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2018-2019 Public Safety Canada departmental progress report for 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

In June 2017, the Government of Canada announced the launch of the Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence (Canada Centre), within Public Safety Canada. As a centre of excellence, the Canada Centre engages with and supports the efforts of key stakeholders including federal departments and agencies, provincial, territorial and municipal partners, researchers, community organizations, and frontline professionals working to prevent individuals from radicalizing to violence. Public Safety Canada has additionally been at the forefront of building the evidence base on countering radicalization to violence (CRV) through initiatives such as the Kanishka Project (2011-2015). The Canada Centre’s Community Resilience Fund, launched in 2017, provides funding to improve Canada’s ability to address radicalization to violence at the local level by supporting research, intervention programming and outreach activities.

Gender considerations have a central place in the National Strategy on Countering Radicalization to Violence (Strategy), released in December 2018. Guided by the Strategy, the Canada Centre continues to work with frontline practitioners and subject matter experts across Canada to integrate the tenets of the WPS agenda, with special attention to the specific needs, risks, and strengths of diverse neighbourhoods, communities, families, women and youth that exist in particular places and at specific times. A particular focus of the strategy is to ensure that local intervention and prevention efforts across Canada are integrating a thorough consideration of gender, diversity, and the role of women into policy, program design, research, and measurement and evaluation tools. The Strategy also continues to make connections between CRV approaches and existing capabilities and expertise at the local level or in closely related fields such as crime prevention, efforts to combat hate and conflict, and public and clinical health.

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 improving capacity to collect national data on human trafficking; implementing a mechanism to connect victims with access to dedicated services; and forging 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 held human trafficking consultations across the country to gather stakeholder views on existing challenges and gaps in the federal response to trafficking in persons, and 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.

Countering radicalization to violence

Completed Activities

The Canada Centre has continued to integrate a thorough consideration of gender, diversity and the role of women in its collaboration and sharing of lessons with partners, internationally and domestically:

In addition, the Canada Centre developed Gender-Based Analysis+ guidance for Community Resilience Fund (CRF) funding applicants, along with criteria for assessing their approach. The Canada Centre will gather and analyze data from CRF projects through performance measurement tools to examine how gender and other identity factors are considered, with the aim of supporting more effective prevention and intervention efforts.

Results and Progress

The Canada Centre has, from the outset, woven gender analysis into countering radicalization to violence (CRV)-related research, partnerships, and program investment through the Community Resilience Fund (CRF). A number of projects funded through the Community Resilience Fund are concerned with the nexus of gender and security. For example, with funding to better understand right-wing extremism in Canada, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology is expected to examine gendered aspects of the movement, including misogynistic violence. Similarly, as part of its work to understand vulnerability to online recruitment, including search and consumption patterns of harmful content online, the Canada Redirect initiative is looking at the links between violent extremism and gender-based violence. As well, several CRF-funded initiatives that are long-term, multi-agency programs to intervene with individuals considered as potentially at risk of involvement in violent extremism are also involved in extensive evaluation studies. The latter include a focus on gender, and are expected to contribute significantly to the evidence base in Canada on GBA+ aspects of program design and implementation for countering radicalization to violence.

Human trafficking

Completed Activities

Results and Progress

Building on Canada’s past and existing anti-human trafficking efforts, Canada is exploring options for a new whole-of-government strategy to combat human trafficking, as announced in the 2019 federal Budget. This new national strategy will be informed by the previous National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking and extensive consultations with stakeholders held across Canada in 2018.

As a result of Public Safety Canada’s funded contribution programs, a number of resources and support services for human trafficking victims and survivors have been developed, including housing response models for shelters that specifically address their needs. These housing models also focus on the cultural and gender-specific needs of vulnerable and marginalized populations, including at-risk youth, women and girls, Indigenous Peoples, homeless youth, and those identifying as LGBTQ2. In addition, the organizations developed best practices and lessons learned to share with other NGOs and human trafficking service providers across the country.

Correctional Service of Canada

Completed Activities

The Group of Friends of Corrections in Peace Operations (GoF) is a forum for the provision of political, technical, and personnel support to corrections work in United Nations (UN) peace operations. Specifically, the GoF aims to strengthen the strategic role of corrections in regards to mandates and resource allocation of UN peace operations, support critical activities for the re-establishment and strengthening of prison services in host countries of UN peace operations, promote the deployment of high-caliber corrections experts, and facilitate the exchange of good practices among international corrections experts on addressing challenges in conflict and post-conflict settings. Canada (as represented by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC)) has been a member of the GoF since 2011, and held Chair responsibilities from 2015 to early 2018. Current and ongoing GoF initiatives related to WPS are as follows:

Results and Progress

As a leader within the global corrections community, CSC has continued to play a contributory role in the provision of WPS-related priorities of the GoF including:

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