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More than 330 ideas received for city’s first ‘participatory’ budget

Martin C. Barry
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More than 330 ideas received for city’s first ‘participatory’ budget

The City of Laval says it received more than 330 suggestions from residents during an initial phase last fall in the preparation of the municipality’s first budget, for which workshops will be taking place on March 17 and 31.

In a statement last week, city officials said the idea-gathering phase was a great success, since the number of suggestions that came in exceeded their expectations. Registration for the workshops, which will continue the consultative process, can be done online at repensonslaval.ca.

A detailed account of the 330 ideas can be viewed at repensonslaval.ca/budget-participatif. However, the city cautions that not all the ideas were considered practical, and so the list provides information on which ones met the criteria for acceptability. According to the city, just 81 of the 332 suggestions received were retained for further consideration.

On Thursday March 17, Laval residents will be able to discuss among themselves and with city officials the priorities and needs in six sectors. It’s an opportunity to influence the decision-making process. By March 31, the list of accepted suggestions will be reduced to priorities to be developed into potential projects, to be further analyzed in depth by the city.

The idea for doing a participatory budget announced as a pilot project in August last year, and subsequently $600,000 was set aside by the city to develop and implement it. This summer, a list of projects under serious consideration will be submitted to Laval residents to vote on. The implementation of the chosen projects will then take place over the next two years.

Council of Laval Women tables its recommendations for equality and inclusion

On International Women’s Day last week, the Council of Laval Women issued its first report on the eventual adoption by the city of a new policy for the promotion of equality between women and men in Laval.

The notice includes a summary of the current state of women’s rights in Laval, while listing 38 recommendations towards making Laval a city that offers more equality and inclusion.

The report comes following a mandate granted in 2020 by Laval city council’s executive-committee to the members of the consultative council.

“The City of Laval is showing true leadership in matters of equality in the municipal world,” said Laval city councillor for Souvenir-Labelle Sandra El-Helou, who is responsible for women’s equality issues on the executive-committee.

“For the first time, the population of Laval elected a municipal council with parity, which led in turn to an executive-committee also with parity. In 2020, the city also adopted an action plan that included 32 corrective measures in order to have greater diversity and inclusion in employment.

“Of coure, there remain numerous challenges to be met, whether that is on the political, professional or citizen levels. We are overjoyed with the dynamic participation of women in Laval’s municipal politics, and this will be helping us to further pursue the implementation of real initiatives within the values we believe in, those being equality, equity, freedom and respect.”

Some of the main recommendations:

  • Updating of gendered statistics and the implementation of a triennial action plan dedicated to equality;
  • Efforts to counter poverty, along with initiatives aimed at food security, with an emphasis on how it impacts women;
  • Efforts to counter violence done to women;
  • New measures to conciliate the family/work relationship;
  • More efforts to achieve male/female parity on City of Laval committees;
  • Better support for elected officials, particularly to counter intimidation harassment, as well as to encourage mentorship.

Montreal Jewish community appeals for help to assist Jews in Ukraine

Martin C. Barry
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Montreal Jewish community appeals for help to assist Jews in Ukraine

War-ravaged nation’s Jewish community is the fifth largest in the world

Federation CJA, the Montreal Jewish community’s central fundraising agency, has launched an urgent appeal in conjunction with Jewish Federations of North America and its global network to amass $20 million in relief funding for Jews in war-torn Ukraine.

“We are an integral part of a worldwide campaign to provide humanitarian assistance to alleviate suffering and safeguard Ukraine’s Jewish community, as well as Jews in neighbouring countries,” said Yair Szlak, CEO of Federation CJA.

“We are proud that over one thousand community members have already stepped up and donated close to five hundred thousand dollars in support of these efforts. But, so much more is needed on an urgent basis.”

Support urgently needed

“Thousands of Jews living in Ukraine are trapped in conflict zones,” says the federation. “Thousands more are on the move – including many to be relocated to Israel and elsewhere.” They say an unknown number will seek shelter in Montreal, Laval and across Canada. The organization says it is committed to supporting its partner agencies on the ground, in Israel and at home, to ensure the well-being of these Jewish refugees.

An image captured by a Ukrainian surveillance drone during fighting against invading Russian forces.

“The immediate support from the public is critical in helping to secure families who are trapped in Ukraine and those who are on the run,” Szlak added. “The needs are urgent. By donating to the Ukraine Emergency Relief Fund, you will be helping during this incredibly difficult time. We hope for an immediate cessation to this horrific tragedy and pray for peace for the Ukrainian people.”

