Family bill worries domestic violence support groups

Four groups supporting women who are victims of violence joined forces on Sunday to call for amendments to Bill 91, which would create a Unified Family Court within the Court of Quebec and require family mediation in the event of the separation of a couple with a child.

“In its current form, this bill raises serious concerns for women victims of domestic violence and their children,” warned Marie-Pier Riendeau, acting director general of the Fédération des associations des familles monoparentales et recomposées du Québec, at a joint press conference.

The groups fear that the situation of these women will worsen if the law is adopted without amendment.

Although the law provides an exemption for anyone claiming to be a victim, “many do not recognise themselves as victims, or fear reprisals if they ask to be exempted,” explained Manon Monatesse, Executive Director of the Fédération des maisons d’hébergement pour femmes.

Sabrina Lemeltier, the group’s administrator, notes that nearly half of the women sheltered in the past year by the Alliance des maisons d’hébergement de 2e étape pour femmes et enfants victims of post-separation domestic violence did not file a complaint.

To improve the situation, the organisations are calling, among other things, for systematic screening for domestic violence at the first stage of the legal process. At present, the law does not require any investigation into the control that one member of a couple exercises over the other. However, mediators are required to undergo basic training on violence.

“When victims end up in mediation, many of them end up bargaining by giving up their rights to sole custody of the child – for fear that the child will also be abused,” says Louise Rindeau, co-responsible for political issues at the Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale.

“There’s nothing free, voluntary, informed or egalitarian about the state in which she arrives at mediation. When she sits down next to her partner, there’s an imbalance of power, and that’s what domestic violence leads to, that’s the objective of domestic violence,” she continues.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews