non-governmental organization (NGO), was selected through Public Safety Canada’s Contribution Program to Combat Serious and Organized Crime (CPCSOC) to implement Canada’s Human Trafficking Hotline. The Hotline was officially launched on May 29, 2019 and is operational 24/7, 365 days a year with multilingual services to allow victims to easily access the help they need.

Correctional Service of Canada

The work that CSC conducts in advancing the WPS agenda is primarily funded by GAC and thus may change from year to year.

Conclusion

While the department’s primary mission is domestic, it is contributing to the implementation of Canada’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security through its work on countering radicalization to violence, human trafficking, and other internationally connected efforts.