GRANT'S DESI ACHIEVER

A CASE FOR EMPOWERMENT

Deepa Mattoo is the Executive Director of Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic in Toronto.

By SHAGORIKA EASWAR

When the advisory to stay home as much as possible to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 first went out, people who work with abused women were very concerned.

“My instinctive response was, ‘Why are you saying that?’” says Deepa Mattoo, executive director of the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic. “Those who work in this sector know that safety is lacking in the very place we were asking women to stay in.”

Mattoo, the first woman of colour to hold the position, and possibly the youngest, was, sadly, proven right. Incidence of violence rose all over the globe, including in Canada during the lockdown period.

The kinds of violence also increased, she adds. Confined conditions, economic hardship, frustration, all become flash points when the respite provided by one or both partners leaving home for a period is no longer possible.

“Homes become a breeding ground for violence and the women have nowhere to go.” says Mattoo, who is also a lawyer by training.

As ED, her mandate is to ensure the clinic is trauma-informed, that the operations run smoothly and to make the platform available to those that need it. This became more critical during the lockdown because they didn’t close down completely with legal and interpretation services remaining open. Mattoo executed and led a hybrid model which allowed them to keep doors open with some of the team going in on some days and also many of the services being accessible virtually. Being service-ready took on a new meaning with the need to source PPE and sanitizers, etc.

The women come to them directly, or are sent by agencies and service providers. Hospitals that work with survivors of sexual assault and Victim Services also refer clients to them. The Indian consulate also refers clients.

More than 9000 women were served at the clinic in each of the past two 12-month periods. There’s a large number of women who are underserved because of unique needs, and then there’s the huge number of unserved women who can’t or don’t access help due to a variety of reasons.

International students being one such segment. “These young students are very smart, and yet I wonder with the kind of experiences I hear of from the community, if they are aware of the resources that are available to help,” says Mattoo.

Sex workers, people without status, all remain unserved, and are not reflected in data on violence that is experienced by women.

Before joining the clinic, Mattoo was executive director at the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario.

She is an adjunct and visiting faculty at Faculty of Law, University of Toronto and adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School.

She manages three important projects related to criminalization of women and risk assessment of gender-based violence.

“Find the voice you want to have.” Deepa Mattoo in Beijing.

She has trained thousands of service providers for best practices and legal education.

She has appeared before parliamentary committees and commissions on a wide range of social justice and human rights issues as well as acted as an observer at various fora such as Commission on the Status of Women at the UN.

And she has represented hundreds of clients at multiple tribunals and courts in multiple jurisdictions.

In 2017, Mattoo supervised the Clinic’s intervention at the Supreme Court of Canada on a case related to the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction, and appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada to offer the perspective of survivors of gender-based violence.

“We have an excellent team,” she maintains. “It’s all team work.”

Mattoo, the recipient of several awards including the Ontario Volunteer Service Award, the Spirit Of Barbra Schlifer Award, and the Maytree Foundation’s Leader for Change, is a passionate defender of women’s rights to safety, access to justice and self-determination and she works to create the possibility of freedom from violence, coercion and discrimination.

She is often consulted by shelters and government bodies. She agrees that she has an inherent understanding of the issues, can relate, and can connect the dots. But so can others, she insists.

“Other communities may not have the same points of reference, but you need the skills set to listen, and to understand. Experience of violence is related to misogyny – that’s a common element. Someone might say they’ve never experienced work-place harassment and therefore can’t relate. But I say we have all experienced power imbalance. Could be at home, at work, or out in the community. Translate that. Don’t co-opt it, don’t necessarily take it on, because then you’re listening but not helping. But be emotionally available.

“This work is tough. There’s vicarious trauma. And there’s the danger of becoming desensitized because one has seen so much – a case of ‘yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ve heard this before’. Self care is very important for those who want to help others.”

Mattoo’s passion for providing access to justice to the marginalized communities was sparked during her work at Guild of Service, an NGO that works with widows in Brindavan in India. She describes the experience as life-changing.

She could have gone into corporate law and enjoyed the perks, but left India for England in 2001 to pursue an MBA in corporate social responsibility to study how corporations could serve the not-for-profit sector. After getting her MBA, she worked at a cancer not-for-profit.

