A/HRC/41/42/Add.1 culturally appropriate programmes and services create shame, which hinders indigenous women and LGBTQ2 people from gaining access to the legal system, healing resources and permanent, affordable housing. 56. The immigration and labour migration system implemented under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program allows Canadian employers to hire documented foreign nationals. In the case of foreign nationals who are undocumented, however, they face conditions of labour and economic scarcity and coercion, as well as a lack of access to social services, such as health care, which can lead to the criminalization and marginalization of migrant women and expose them to trafficking and sex work, with the related risks of detention and deportation. This has the perverse impact of disincentivizing women migrants from reporting rapes, assaults or other violations. E. Online violence against and harassment of women and girls 57. Online violence against women is an emerging issue in Canada. In the light of her thematic work on online violence against women and girls (A/HRC/38/47), the Special Rapporteur welcomes the country’s legislative response on this matter, the creation of a new offence under the Criminal Code regarding the non-consensual distribution of intimate images and the adoption of similar provisions in Alberta, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador. She also welcomes the budget allocation to invest in preventing teen dating violence and cyberbullying initiatives and the creation of the “Digital Inclusion Lab” within Global Affairs Canada, which is focusing on technology-facilitated violence against women and girls, digital threats to liberal democracy and artificial intelligence and human rights. She further welcomes the work carried out by the Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto, an interdisciplinary laboratory focusing on research, development and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights and global security while integrating a gender and diversitybased analysis. 27 Such good practices should be systemically implemented in all jurisdictions. F. Violence against women and girls relating to reproductive and sexual rights and health 58. While there are no criminal laws restricting access to abortion in Canada, the Special Rapporteur notes that the lack of access to safe abortion services continues to be a barrier for women, in particular those in rural or remote regions. 28 In addition, while there are no laws requiring parental consent nor imposing restrictions to abortion on the basis of age, young women seeking abortion services have reported experiencing stigmatization from health-care providers. 59. During her visit, the Special Rapporteur was also informed of several alleged cases of the forced sterilization of indigenous women in Canada. 29 After several women, in particular indigenous women, reported having been victims of this practice, there has been some official recognition of such episodes of gender-based violence. 60. In this regard, the Saskatoon Health Region apologized to indigenous women who had been coerced into surgery that prevented them from bearing more children and 27 28 29 Catherine Taylor, “Health and safety issues for aboriginal transgender/two spirit people in Manitoba”, Canadian Journal of Aboriginal Community-based HIV/AIDS Research, vol. 2 (2009), pp. 63–84. See https://citizenlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Final-UNSRVAG-CitizenLab.pdf. See Wendy V. Norman and others, “Barriers to rural induced abortion services in Canada: findings of the British Columbia abortion providers survey”, PLoS ONE, vol. 8, No. 6 (June 2013), e67023. See Amnesty International, “Canada: human rights promises must be backed by action”, submission for the thirtieth session of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, 2018, and Maurice Law Barristers & Solicitors, “Forced sterilization of indigenous women in Canada”, submission to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 9 February 2018. 11