Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister responsible for the Status of Women.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for the Status of Women.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the main provision of laws would be under the Criminal Code, and so there's quite a number obviously of potential areas where, depending on the nature of the events, someone who is a victim, or believes themselves to be a victim, could certainly go to the RCMP to take that route if they choose to, and anything ranging from harassment to threatening behavior to invitation to sexual behaviours, child pornography for another one, for instance. So there's quite a number of potentials, and it would certainly depend on each instance.
That, of course, is assuming that an individual wants to go the route of reporting to the RCMP, which certainly not every victim may want to do so, in which case there may in some circumstances be civil actions that an individual can take. At that point, Mr. Speaker, they may be well placed to reach out to an advocate like the Status of Women who I know can help connect people to the right tools depending on what they need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for that response, as she is not the Minister of Justice so I do appreciate that her background does allow her to know those answers.
My next question is that the Status of Women Council has created a safety planning tool that can be found at SafePathwayNT.com for those experiencing sexual violence.
Can the Minister speak to what these tools are, how they were developed, and how will be they be distributed in order to reach all the vulnerable communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I became aware of the unfortunate incident, the sexual violence that my colleague experienced. In doing so, I went myself to the Status of Women's page. I appreciate the plug that we've just had. They do have an incredible resource on there, quite innovative, that is trying to take a different way of looking at how women too often women, but anyone would be able to safety plan.
That information is only just starting to come out. In fact, having followed up I'm aware that they're putting packages together for MLAs right now, and we'll certainly be undertaking to circulate that to all colleagues here so that we can get it out to residents and information will be sent to all 33 communities, both in print form but then also I will also follow up and make sure that we're utilizing any and all other channels that we can use, Facebook and social media for instance, so that we can get that information out so that given that safety planning, unfortunately, remains a reality, that we can get information about how to do that out there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, risk factors that increase the risk of experiencing sexual violence in Canada include being a young woman or girl living in a remote or northern community, being Indigenous, an immigrant, or black, being disabled, or identifying as gender diverse or 2SLGBTQ+.
How is the work being done by the status of women being sorry, executed in order to specifically reach or help the most at risk? What accommodations are being made or steps being taken to protect those at risk given the small town nature of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, while I'm responsible in name for the status of women file, I'm not directly responsible for the functioning of the Council for Status of Women. But and I know that they are doing a number of initiatives and I'm you know, certainly will take whatever opportunity I can to table documents here to let people know the work they're doing.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I have been using my questions to sneak in a few more stats. So sexual violence is very underreported. Only five percent of sexual assaults are reported. Last year, I spoke about Clare's Law.
Is the NWT any closer to adopting this law to protect Northerners against intimate partner violence? Has there been any progress regarding GNWT process or procedures to ensure greater safety for our people dealing with sexual assault and violence? And I do recognize that's probably just a lot of the same responses as my last question. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is one where I think both my colleague, Minister of Justice, and I would have some relevance just to speak to this issue.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
