Montreal Sexual Assault Centre losing key support service after Santé Québec cuts
Posted July 13, 2025 3:22 pm.
Last Updated July 13, 2025 6:25 pm.
The Montreal Sexual Assault Centre announced it will end a key support service for teams assisting sexual assault victims in Quebec following a funding cut by Santé Québec.
These designated centres—often located in hospital emergency rooms across Quebec—provide medical care, psychosocial support, and forensic evidence collection to survivors.
Deborah Trent, executive director of the Montreal Sexual Assault Centre, explained the service being cut.
“The service that is being cut by Santé Québec, after much negotiation and after having provided the service since 2019, is a support service for the teams who work in the designated centres,” she said.
Why the Service Matters
Trent described the complexity of the intervention provided at designated centres and the critical role of ongoing support for frontline workers.
“The intervention, the medical social intervention that’s provided in a designated centre, is a fairly complex intervention,” she said. “It’s the same intervention… throughout the province of Quebec.”
“There is a very standardized uniform method of gathering this evidence. And it’s… complicated because you might work in a designated centre where you see a lot of cases, so you develop a lot of expertise, but you might be in a rural community where your level of expertise is perhaps less just because of the volume of the cases that you work with.”
Gathering forensic evidence requires strict procedures because it may be used in legal proceedings, but above all, “providing emotional support to the person,” during this difficult time, “is the first and foremost of the objectives,” Trent emphasized.
The support service provided by the Montreal Sexual Assault Centre since 2019 has offered training, information, and best practices development for teams working in designated centres.
Impact on Survivors
Trent warned that the funding cut could have significant consequences.
“The intervention, it requires skill and support,” she said. “It means you want your teams to be properly trained… to provide expertise from the different professionals who provide who are involved in the medical social intervention.”
Collaboration between healthcare, police, forensic laboratories, and legal professionals is crucial to ensure the best outcomes for survivors, she noted.
“All of this expertise was used to provide the support and develop the best practices to be able to respond to the needs of the victim,” Trent said. “Everything that we did in the support service was really focused always on, but what does the victim need? If we made a decision about what is the best practice, it was always related to how can we do this? How can we gather this evidence? How can we make this experience, which is already difficult, the best experience possible in a difficult situation?”
Santé Québec Responds
CityNews reached out to Santé Québec, who said the funding reduction is linked to the expiration of the agreement transferred by the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS), which was set to expire on January 20 and did not include funding for renewal.
The agency emphasized that the goal was to identify and share expertise within the health and social services network (RSSS) to address shared needs.
Santé Québec stressed the importance of services for victims of sexual assault and explained that it has developed a transition plan that uses existing resources within the RSSS.
The agency also said it offered a temporary renewal to support a smooth transition, but this offer was not accepted.
Santé Québec clarified that misinformation is circulating about the funding situation: the non-renewed funds only affect staff support. The changes will have no impact on the services offered to victims of sexual assault. All designated centres continue to provide support, with dedicated staff maintaining secure care and service pathways.
Finally, Santé Québec confirmed it has the necessary staff and expertise within the health and social services network to continue the work previously performed by the Montreal Sexual Assault Centre, including training and professional guidance services for staff.
What’s next?
Starting January 2025, Santé Québec will take over the support service. Meanwhile, the Montreal Sexual Assault Centre will continue to offer other programs, including a 24/7 helpline and local services.
“At the moment, because we’re not able to provide the service in the manner that we have done throughout the past six years, it’s no longer possible for us to continue. So, Santé Québec has indicated that they are going to continue and provide the service themselves,” Trent expressed.
Not closing, but changing
Trent emphasized the Montreal Sexual Assault Centre itself is not closing—only this particular support service is ending.
“We still provide the 24/7 listening line and help line, which also includes chat access. We’re based in Montreal and offer local services—we’re one of the designated medical centres in the city where people come to receive the services I’ve been describing. We will continue to do all of those things. It’s just that we made the decision that we couldn’t keep offering the training and professional support service during this transition period, at least not in the way it was previously structured. So we had to stop.”
If you need help, call the Montreal Sexual Assault Centre at 1 888-933-9007 or visit their website for more resources.
