“He never leaves me alone. It never stops. His goal is to destroy me, ”says Laura*, referring to the psychological violence she says she has suffered for five years from her ex-husband.
On November 3, 2017, Laura experiences an episode of domestic violence that leads the father of her children to plead guilty to a death threat charge.
Five days later, she filed for divorce in Superior Court. A procedure that drags him into a spiral of harassment.
Over the months, Laura receives five formal notices written by her ex-husband, who notably accuses her of fraud and of having conspired to obtain a false diagnosis of post-traumatic shock. Photos of Laura’s residence taken day and night, screenshots of Laura’s social networks and photos of one of her ex-dates are reproduced in the formal notices. Several people around him, including his doctor, his boss and his lawyer, also receive formal notices.
“I’m burnt out. He wants to keep my level of anxiety high all the time,” indignant Laura, who says she suffers from anxiety attacks.
quarrelsome litigant
For the divorce application, the man represents himself alone in court. There too the procedures are multiplying, to the point where the judge Pierre Labelle, of the Superior Court, declares the ex-husband quarrelsome litigant. In his judgment delivered in August 2018, the magistrate writes that “the defendant’s requests were all dismissed as frivolous, baseless, unnecessary and formless aimed at discrediting the authority of the Tribunal and exhausting [Laura] “.
The man was ordered to pay $12,500 to Laura “to compensate for the additional extrajudicial fees caused by this wrongful behavior”. A sum that Laura has never received, indicates her lawyer, Me Annick Gagnon-Doucet. “Her ex-husband never voluntarily paid child support either,” she said.
Judge Labelle noted in this regard that the man gave up several jobs in order not to pay alimony. “He even retaliated against an order to pay child support by quitting his job within hours of that order,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, Laura’s attorney fees continue to swell. To date, she has paid more than $75,000 in fees. “I find myself in a precarious financial situation while he [qui se représente seul] continue the pressure with the legal proceedings, ”she denounces.
An aberration of the justice system, she believes. Just like the fact that it was her ex-husband — who pleaded guilty to a death threat charge against her — who questioned her in Superior Court and in the Youth Division for divorce proceedings and for child care.
Several victims
At the end of the line, Laura filed a complaint in 2020 against her ex-husband for harassment. On May 31, 2022, Judge Claude Lachapelle, of the Court of Quebec, declared the latter guilty of having harassed Laura from July 16 to 28, 2020, in particular by sending her text messages without going through the communication book set up by the DPJ. In his judgment, the magistrate indicates that the man also communicated with Laura using an unknown number (after his had been blocked). The use of the nickname he gave to his ex-spouse betrayed him.
A modus operandi which he used with at least one other woman. On May 26, 2022, Judge Gianni Cuffaro, of the Municipal Court of Montreal, declared the same man guilty of harassment towards another ex-spouse for the period stretching from October 31, 2019 to 1er September 2020.
In his judgment, the magistrate notes that the lady had to block around fifty telephone numbers and email accounts that her ex-spouse used to try to communicate with her. “This is an individual who will ignore all the signs of psychological distress of the victim for the sole purpose of meeting his own needs,” said Judge Cuffaro.
*A fictitious first name is used to protect the identity of the woman testifying.