Quebec is preparing to cut its financial assistance to victims of crime under a reform adopted by the Legault government in 2021. The parents of a child seriously injured during the attack on a daycare in Laval, he a year ago today, are among those whose compensation now has an expiration date.
“When we tell you that, it’s a bit of a sword of Damocles. In two years, I have to be better,” summarizes Sébastien Courtois, who lives with the consequences of post-traumatic shock. His son Jules, who is now 5 years old, was seriously injured when a man drove a bus into a daycare in Laval on February 8, 2023. “We heard the politicians, Mr. Legault and Mr. Trudeau, when they came there, said that all the victims would be taken care of 100%. […] We shouldn’t come forward and say 100% when we don’t know the system,” he laments.
The day after the Laval attack, the Prime Minister of Quebec, François Legault, affirmed that his priority was to offer psychological support to those affected by the tragedy. “Agree to psychological help,” he pleaded. The reality turned out to be more complicated.
When he began suffering from nightmares, anxiety and hypervigilance in late 2023, Sébastien Courtois turned to the compensation scheme for victims of crime, IVAC, as had his wife, Virginia Duprat, in the weeks following the attack. Like his wife, he was told that his salary would be replaced at 90% — for a maximum of two years.
“Two years is short,” argues M.me Duprat. I think especially of [deux] families who have lost a child and I say to myself: reconstruction cannot be done in two years. »
Sentenced to welfare?
The payment of compensation by the IVAC did not have a time limit until it was modified, in 2021, by the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette. Since this reform, victims (direct or indirect) of criminal acts receive financial assistance for a maximum of two or three years, according to the criteria defined by law.
Next October, three years will have passed since the adoption of Minister Jolin-Barrette’s bill. As the deadline approaches, victims are receiving letters from IVAC these days notifying them of the upcoming end of their benefits. Their options? Obtain additional financial assistance, for a maximum of two years, and on condition of being in professional reintegration. Otherwise, victims are directed “towards other government programs”, responded to the Duty the Ministry of Justice and the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST).
“We are supposed to feel supported, not abandoned. I was told: “Prepare yourself, on October 13, 2024, you no longer have benefits”,” he told Duty Éric (fictitious name), a resident of the Capitale-Nationale who chose to withhold his real name in order to protect his privacy and “to be treated fairly” by the IVAC. “Since this announcement, I no longer have quality of life, my after-effects are increasing, I am anxious and I think about it constantly. Am I going to have to go bankrupt, lose my apartment? Will I be able to eat? » he asks himself. He has calculated that his benefits will drop from $2,000 to $800 per month if he has to turn to social assistance, as he fears he will have to do.
The Public Protector had expressed his concerns about the time limit during the study of the Jolin-Barrette reform. Today, it receives “complaints from citizens who realize that their compensation will stop in October 2024,” spokesperson Carole-Anne Thuot confirmed on Tuesday. The Quebec ombudsman had already “stressed that no time limit should exist and that assistance should end only if the victim’s injury is healed or their situation is consolidated,” she recalled.
“It’s going to scream in the fall”
Lawyer Marc Bellemare, who made IVAC-related cases his specialty, said he received two calls on this subject on Tuesday alone, when he spoke with The duty. “There is a woman who has been paid for eight years, who received the letter and who is losing money. She’s really failing,” he stressed.
The former Minister of Justice had sounded the alarm about the three-year delay during the study of Mr. Jolin-Barrette’s bill. Me Bellemare called the bill “despicable and regressive.” “You abandon them [les victimes], you throw them on the street after three years,” he told Minister Jolin-Barrette. Three years later, he hasn’t let up. What awaits victims after October 2024? “Social assistance,” he answers bluntly. Or you sell everything to qualify for welfare. It’s going to scream in the fall, it won’t be pretty. »
Lawyer Sophie Mongeon believes that the changes to the law are a “disaster”. “I have a client who was on a bus and he got stabbed. He has half of his stomach that isn’t even contained by his muscles; he doesn’t work at all. If this event had happened today, he would be financially bankrupt,” she explained. When possible, Me Mongeon tries to direct its clients towards compensation from the CNESST, where there is no time limit. “IVAC, I avoid it like the plague,” she said. The Ministry of Justice instead emphasizes that the Quebec regime is “the most generous in Canada”. Care, treatment and professional services can in particular be covered beyond the three-year period, argues the CNESST, to which the IVAC reports.
Eric, for his part, pleads for a new modification of the law. “Being post-traumatic is no fun, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. I hope there will be awareness. »