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Suzanne Zaccour

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 5, 2023
Context: Extradition Law Reform (JUST) - Oct/5/23
Ms. Suzanne Zaccour (Director of Legal Affairs, National Association of Women and the Law)
  • 05:09:08 p.m.
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I'll be brief because I think everything has been said. My name is Suzanne Zaccour, and I'm the Director of Legal Affairs for the National Association of Women and the Law. NAWL is a not-for-profit organization that works to advance women's rights in Canada, including in the legislative process. I'm always happy to come here and talk to you about legal issues that are gendered and that affect women in Canada. We worked with other feminist lawyers and organizations to submit a brief when Bill S‑12 was in the Senate. We collaborated to highlight three important objectives. We highlighted the need to ensure that victims are not criminalized for failing to comply with a publication ban. We highlighted the need to clarify and simplify the process for revoking or varying a publication ban. Quite frankly, it needs to be much clearer. These are not necessarily lawyers who are engaging with this process. We also highlighted the need to ensure that victims are adequately informed throughout the process. Our position is that the Senate amendments are positive and have brought about a lot of progress in this bill to fulfill these three objectives. I will call to your attention a minor detail. It's the language about a person being “subject to the order” rather than “subject of the order” in the “Limitation” section of the bill. I'm not so concerned, since the French version is correct, but we know how difficult this process is, so perhaps we can avoid litigation or having to do complex interpretation by just clarifying that the limitation applies to people who are “subject of the order”, whose identity is protected by the order, rather than to those who are “subject to the order”, which is everybody, because everyone needs to respect a publication ban. I have more to say, but I know we're pressed for time, so I'm going to stop here. We'll be happy to answer questions. Thank you.
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