On the ground in Ukraine

As the crisis in Ukraine escalates, the federation notes that thousands have come under fire in areas across the country, while hundreds of thousands more have fled the fighting. “These people, and thousands more, require our immediate assistance,” the federation said.

The federation says the emergency funding it will be channeling will focus on the following:

· Helping people make Aliyah (immigration) to Israel;

· Securing the local community and its institutions;

· Maintaining critical welfare services;

· Assisting internally displaced people in multiple locations;

· Securing temporary housing for people in transit;

· Purchasing satellite phones to maintain communications across the region;

· Securing five Jewish schools and training staff to manage crisis needs.

Here at home

According to federation CJA, work is well underway to support those affected in Montreal as well, since others will soon arrive here. The federation says its social service partners, Agence Ometz and Cummings Centre, currently are:

· Keeping current clients with family in Ukraine informed, connected and supported by providing psychosocial support and trauma-sensitive services in Ukrainian and Russian languages;

· Coordinating with local and national partner agencies across Canada to ensure preparedness;

· Gathering resources for newcomers: families who are ready to provide emergency shelter, employment offers, basic needs, and psychosocial support;

· And organizing post-arrival settlement and integration service responses.

The federation says its advocacy arm, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), is working with various government agencies to ensure that Jewish refugees who wish to come to Montreal can do so.

200,000 Jews in Ukraine

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

It is estimated that during World War II and the German Nazi occupation of Ukraine, more than 1 million Jews were shot and killed by German paramilitary death squads and by local Ukrainian supporters in various regions of Ukraine.

According to a number of information and data sources available on the web, including the World Jewish Congress and the European Jewish Congress, the Jewish community in Ukraine is the third-largest Jewish community in Europe and the fifth-largest globally.

Writing in The New Yorker on Feb. 28, Montreal-born journalist Bernard Avishai noted that Ukraine is home to about 200,000 people who qualify, by Israel’s definition of who is a Jew, for Israeli citizenship, and could therefore emigrate to Israel under the law of return.

Ukraine’s president is Jewish

While Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is himself a Jew and has pledged to keep fighting the Russians, Avishai maintains that Israeli leaders believe a significant number of other Ukrainian Jews would rather emigrate to Israel, rather than resist a continued Russian assault or occupation.

“We’ll be happy to receive any Jew that wants to immigrate from Ukraine,” he quotes an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson as having told Newsweek. Yet, presumably, Avishai continues, a mass evacuation wouldn’t be possible if Israel incited Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s anger, or provoked an outburst of Russian anti-Semitism. By Avishai’s account, there are some 175,000 Jews still living in Russia.

#NewsMatters: The National Assembly Report

Laval News Contributor
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#NewsMatters: The National Assembly Report

“Anglophones need to stop being hostages of the Liberal Party”: Éric Duhaime

Quebec Conservative Party leader seeks common ground with English-speakers

Raquel Fletcher in Quebec City

Éric Duhaime is categorical that Bill 96, the government’s French language reform legislation, is fundamentally flawed. Applying the notwithstanding clause upfront so that the bill cannot even be challenged in the courts goes against the very spirit of the Charter of Rights, he says.

Quebec City correspondent for Newsfirst and Global Raquel Fletcher.

“Our concern is regarding human rights, basically,” Duhaime says in an interview. “Even people who are very nationalist or sovereignist should be against this bill.”

The leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec is hoping to find some common ground with the province’s anglophones, the vast majority of whom also do not support the legislation. According to an online Angus Reid poll last October, 95 per cent of English-speaking Quebecers are somewhat or strongly opposed to Bill 96.

“I want the Conservative message to be heard among anglophones,” Duhaime says. He is courting the protest vote. He sees his party as a credible alternative for federalist English-speaking voters looking to send a message of their discontentment with the current CAQ government, as well as those who may be disillusioned with past Liberal governments.

“I think Anglophones need to stop being hostages of the Liberal Party,” he says.

In second place among francophones

Duhaime’s party is becoming increasingly popular. Recent polls put him second behind the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) among French-speaking voters, even if the gap between the two parties is still in the double digits.

Since taking over as leader in April 2021, he’s increased the membership of his party ten-fold from 500 members to almost 50,000. He has established riding associations in 105 of 125 constituencies according to a recent report by Radio-Canada.

For now, his support appears to be concentrated in the Quebec City region, where Duhaime is most well-known, due to his long career as a host on trash radio. However, Duhaime is confident he can also make inroads with the anglophone community, largely represented on the island of Montreal.

