Montreal police expand protocol to better protect domestic violence victims
Posted November 7, 2025 9:12 am.
Last Updated November 7, 2025 4:10 pm.
After an 18-month pilot project showed strong results, the Montreal police service (SPVM) is expanding a protocol focused on strangulation in cases of domestic violence across the entire city.
Developed in partnership with Quebec’s Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP), the initiative aims to improve how police identify, document, and investigate this serious form of violence — and to strengthen how the justice system responds.
Strangulation seen as a major warning sign
Studies show that when a person attempts to strangle their intimate partner, the risk that the victim will later be killed by that same person increases significantly. Strangulation is considered a grave act that deserves special attention.
“Following this conclusive experience, the decision was made to implement the project on a large scale and on a permanent basis throughout the SPVM’s territory. Police personnel from all our neighbourhood police stations and all our regional criminal investigation divisions will benefit from training in strangulation in the context of domestic violence,” said Inspector Anouk St-Onge, who leads the project.
St-Onge explained that the training now being rolled out across the island will help officers identify different forms of strangulation — even those that may leave no visible marks.
“We announced that the pilot project on strangulation, which was initially for region S and only included seven neighbourhood stations, will be deployed across the entire island — all three regions and all investigators,” she said. “Officers will implement the practices learned during strangulation training and also apply new practices regarding this kind of violence.”
She said the training includes a medical component to help officers recognize different types of strangulation, suffocation, or asphyxiation.
“In the training, a forensic pathologist explains the different forms of strangulation, suffocation or asphyxiation,” she said. “Officers were more used to the more traditional act of strangulation, which initially involved placing a hand on the neck, the choking. But now, they also learn that it’s not just the act of placing a hand on the neck or what is intended to prevent the person from breathing that constitutes the offence under section 267C. So there are other acts, like putting the entire weight of the assailant on the victim’s chest. But that, too, is an act under 267C. We can also think of a victim who is forced to pull their head underwater. That, too, is an act. It’s not only the act of strangulation that constitutes the offence under 267C. That’s relatively new.”
She added that the protocol includes a new “complement form” for victims, which guides officers through precise questions about symptoms that may not be visible.
“In fact, that’s precisely it. It’s a myth and a prejudice we have about strangulation, the idea that a victim who is strangled will automatically have marks on their neck, and that it will be completely invisible. But the reality is that in most cases, there’s… there’s nothing. That’s why you have to be attentive. Sometimes there are signs, but there are also symptoms, and the symptoms are invisible, like a sore throat or a sore head. That’s why the police officer has to ask questions. They have to ask the right questions, and that’s what they learn in training,” said St-Onge.
The goal, she said, is to ensure police identify medical risks early and improve both evidence collection and victim safety.
“By being better able to identify the gesture, or certain gestures, and by being more familiar with all the associated medical risks, police intervention is significantly improved. That’s the key. We improve police intervention, we improve the collection of evidence, because we mustn’t forget that our mission is, after all, to submit files to our colleagues at the DPCP (Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions). So the quality of the reports is improved. And for the DPCP, it’s worth mentioning, but it also facilitates their work at the judicial level. So, all of this benefits the victim, and by referring them, strongly suggesting they see a doctor, and advising them that they may experience symptoms in the coming days that could be extremely dangerous, and that they should go to the hospital, we can perhaps save lives.”
She said one reason the project matters is because strangulation is a key predictor of future femicide.
“The act of strangulation is a predictor of domestic homicide. We try to find ways to prevent domestic homicides, and sometimes it’s not so easy. But for a police officer, strangulation is a red flag. When a person has been strangled, it’s a significant act of domination and control over an intimate partner. We believe that if we improve police intervention, we also increase the chances of referring the case to a specialist, and that the person might find a way to escape this situation of domestic violence, or, if that’s the desired path, pursue legal action. This might allow them to go further than they initially thought possible to ensure their safety.”
A multidisciplinary response
The protocol takes a multidisciplinary approach to ensure better coordination between police, prosecutors, and victim services. Victims receive information about possible symptoms that may appear hours or days after an assault, and the SPVM’s forensic identification unit helps collect stronger physical evidence.
“By identifying risk factors and making appropriate representations before the court so that this crime is considered for what it is — a serious crime that is statistically a precursor to spousal homicide — the DPCP is proud of the implementation of this innovative and inspiring initiative, which contributes concretely to protecting victims,” explains Maya Ducasse-Hathi, a prosecutor specializing in domestic violence and head of protocol at the DPCP.
She noted that the article on assault by suffocation, suffocation, or strangulation (section 267(c) of the Criminal Code) was introduced into the Criminal Code in 2019.
“Training and improved evidence are also tools for prosecutors trying to determine who is the primary or dominant aggressor and to distinguish between what may constitute assault, as opposed to a defensive or protective act, in cases of cross-accusations, in order to prevent the justice system from being exploited,” she added.
Ducasse-Hathi said the 18-month pilot “showed great results” and that expanding the protocol will ensure consistency for victims across Montreal.
“It did show great results and that was really important for us,” she said. “Strangulation is a really serious offense and we do want to better intervene and have a trajectory, a police trajectory and a judicial trajectory for those cases. So that’s why it’s really important that all of Montreal implements this protocol and since the pilot project other Crown offices and other police services did also implement this protocol.”
She noted that strangulation is one of the strongest predictors of intimate partner homicide.
“It is an important predictor of homicide so it is 7.5 (per cent) more women who are more at risk to be killed by their partner if there are strangles so they can be killed in many ways but if they have been strangled in the past they are more likely to die so that’s why it’s so important to make good representation of how dangerous this offense is and as for strangulation itself it has a lot of health consequences as well so that’s why they’re so important to refer the victim to the hospital so she can get help so she won’t suffer health consequences in the long term as well.”
She said improved police training and coordination have already had an impact on the justice system.
“It is a work in progress to help victim trust the judicial system. I think if we work as a multidisciplinary team with police services and crowns and hopefully also victim services will work better and be able to help those victim trust the judicial system and hopefully our cases and sentences will be more fair to the dangerousness of this offense.”
Ducasse-Hathi said that since the pilot project began, the number of authorized domestic violence cases has risen significantly.
“Since the pilot project has been implemented in only the east of Montreal we’ve seen a rise of cases as well so we can see directly that there were 551 cases that were authorized in domestic violence cases in 2023 and we’re in 2024 we had 708 cases that are authorized so they’re not submitted but authorized by the Crown so we can see an impact on statistics of course.”
Pilot project showed clear progress
During the pilot phase in Montreal’s east end, police handled 348 strangulation cases. In 94.5 per cent of them, the victims were women, and 46 per cent had no visible injuries.
The pilot showed major improvements in how cases were documented. The number of incident reports that specifically mentioned strangulation rose from 66.7 per cent before the pilot to 86.9 per cent after. Mentions of related symptoms increased from 51.3 to 66.9 per cent, and referrals of victims to medical services rose from 35.7 to 60.8 per cent.
The pilot also gave officers practical tools that fit their work, including improved victim statement forms and specialized photography equipment that helped collect and preserve stronger evidence.
Prosecutor Laurent Gagné-Roy, who specializes in domestic violence at the Montreal courthouse, said the protocol makes a real difference in court.
“The enhanced training for police officers, the addition of investigative tools, including photographs with forensic lighting, and the improved victim statement forms greatly help us in our work. From the outset of the investigation, patrol officers are better equipped to observe and record recent signs of strangulation on the victim. During trial preparation, I am better able to understand how the crime unfolded, which helps me structure my interrogations. At trial, specialized officers provide even more reliable testimony about what they observed during their interaction with the victim,” emphasizes Laurent Gagné-Roy, a prosecutor specializing in domestic violence at the Montreal office.
Because strangulation often leaves no marks, Gagné-Roy said training has made a key difference.
“Strangulation very often doesn’t show. There are no marks or visible if you don’t know where to look. For example, one of the signs, one of the effects of strangulation would be that the victim’s eyes would be bloodshot eyes, red eyes. If you don’t know that, the police officer may not write it down in their report, but it’s a very well-documented sign of post-strangulation. So it was necessary to raise awareness to the officers of the effects of that so that their reports show what they actually saw on the scene.”
Ultimately, he said, the goal is to make victims safer and more confident in the system.
“This protocol also involves almost systematic referral to the hospital. Basically, the officers are trained to explain to the victim that it’s important to consult a doctor because symptoms may arise in the hours or days after the strangulation happened. The goal, of course, of this is to make the victims safer, feel safer, and enhance their trust in the whole system. We’re trying to help them in several ways, in more ways. So that’s what we hope.”
Interest from across Canada
In recent months, other police services in Quebec and prosecutors elsewhere in Canada have contacted the SPVM and the DPCP to learn more about the protocol. The issue of strangulation in domestic violence cases has also been added to the training offered by Quebec’s Specialized Court for Sexual and Domestic Violence.
“The SPVM and the DPCP are pleased to see the interest this project has generated. Some of our police partners are even interested in adopting it. Given that domestic violence is a sad reality that exists everywhere, sharing best practices to improve support for victims makes it even more important,” concluded Inspector St-Onge.