“I took on survival jobs to help pay for school, I know what being an international student can be like.”

She had married Harjot Singh Mangat, her classmate at law school, and says she came to Canada “for love”.

He had permanent residence in Canada and had sponsored her, but since it took time to process the applications – often a couple of years – he went to England so they could be together while they waited for her papers to come through.

“He moved between countries for love, too,” she says. “Sometimes I forget to say that!”

Her first job in Canada as a lawyer was co-ordinating a project for pro bono lawyers, getting them to donate their time. “I met many racialized women lawyers who said, ‘We need more like you’, and that’s why I am here, doing what I do. There are a lot of challenges, but it’s a privilege to be defending human rights.”

While doing her MBA, she was asked to imagine her career path. Mattoo recently went back to what she had envisioned for herself.

“I am pretty close to that mapping,” she says. “I had said I’d be working for a not-for-profit, and with newcomers.”

But getting there wasn’t smooth. She went through the whole new immigrant experience though she came with education and experience. Mattoo describes the journey as tough, but adds that the outcome depends on how you define what’s happening.

“Was it a struggle? Of course. How complex an experience was it? Very. I had a new baby and we had bills to pay. Did I get the job I wanted? No. But did I get a job? Yes. I learnt about appliances and sold appliances. And I’m grateful for the experience. I was able to help pay the bills and I met some fabulous people.

Among them, a lady who lived in her apartment building. If Mattoo was wondering how to make it to a job interview or even to do a grocery run during a snowstorm, she was sure to find the neighbour on her doorstep, offering to drive her. “I knew she had just come back from dropping her kids off at school, that she had stuff to take care of at home, and yet there she’d be, asking if there was some place I needed to go. I called her behenji (elder sister).”

The other was the lady Mattoo left her infant daughter with when she had to go to work.

They formed a strong bond.

“Women newcomers who have a baby face unique challenges,” says Mattoo, referencing her own experience. “They make career choices based on childcare needs. These women wanted me to succeed. I am so blessed.”

She also credits extended family on her husband’s side for support and love. “They may not always ‘get’ what I do, but they celebrate my work. They are very respectful of my ideologies. Every time I am quoted in media, they are so proud of it. We access professional networks for career advancement, but the role of family and community – people who love you and trust your choices – is equally important. I couldn’t do what I do without the support of my board of directors and my fantastic colleagues. I always say, I have a lot of women and one man behind me!”

The baby, Ashvira, she used to leave with the neighbour is now a “fierce feminist teenager”.

Along with a common passion for empowering women, mother and daughter also share a love for dance.

Mattoo had signed Ashvira up for dance lessons at Taal Academy as a toddler. One day, instead of just waiting for her outside during the lesson, she asked if there had classes for parents, too. And now, seven years later, she’s writing exams at Bharati Vidyapeeth in India for Kathak.

“I have to tell you that I am not the best dancer  in the room – my teacher, Shilpa Salve, whom we call tai, would love it if I practise a little more! But I do so love it and make the time for it.”

Mattoo tells young women who seek her advice on how to succeed in their chosen career paths, to identify their strengths and to hone them. And not to shy away from identifying their weaknesses.

“The high-pressure, merit-based system we come from tells us to hide our weaknesses but they make us what we are. Working on them can take you places. Identify them before someone else does. Should that happen, should someone else point out an area you need to work on, don’t dismiss it. Reflect upon it and be the agent of change for yourself first.

“Find the voice you want to have. Write, post YouTube videos! I see all these videos with people talking about their lives, they are not always the greatest quality, but I love them. They are so real, so authentic. Once people know this is who you are, you will see the change around you.”

Another vital insight she shares with other women is that it is okay to sometimes say no. “You don’t have to make everyone happy all the time.”

Mattoo finds the opportunity to make a difference, to bring about even a small change very rewarding.

“We are all custodians of this earth. If we can leave it a little better, we’d have paved the way for women who come after us. Just as the generation before us opened doors for us.”

She quotes Rumi: You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.

“Women are the entire ocean,” says Mattoo.

• Grant’s is proud to present this series about people who are making a difference in the community. Represented by PMA Canada (www.pmacanada.com).