Women’s Shelters Canada welcomes yesterday’s announcement by The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue, of planned measures to prevent economic abuse. We agree that Canada’s financial institutions have a critical role to play in the early detection of abuse and the provision of safe pathways for survivors.
This is why we’re calling on the federal government to make this Code of Conduct mandatory, rather than voluntary. As Min. Champagne said, “economic abuse can destroy lives and independence.” This change cannot be opt-in when women’s livelihoods – and lives – are literally at stake.
Economic abuse deserves an all-of-society approach involving institutional change from all sectors, especially financial institutions. WSC has been engaging with financial institutions, the CBA, and the federal government on addressing this issue for over a year. This is a promising step forward for survivors across the country, while much more remains to be done.
We look forward to working with the federal government on this Code of Conduct, particularly in how institutions can mitigate digital financial abuse. For more information on digital financial abuse, see our recently released Digital Financial Abuse Toolkit.