Petition to the Government of Canada
  Whereas:
  
    Economic abuse is a deliberate pattern of control where individuals interfere with their partner’s ability to acquire, use, and maintain economic resources, being excluded from financial decision making, taking on debt unaware of the consequences or not being allowed to work/study;
    The lack of access to economic resources creates barriers to escaping violent relationships by preventing survivors from securing housing, makes it more difficult to get a credit card, student loan, line of credit, car loan, and potentially a job due to screening by some employers;
    In Canada, 95% of women who experience domestic violence also experience economic abuse;
    Women from marginalized groups including newcomers, refugees, racialized and Indigenous women are at a higher risk of economic abuse due to other systemic factors;
    Economic abuse often continues long after a woman has left the abusive relationship because abusers maintain control through spousal or child support as well as through other financial activities; and
    The Government of Canada has failed to address financial abuse and other forms of economic injustices in abusive relationships.
  
  
    
      We, the undersigned, Citizens and Residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to:
      1) Expand the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence and the Divorce Act to include economic abuse;
    
    2) Create a statutory definition of family and gender-based violence that is inclusive of economic abuse;
    3) Mandate Statistics Canada to begin collecting data and conduct studies on economic abuse;
    4) Expanding funding for services for survivors of domestic violence and economic abuse; and
    5) Recognize November 26th as the National Day of Awareness for Economic Abuse and Survivors of Economic Injustice.