Vigil in Pointe-aux-Trembles for Montreal woman fatally stabbed
Posted January 30, 2024 1:05 pm.
Last Updated January 30, 2024 7:22 pm.
Roses were placed outside the home Tuesday of the 32-year-old woman who was killed last week in Montreal’s Pointe-aux-Trembles.
Dozens attended the vigil for Narjess Ben Yedder, who was allegedly fatally stabbed.
“It’s horrible. It’s my neighbourhood. It’s supposed to be a safe area, especially for women in 2024. It’s just unimaginable,” said Patricia Higgins, a volunteer and board member at the Centre des Femmes de Montréal-Est/Pointe-aux-Trembles.
“We are thinking of the woman and her family, her friends. And that we need to be together, solidarity, for this not to happen again.”
Yedder’s husband, 42-year-old Mustapha Khalil Mechken, was charged Friday with second-degree murder.
“It’s quite simply a woman who was three months pregnant according to what we know from reports and who was stabbed 20 times,” Dorette Mekamdjio, director of the Centre des femmes de Montréal-Est/Pointe-aux-Trembles. “For us it’s sad to see that even today women are suffering this violence.”
Mechken made a brief appearance Monday morning at the Montreal courthouse via videoconference. He will remain detained until his next court appearance on March 19.
In an Instagram post by Collège Bois-de-Boulogne, Narjess is being remembered as “brilliant and appreciated.” She was a graduate of the Software Quality Specialist program.
“Sadness, of course,” said Info-Femmes coordinator Linda Basque, describing her emotions at the vigil. “One more young woman taken away way too soon. But also a lot of frustration and a lot of anger. We’re only still in January 2024 and we already have two femicides this year. So, a lot, lots of anger.”
Etni Cortés, a social worker with the Centre des femmes de Montréal-Est/Pointe-aux-Trembles, expressed feelings of frustration because “maybe… we could have done something.”
“It’s frustrating to know that we work very hard to make women know that they are not alone, that they can come to us, that we are ready to help them, but it’s not possible to help everybody and that is not easy,” Cortés said.
Basque feels the Quebec government is not doing enough “to prevent these tragedies from happening.”
“There are solutions and things that could be done and they refuse to take action,” she told CityNews.
“It’s important to fund women’s shelters, to have these very, very important resources for women. But we also have to work on prevention. We have to be able to accompany the women who don’t go to shelters.”
Chantal Rouleau, the CAQ MNA for Pointe-aux-Trembles, said Yedder’s death was “terrible” and there are “too many women… killed in the situation of domestic violence.”
“We are all here to say that we don’t want that anymore. We don’t want that,” said Rouleau, who is also the Quebec minister responsible for social solidarity and community action.
Rouleau says there are resources available for women needing to leave a bad domestic situation.
“Here in Pointe-aux-Trembles, we have resources,” she said. “In Montreal, in Quebec, we have resources… I want to tell the women, call 911. Call the emergency call, the SOS Violence Conjugale. Call your woman’s centre. Someone will listen to you and will help you.”
“I’d like all women to know that we exist, that there are women’s centres everywhere, that we work very hard to help them in all kinds of situations, especially domestic violence,” added Cortés.