A similar message

His message is similar to what the CAQ tried to convey in the 2018 election. In a memorable speech during a party convention, leader François Legault said: “If you wish for Quebec to flourish within Canada, if you have had enough of being stuck with the Liberal Party that is worn out, if you’re tired of being taken for granted, you now have an option. Join us.”

It didn’t resonate. The CAQ was elected with an overwhelming majority but received very little support from Quebec anglophones. English speakers fed up with the Liberals were more likely to stay home on election night then cast a vote for the CAQ. So why would Anglophones vote for the Conservative Party this time around?

“We’re not a spin-off of the PQ,” Duhaime replies, referring to Legault’s past as a Parti Québécois cabinet minister.

Asked if he thinks anglophones will respond to his anti-health measure message, the Conservative leader credits much of his newfound support to Quebecer’s frustration over health measures, particularly during this last COVID-19 wave. Duhaime supported the trucker convoy and other protestors in Ottawa and Quebec City and says the Legault government went too far with health measures, which he has qualified as excessive or even “abusive.”

He has been particularly critical of shutdowns, curfews and masks for kids in the classroom. The province should have “protected the most vulnerable,” namely seniors, without preventing everyone else from living their lives, he says.

“You have to take into consideration the population as a whole… everything was focused on COVID,” he explains. “We imposed measures on youth that have never been imposed on them. What will the long-term effect be on them?”

Duhaime denies that his position is radical. “I just believe in freedom of choice.” Will Quebecers see his party as a credible choice in the upcoming fall election? It’s definitely a long shot, but I wouldn’t count him out.

Getting the message out about violence to women – and its survivors

Martin C. Barry
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Getting the message out about violence to women – and its survivors

Shield of Athena launches new ‘For the Love of Women’ campaign’

With spring finally arriving in Laval and Montreal and the Covid pandemic hopefully behind us, the time seemed right last week for Shield of Athena to launch a new campaign to build even greater awareness of domestic violence, as well as the trauma it has caused many families over the past two years.

Shield of Athena executive-director Melpa Kamateros (standing) is seen here with Chris Ann Nakis, president of the board of directors. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)

‘For the Love of Women’

Shield of Athena’s new ‘For the Love of Women’ campaign was launched last week at the Casa d’Italia community centre in east-central Montreal, with thirty guests attending a few days after International Women’s Day.

They included Laval city councillor Sandra El-Helou (who is responsible for status of women dossiers on Laval’s executive-committee), Montreal city councillor for Park Extension Mary Deros, and Montreal city councillor from NDG Despina Sourias (responsible for the Status of Women on Montreal’s executive-committee). Shield of Athena has offices and offers services in Laval and Montreal.

Getting the message out

“As we all know during Covid, we had a difficult time getting information across to women who could access the services and know the laws,” said Chris Ann Nakis, president of Shield of Athena’s board of directors. “This is our contribution to promoting more knowledge on the very important issue of violence against women.”

Melpa Kamateros, the organization’s executive-director, said the concept arose from the realization they could combine an earlier Shield of Athena book project, Recipes and Stories from Athena’s Kitchen, dealing with the turmoil experienced by actual survivors of violence, and joining it to another medium with important messages and information on the resources available to victims.

Clientele getting younger

Kamateros said staff at Shield of Athena’s shelters are seeing ever-younger women lately. She noted that on a list of women who died as a result of conjugal violence in recent years, 60 per cent were between the ages of 18 and 40. “Which means that society hasn’t changed its perception of conjugal violence or violence against women,” said Kamateros.

Laval city councillor Sandra El-Helou, who is responsible for status of women dossiers on Laval’s executive-committee, said she found Shield of Athena’s efforts “profoundly touching.” (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)

“I find all your efforts profoundly touching,” said El-Helou. “As the person responsible for women’s issues with the City of Laval, I carry this dossier like a standard every day so that as women we may all have solidarity towards the constant improvement of conditions for women.” She noted that in recent years the City of Laval has taken a lead in promoting the well-being of women in workplace settings, as well as throughout the community.

Has ‘seen the sad killings’

“Thank you for helping constantly to improve the quality of life of these women,” said Deros, while noting that she has followed Shield of Athena’s progress over the 23 years she has sat on Montreal city council. “I have seen the results. I have also seen the sad killings, the lack of human appreciation of a partner. But worse, I know of two cases where the husband killed the woman.”

In all, 24 new videos created by Shield of Athena are being made available in French and English and will be distributed for viewing over different broadcast and web-based media. The project was funded by the Quebec Ministry of Justice, with the financial participation of the federal Ministry of Justice.

Recipes joined with messages

The videos use a different and original format to raise awareness of the cause, through recipes inspired by women who have stayed in the organization’s shelter. They have shared their recipes and stories in a special cookbook entitled ‘Recipes and Stories from Athena’s Kitchen.’

This is our contribution to promoting more knowledge on the very important issue of violence against women

Shield of Athena believes the women’s strength and resilience will serve to encourage many other victims to seek help. The recipes have been combined with 12 messages to convey valuable information to victims and their relatives in an effective and more attractive way.

From the left, Shield of Athena executive-director Melpa Kamateros, Montreal city councillor responsible for women’s issues Despina Sourias, Montreal city councillor for Park Extension Mary Deros, Shield of Athena president Chris Ann Nakis, supporter Pearl Eliadis, board member Litsa Pelonis, and Laval city councillor Sandra El-Helou. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)

The message includes legal information, showing women the help resources that are available, while providing some statistics on domestic violence. The organization hopes to raise awareness on conjugal violence in this time of strife, when people find it difficult to access information and often have to remain confined.

Broadcast on TV and other media

Both of these factors can increase the complexity of leaving a conjugal violence situation, and place more women at risk and increase the occurrence of femicide worldwide. The videos will be broadcast by Shield of Athena’s media partner, ICI television, as well as other media in English and French, and later in ten other languages on various media and websites.

Shield of Athena says the concerted action will allow them to reach thousands of Quebecers and help vulnerable victims. The organization has taken the initial step of launching the program in French and English on a YouTube channel. The rest of the vignettes are being released in stages until May 12. The release dates were not chosen at random, as they all have an important meaning for women.

Laval News Volume 30-10

Laval News Staff
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Laval News Volume 30-10

The current issue of the Laval News volume 30-10 published March 16th, 2022.
Covering Laval local news, politics, sports and our new section Mature Life.
(Click on the image to read the paper.)

Front page of the Laval News.
Front page of the Laval News, March 16th, 2022 issue.

LPD seeks suspect on domestic violence charges

Martin C. Barry
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LPD seeks suspect on domestic violence charges

The Laval Police Department says it is seeking the public’s help to locate a suspect who faces charges involving domestic violence.

The LPD are seeking Rodly Ulysse, wanted on domestic violence charges.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Rodly Ulysse, age 42, who is charged with common assault, illegal confinement, making death threats and assault with a weapon. The LPD says the alleged offenses took place within a domestic violence context.

According to the police force, the alleged acts took place over the course of 2021. The female victim is a former relationship partner of the suspect.

The LPD says that on Dec. 14 last year, while the victim and the suspect were visiting a member of the suspect’s family, the suspect prevented the victim from leaving, and struck her several times with a readily available object.

The police say that the suspect made death threats at the same time. When the suspect was momentarily distracted, the victim managed to flee and sought out help.

Rodly Ulysse is described as follows:

  • Male, age 42, speaks French;
  • Brown eyes;
  • Brown hair in long strands;
  • Short beard and moustache.

It is believed he may be driving a vehicle belonging to a person he is close to.

  • Acura RDX 2009, grey
  • License plate no.: W77 SWV

Anyone who thinks they have information on Rodly Ulysse that could prove useful to the LPD is asked to call the force’s confidential Info-Line at 450 662-INFO (4636), or 9-1-1. The file number is LVL 211215 029.

Laval man faces impaired driving charges in Kingston

A Laval man has been charged with a number of impaired-driving-related charges after a collision last week in Kingston, Ontario.

Kingston police said the man was seen driving erratically and crossing the centre line on Highway 2.

The man’s vehicle struck another car and the occupant of the second vehicle, a 45-year-old woman, was seriously injured and trapped inside her car.

The woman was transported to Kingston General Hospital with serious and life-threatening injuries.

The 35-year-old man, who was not identified, faces charges of dangerous driving causing bodily harm, impaired operation of a vehicle causing bodily harm, impaired operation of a vehicle while exceeding blood alcohol concentration, and two counts of resisting a peace officer.

After being held for a bail hearing, the man’s license was suspended for 90 days, and his license can be further suspended for up to a year if he is convicted on the charges. Police said the car matched the description of a vehicle seen driving erratically on eastbound Highway 401 earlier on the same evening.

Three seriously hurt in collision on Notre Dame Blvd.

Two males in their late teens and a 23-year-old woman were seriously injured last week in a collision on Notre Dame Blvd. in Chomedey near 92nd Ave.

The car was heading east along Notre Dame on Feb. 28, when shortly after 10 pm it collided with another vehicle at the corner of 92nd.

