On this day of commemoration, the fight of women is exposed in the literal sense in the streets of Kiev and elsewhere in Ukraine, where Russia leads a merciless fight, which defies all understanding. Women roam their country with weapons in hand and shoulder, new warriors of fortune, determined in their convictions and ready to fight.
The battle. Struggles. The fight. Year after year, it is inevitably from this angle that progress or setbacks in the mined field of equal rights between men and women are dissected. It is less common, however, to dwell on the inhuman conditions created by war for women — female soldiers who learned to handle weapons in an emergency; women mothers, sisters, lovers, daughters, having abandoned their homes and had to leave relatives conscripted in combat; women journalists, whose mission of informing and protecting freedom of the press, a pillar of democracy, is more necessary than ever, as evidenced by their courageous and vibrantly relevant reports.
Achievements, even won in a fierce struggle, are fragile. The pandemic has shown this on another front. In two years, the Conseil du statut de la femme recently recalled, the economic health of women has taken a toll: greater job losses than among men, slightly higher unemployment rate, not to mention the unfavorable gap income that remains. Research just conducted at Concordia University estimates that women have been twice as vulnerable as men, employment-wise, during the pandemic.
In this long period of compulsory isolation and confinement, women already weakened by domestic violence have paid a heavy price for this confinement – some even with their lives. No one has forgotten the first ten weeks of 2021, each punctuated by an additional feminicide, leaving Quebec speechless.
The duty adds a stone today to this file of extreme importance with an investigation revealing that nearly half of the men who would have killed their spouse in 2021 were already known to the courts. These repeat offenders, sometimes showing a path strewn with different victims in as many different cities, have reaped “second chances”, convinced who a judge, who a peace officer, that hopes of rehabilitation would be enough to stifle a risk for society. — read here about other women or even ex-spouses who live for years in fear of being found by a dangerous “lover”.
The testimonies and stories collected in our investigation give chills: a repeat offender listed 51 times in the docket, including 11 times for domestic violence charges, convinced the judge that he did not pose a risk to the safety of his ex- spouse, as he intended to move to another city. Ten days later, he killed her, then took his own life. Another pleaded guilty six times in domestic violence cases, on six different companions, in six different cities. His latest victim knew nothing of the violent past of his ex-husband, who will serve a ten-year sentence. It was our reporter who told him he was a notorious repeat offender.
“How many times will the justice system give second chances? asked Suzie Levasseur to our journalist Améli Pineda. Mme Levasseur knows what she is talking about: the shelter she coordinates, in Baie-Comeau, welcomes women “presenting a high risk of being murdered”. The year 2021, alas, comes to demonstrate with its sad picture the importance of evaluating the potential danger of the aggressors by taking into account their entire file, which – incredible, but true – is far from always being fact, as the Coroner’s Office’s Domestic Violence Death Review Committee noted in its first report.
Assessing the risk of recidivism is not an exact science, we agree. However, the protection of the public would be better served if we had better support services for aggressors, a sector that is still poor despite calls for it. In its first report, accompanied by 190 recommendations, the Committee of Experts on Support for Victims of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence also suggested that an inventory be made in this regard, since the lack of data goes from par with the desert of services.
Quebec has just taken an interesting step by allowing the anti-reconciliation bracelet, this electronic geolocation tool allowing the offender to be linked to the victim to ensure that court orders are respected. This is a beneficial measure for women who will accept this device to regain control of their lives and reduce the constant fear in which some live day and night. A tool in the arsenal of these women who lead the fight of their life.