4.0 Legal Remedies for Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence Toolkit

The Legal Remedies for Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) Toolkit is a guide to help women  and frontline anti-violence workers better understand the legal causes of action available in response to various forms of TFGBV. It may be read on its own, or in combination with the Preserving Digital Evidence of Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence Toolkit, which details the importance of collecting evidence of TFGBV and how such evidence can be preserved, and introduced in legal proceedings.

Technology misuse is becoming an increasingly common component of gender-based violence. Technology is not the problem; the problem is the underlying pattern of violent and misogynist behaviour that presents itself in digital forms. Technology-facilitated gender-based violence is when technology is misused by perpetrators to commit violent abusive acts including domestic violence, harassment (stalking), sexual assault, impersonation, extortion, and the non-consensual filming and sharing of intimate images.

This Toolkit contains a variety of resources. It is recommended that you begin with Legal Protections for TFGBV: What Laws Apply to You? before proceeding to resources that are useful and applicable to your particular situation.

This toolkit provides general legal information and does not constitute legal advice.

A Note on Language

In this toolkit, we will sometimes use the word woman/women and feminine pronouns for simplicity and to recognize the significant impact technology-facilitated violence has on women and girls. We recognize that TFGBV also impacts trans, non-binary, and Two-Spirit people. We hope that all people impacted by TFGBV will find these documents useful.

Word of Caution

This toolkit is available as read-only on this website with an option to download the PDF versions of each document. If you are reading this toolkit on a device that may be monitored by your abuser, do not download the PDF versions as they will automatically save in your downloads folder. If you think that someone is monitoring your phone, use a different device that the person cannot access (and that they have not had access to in the past), such as a computer at a library or a friend's phone. You can also use sheltersafe.ca to find a shelter/transition house near you to discuss options with an anti-violence worker.

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