Another feminicide. This time it’s Donna Callahan. “Miss Donna” worked for over 20 years in the daycare service at St. John’s English School in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. In the words of Alexis Lanctôt, mother of two children attending this school: “She was a very nice lady and an emblem of our school. Knowing that she was going through such things at home while smiling here is disturbing. »
This invisible prison, this unseen violence, leaves indelible traces in our communities. “His death will leave many questions, especially for the children,” school principal Colleen Lauzier said in an email sent to parents on Sunday.
Yet most of the time, children already experience this violence. It occurs in their homes, it is at the heart of several divorces and appears from their first love experiences. Indeed, surveys reveal that more than a quarter of young Quebecers have suffered or inflicted violence in the context of a romantic relationship, we read in the Quebec report on violence and health of the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec.
The “shock” aroused by feminicides therefore takes root in everyday life, from early childhood. It is in the gendered education that is transmitted to children, in the violence that is romanticized (even eroticized) on the screen as well as in the stereotyped roles that are attributed to “men” and “women”. The immobility of our institutions contributes just as much to the problem, “Specialized Court” or not. The reason being that the vast majority of our collective efforts are placed “once the crime has been committed”, rather than acting upstream, ie in prevention.
Access to help or support is drowned in endless waiting lists (lack of resources), and therapy programs aimed at deconstructing violent behavior are often inaccessible without criminal conviction first. This is a poor targeting of the needs of those most affected, because for most, the ultimate wish is for the violence to stop. Not to clog the system with expensive, endless and above all revictimizing procedures.
Continuing to do things backwards is the reason why we continue to massively fail victims. We can no longer wait for them to “denounce” to act. Especially for those who are also without status, with disabilities or who live on the margins of society. We know the problem, and the solutions already exist in many reports gathering dust. This betrayal is even worse for First Nations and Inuit women who disappear into the greatest of silences.
Knowing that the government of Quebec has just refused to adhere to the “National action plan to put an end to gender-based violence”, that it has implemented practically none of the recommendations of the report of the Viens et that he continues to turn a deaf ear to the demands of the youth collective La voix des jeunes count (which has been calling for more prevention and awareness-raising in schools for more than five years) is disturbing, even appalling.
However, it is not expertise that is lacking in Quebec. It is even recognized internationally and elsewhere in Canada. It is sad to see that the political game, the silos between departments and levels of government always outweigh the urgency to act. I dream of the day when stories like Donna’s will bring out the truth that we deserve better as a society. She deserved – like all of us – to be heard and protected, because “we never kill for love”, an expression that refers to the first short film, in partnership with the Collectif Collages féminicides Montréal, by Manon Testud, as well as the short documentary by Kevin Gay.