Hon. Frances Lankin: Honourable senators, my question is for the Government Representative in the Senate.

First of all, I would like to thank Senator Jaffer and Senator Gerba for their recent forum on the issue of female genital mutilation, and Senator Gold, this is the issue I wish to ask you a question about today.

In February 2021, Senator Jaffer requested data from you with respect to prosecutions under the Criminal Code that outlaw female genital mutilation. As you pointed out, the government doesn’t control the charges and prosecutions in that process, but the government is responsible for determining if their law is having the desired impact on, for example, justice for victims, penalizing the perpetrators found guilty and, certainly, as with most laws, general deterrence. Without having such data, it is hard to know whether this law is having an impact given that we do not see many prosecutions.

Since the government has been made aware of this — this was almost a year and a half ago — could you tell us what the government has done to gather such data, publicize it and what the impact of this Criminal Code provision has actually been since its inception? Thank you.