(Quebec) Four new emergency shelters and shelters for women victims of domestic and sexual violence will soon open in the regions of Montreal, Outaouais and Abitibi-Témiscamingue, among others. If the needs for these resources exceed these additions, it is a first step, believes Louise Riendeau, of the Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victims de violence conjugale.
Posted at 3:37 p.m.
Mme Riendeau reacted Monday in Quebec to the filing of the Integrated Government Strategy to Counter Sexual Violence, Domestic Violence and Rebuilding Trust 2022-2027. When the last budget was tabled last March, the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, granted 324.9 million in new credits for this strategy. The Minister responsible for the Status of Women, Isabelle Charest, finally unveiled the details of this action plan.
The Legault government focuses its strategy on three axes, first for “prevention, awareness and screening”, which includes awareness campaigns, and then to improve “psychosocial, medical, judicial, police and correctional intervention “.
Measures are also aimed at “developing new aid and emergency shelters, supporting people who want to get out of prostitution, consolidating the funding of organizations that help victims of sexual assault and those helping men with violent behavior”.
Lots of work to do
For meme Riendeau, the most encouraging aspect of the plan tabled by Quebec is the fact that it is “scalable”. The various departments involved will meet with stakeholders in the field in order to measure and correct, if necessary, along the way, the measures they put in place.
With this strategy, the government says it is partially or fully responding to 166 of the report’s 190 recommendations rebuild trust on support for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence, tabled in December 2020. Pilot projects are also underway to create a Court specializing in matters of sexual violence and domestic violence, which will eventually, when deployed across Quebec, “to provide victims with better support before, during and even after the legal process”.
“We will have to look at the effects [de ces mesures] on victims’ confidence in the justice system. […] It will be necessary to see if the preventive measures lead to changes in mentality. It’s always difficult to measure, but I think there is a way to do it,” says Louise Riendeau.
“As long as boys and girls think that jealousy is a proof of love, as long as boys allow themselves to control their lovers, we will not have solved the problem,” she adds.
On the government side, Minister Isabelle Charest said Monday that the Secretariat for the Status of Women is currently developing an analysis grid that will set targets to assess the impact of the strategy.
Overview of the situation
According to the most recent data reported by police forces in Quebec, “women made up 76% of victims of domestic violence, 88% of victims of sexual assault and 95% of victims of crimes related to pimping and trafficking. of people,” the government recalled on Monday.
According to the same police data, men represent 77% of the alleged perpetrators of offenses committed in the context of domestic violence, 94.9% of the alleged perpetrators of sexual offenses and 89.6% of the alleged perpetrators of sexual exploitation offenses “, we added.