News Release
February 26, 2024 — Brampton, Ontario
On Thursday, February 22nd, Sonia Sidhu, Member of Parliament for Brampton South, joined her colleagues at Victim Services of Peel to commemorate the launch of the This Way Out program, previously announced in December 2023.
MP Sonia Sidhu delivered remarks about the importance of this program to survivors, families, and the community.
This program was first announced 6 months after the region of Peel unanimously voted to declare gender and intimate-partner violence an epidemic in June 2023.
The This Way Out program will address and counter Gender-based violence (GBV) by:
- Developing and putting in place the HALT (Helping Alliances with Law Enforcement and Trafficking) model, which will allow Victim Services of Peel to collaborate with Peel Regional Police on human trafficking investigations.
- Providing real-time support to human trafficking victims at the time of a police response; and
- Building on the previously announced 10-year National Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence; which was announced by the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers responsible for the Status of Women in November 2022.
Gender-based violence (GBV) does not just affect the victims; it affects everybody in the community directly or indirectly. It is essential to prevent and address gender-based violence for the sake of all people in the community and to continue to support victims in as they fight to survive, escape, and thrive.
Quotes
“Today, we are moving from reports to real action. The investment of $586,000 to Victim Services of Peel for their project This Way Out, will prevent and address gender-based violence. One of the core recommendations of our Status of Women Committee’s report was to fund the real grassroots collaboration on human trafficking investigations and immediate on-scene response to strengthen the GBV sector.”
— Sonia Sidhu, Member of Parliament for Brampton South
“On behalf of Victim Services of Peel and the tens of thousands of victims we help each year, I would like to express our deepest gratitude to Women and Gender Equality Canada for their investment in systems innovation and promising practices to address gender-based violence in Peel Region. This Way Out project is an integrated approach to increase multi-sector collaboration, making it easier for human trafficking victims to access supports by decreasing barriers and journey their way to becoming survivors. This project will save hundreds of lives in Peel Region and lay the groundwork for systemic change in other regions across Canada.”
— Sarah Rogers, Executive Director, Victim Services of Peel
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