Advocacy

Advocacy for system change has been a key part of our work since our doors opened in 2003.

Women leaving relationships in which they have been subjected to abuse encounter many systems, including the family law/court system, that do not fully understand the dynamics of abuse or the structural framework within which much family violence occurs.

Luke’s Place was born from advocacy in response to the death of Luke Schillings, who was killed by his father during unsupervised access time shortly after his mother, taking Luke with her, left the abusive marriage. The Durham community came together to advocate for changes to systemic responses that put women and their children at risk of ongoing, sometimes lethal harm.

Advocating for individual women

We advocate for the women we serve on an individual level in Durham Region:

• With Legal Aid Ontario, when a woman has trouble getting a certificate
• With lawyers, if women have challenges communicating effectively with them
• With court services, when women encounter barriers to accessing those services

Systemic advocacy

We identify trends—both positive and negative—in the experiences of women in our community and their workers and use these trends as the starting point for our systemic advocacy work.

Locally

We advocate for system change in our local community of Durham Region:

• As a member of Durham Region's Violence Prevention Coordinating Council to raise systemic issues faced by the women we serve
• Through close communication with the Durham Regional Police Service to address women’s safety concerns and issues
• With the local family law bar
• Through regular consultations with regional politicians, MPPs and MPs
• By raising awareness about violence against women and family law in area media and at public events

Provincially

We advocate for system change provincially:

• Through case interventions at the Ontario Court of Appeal
• Through leading our provincial Feminist Law and Policy Reform Coalition
• By our membership on the province’s Violence Against Women Roundtable (no longer in existence)
• Through submissions to legislative committees
• Through ongoing consultation with the Attorney General and the Ministry of the Attorney General, the Associate Minister of Women’s and Children’s Issues, the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, the offices of the Chief Justices, and other key decision-makers
• By providing frequent commentary on the issue of violence against women and family law with provincial media, including the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Global Television, and CBC radio and television

Nationally

We advocate for system change nationally:

• By sitting on and sometimes leading national law and policy reform advocacy efforts
• Through submissions to parliamentary committees
• Through ongoing consultations with the Department of Justice and the Women and Gender Equality Canada
• By working in coalition with other gender-based violence and women’s equality organizations across the country
• By providing frequent commentary on the issue of violence against women and family law with national media, including Chatelaine Magazine, the Walrus, the Globe and Mail, Global Television, CTV, Bellmedia, and CBC national radio and television
• By partnering with the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) to form a national coalition, The Chanterelle Alliance for Feminist Law Reform. We remain an engaged member of this powerful coalition.

Law and policy reform

We have been involved in a number of law and policy reform advocacy initiatives, including:

• We prepared a discussion paper outlining the history of mandatory charging policies and how these policies have negatively affected many survivors. We wrote this paper to support our call for a review and to highlight the importance of addressing this issue without any further delay.
• Our staff team came together for a group discussion about whether or not we think coercive control should be criminalized. While perspectives differed widely, we reached a common ground that forms the basis for the position Luke’s Place is taking with respect to the criminalization of coercive control. Read our written submission to the Department of Justice
• Ahluwalia v. Ahluwalia: Luke’s Place intervened along with the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic at the Ontario Court of Appeal to argue that the tort of family violence should be upheld – Factum of Intervenor. We also intervened at the Supreme Court of Canada in this case. Learn more and see a copy of our Memorandum of Argument for the Supreme Court
• Bill 173: We heavily advocated for the passing of Bill 173 without delay to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic in Ontario. We testified before the Standing Committee on Justice and Policy in support of Bill 173, to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic in Ontario. We also submitted a written Brief. Learn more about our advocacy related to this Bill
• Bill C-233 (Keira's Law): Luke's Place presented before the Standing Committee on the Status of Women and submitted a discussion paper in support of this legislation. We also responded to an open call for feedback from the National Judicial Institute (NJI) about the topics that should be included in future judicial training and education. Learn more about our advocacy related to this Bill
• Bill C-332: Luke's Place appeared before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights and also submitted a written submission endorsed by several other feminist organizations regarding the criminalization of coercive control. LEAF and Luke's Place collaborated to develop a policy brief on criminalization of coercive control for Canadian Women's Foundation. We also submitted a brief called “Criminalization of Coercive Control: Effective Implementation” to the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, recommending the delayed implementation of criminalization to ensure the proper foundation is built to support survivors of IPV in meaningfully engaging with the criminal justice system before adding a new criminal offence. Learn more about our advocacy related to this Bill
• We prepared a brief on recommendations to the Standing Committee on the Status of Women for their study of coercive control
• Criminalizing Coercive Control: Unintended Consequences and Alternative Approaches, Joint Policy Brief for the Canadian Women's Foundation by Emily Murray, Luke's Place, and Roxana Parsa, LEAF, 2023
• We advocated with Legal Aid Ontario for an expansion of the financial eligibility criteria for the family law certificate program – see a copy of our written submission on financial eligibility. We also provided written submissions about their proposal for tariff reforms and recommended a number of other changes to ensure survivors of intimate partner violence have access to effective legal representation. Our submission was endorsed by other GBV organizations
• We advocated for the implementation of the 86 jury recommendations from the Inquest into the death of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam and created an Inquest Advocacy Toolkit to support other organizations advocate for implementation. Learn more about our advocacy related to the CKW inquest
• Bill C-21: Luke's Place joined other feminist organizations in opposing this legislation, calling on parliament to enact legislation to adequately address gun control in cases involving intimate partner violence. Learn more about our advocacy related to this Bill
• Bill 207: Luke's Place wrote a brief which was endorsed by more than 25 organizations and made a submission to the Justice Committee on this bill that would bring provincial laws into alignment with the federal Divorce Act. Learn more about our advocacy related to this Bill
• Bill 161: Luke's Place presented to the Standing Committee on Justice Policy regarding Bill 161: The Stronger and Smarter Justice Act. Learn more about our advocacy related to this Bill
• Bill C-78: Luke’s Place and NAWL (National Association of Women and the Law) led a national coalition of women’s equality organizations to respond to this legislation, which proposed significant reforms to Canada’s Divorce Act. We wrote a discussion paper and a Brief, met with senior Department of Justice staff, and presented the Brief to the House of Commons and Senate Committees. Learn more about our advocacy related to this Bill
• Through the VAW Roundtable and discussions with the Attorney General, we stopped a plan by the provincial government to increase family court fees
• Ongoing consultations with provincial governments with respect to provincial family laws, including issues relating to women’s safety and the best interests of children
• Expansion of financial eligibility for victims of domestic violence by Legal Aid Ontario
• Ensuring the safety of women and the best interests of children were at the forefront in public policy decisions made during COVID-19
• Discussion Paper and Joint Brief on Bill C-78: An Act to amend the Divorce Act, October 2018
• Signatory on NAWL-prepared Brief on Bill C-5 (mandatory sexual assault education for judges) to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights