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Home / Cases and Law Reform / Issue Areas
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ISsue Area

Gender-Based Violence

Gender-based violence are acts of violence committed against women, transgender and gender diverse people because of their gender, gender identity, gender expression, or perceived gender. Women and gender diverse people are disproportionate targets of gender-based violence, including intimate-partner violence.   

LEAF argued before the Supreme Court that women who should be entitled to raise the defence of duress under Canadian criminal law in the context of intimate partner violence.   

Colonialism and racism are root causes of violent victimization of Indigenous women. LEAF long advocated for the National Inquiry into the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and has called for the implementation of the Inquiry’s urgent Calls for Justice. 

LEAF is also developing an expertise on how technology is exacerbating acts of gender-based violence both online and offline. LEAF intervened in the first Supreme Court of Canada case concerning the scope of the voyeurism provision in the Criminal Code about a high school teacher who used a camera pen to secretly film his students’ faces and cleavage.  

LEAF will continue to advocate for needed reforms to legal processes, and urge a focus on prevention to create a positive shift in moving towards a world without gender-based violence.   

Related Projects

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Current Work

LEAF’s Technology-Facilitated Violence (TFV) Project

LEAF’s TFV project conducts research imagining legal responses to technology-facilitated gender-based violence
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Related Cases & Law Reform

Cases

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Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform v. Canada (Attorney General)

This case is about the constitutionality of Criminal Code sex work provisions. LEAF intervened before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Facts...

R. v. Brown

This case concerns the ability to use self-induced extreme intoxication as a defence to assault and sexual assault offences. LEAF intervened before...

Mass Casualty Commission

The Mass Casualty Commission is investigating the April 18-19, 2020 mass casualty event in Nova Scotia. LEAF is participating in...

Canadian Council for Refugees, et al. v. Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, et al. (2021, 2022)

This case concerns the constitutionality of the Safe Third Country Agreement, and the equality rights of women fleeing gender-based violence and...
See More

Submissions

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LEAF and NWAC joint letter in support of access to justice for Indigenous people in Canada
Submission on Nova Scotia’s review of the Intimate Images and Cyber-protection Act
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News

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Rights groups to argue in Supreme Court case that survivors of gender-based violence and their equality rights claims cannot be ignored by the courts 
LEAF tells Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice to meaningfully consider sex workers’ equality rights
See More
Cases and Law Reform
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    Related Workshop/Training/Webinar

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    Alternative Justice Responses for Sexual Assault Survivors: Why are they needed and do they work?
    What justice mechanisms for survivors exist as alternatives to the traditional criminal process?

    Related Factsheet

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    Unacceptable: Responding to Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence

    Related Publication

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    LEAF’s Feminist Strategic Litigation Plan 2022-2026
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    Facsimile: 416.595.7191

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    National Office
    180 Dundas Street West, Suite 1420
    Toronto, ON M5G 1Z8
    [email protected]
    Phone: 416.595.7170
    Toll-free: 1.888.824.5323
    Facsimile: 416.595.7191

    Charitable Registration Number: 10821 9916 RR0001

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      • Search Cases & Submissions
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