The 18-year-old driver and one of the passengers were seriously injured by the impact and were taken to hospital by ambulance. The female driver of the second vehicle also suffered injuries that were serious enough to warrant taking her to hospital by ambulance.

While the police don’t believe that alcohol use was a factor, speeding is considered a possible cause. Notre Dame between Dover and Harvard was closed for several hours last week as investigators tried to determine the causes of the accident.

Eliezer Sherbatov returns safely to Laval, after fleeing war in Ukraine

Martin C. Barry
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Eliezer Sherbatov returns safely to Laval, after fleeing war in Ukraine

International hockey player recalls narrow escape from Russian offensive

Eliezer Sherbatov, a player with the Ukrainian Hockey League whose home base is in Laval, was back last week from war-torn Ukraine, safe with his wife and children in Sainte-Dorothée, after narrowly escaping a country that remains under ongoing military attack from Russian forces.

Sherbatov’s name may be familiar to people who know the Sherbatov Academy for hockey, which is operated by the Sherbatov family in Laval. According to an online biographical information source, Sherbatov, 30, moved with his family from Israel to Laval when he was two years old.

Ukrainian Hockey League player Eliezer Sherbatov, whose home base is in Laval’s Sainte-Dorothée district, returned last week from war-torn Ukraine. (Photo: Courtesy of Sergey Seryodkin)

Liked Guy Lafleur

His parents were originally from Russia and fans of the Montreal Canadiens. As the story goes, his family was permitted to enter Canada by immigration officials after his father said he wanted his son, Eliezer, to grow up to be like Guy Lafleur.

Eliezer Sherbatov graduated from Laval’s École secondaire Georges-Vanier on Lévesque Blvd. East in Duvernay, and then took distance-learning courses in CEGEP. He spent the 2008–09 season with the Laval-Bourassa Rousseau Sports of the Quebec Midget AAA Hockey League, and was third in the league for scoring.

In Ukraine when war started

Eliezer Sherbatov was in Ukraine for a UHL hockey match last week in Mariupol where his team is based, when he was awakened before daybreak by the sound of armaments exploding. He was one of the more than a million people in Ukraine who quickly fled the country, as Russian forces continued their attacks in order take control of Ukraine’s key urban centres.

Being of dual Canadian/Israeli citizenship, Sherbatov first contacted the Canadian global affairs ministry, but found their automated phone system advice to go to a bomb shelter unsatisfactory. Determined to get out of Ukraine, he contacted Israeli authorities who instructed him to travel to western Ukraine near the border with Poland.

A dangerous journey

Along with two teammates, he waited for a train from Druzhkivka to Lviv in western Ukraine, only to be informed there was a chance the train would be bombed during the transit and that they might not survive.

Although one of his teammates chose not to board the train, Sherbatov decided to take the risk. While in transit over the next 24 hours, he endured constant stress, never sleeping while travelling through territories which were under heavy attack by Russian military units almost the whole time.

A harrowing experience

Upon arrival in Lviv, he was met by a team of Israeli volunteers, who put him in charge of a busload of 17 other people from Ukraine who would also be crossing the nearby border into Poland. At the border, where the conditions were chaotic, Sherbatov and the other bus passengers found themselves forced to cross on foot in the cold, after which they were picked up and transported to the Israeli embassy in Warsaw.

Although now back at home in Sainte-Dorothée/Laval, Sherbatov left behind most of his personal belongings except his passport. Even though he was able to escape Ukraine, he remains worried about the many others, including teammates, who are still stranded in war-torn Ukraine.

City opens contact point for info on Ukraine war relief

Martin C. Barry
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City opens contact point for info on Ukraine war relief

The City of Laval has announced that it has opened a special contact point dedicated to answering residents’ questions on how they can help the people of Ukraine who are currently under attack.

Residents and business owners who wish to do their part can send an e-mail to the following address: benevoles-mesures-urgence@laval.ca. The city says the purpose of the contact point is to centralize help offers for the Ukraine crisis.

Exterior lighting at Laval city hall has been set to show the colors of the flag of Ukraine.

The city also recently announced that Laval is donating $20,000 to the cause through the Canadian Red Cross. “I am proud to see the solidarity of the people of Laval, of whom there are many who are making themselves available to come to the assistance of the Ukrainian people,” Mayor Stéphane Boyer said.

“The city is working closely with its government counterparts, as well as our partners on the terrain. Everything is in place and the community is ready for the arrival of refugees from Ukraine.

“The situation in Ukraine makes me very sad,” Mayor Boyer added. “Today, we want to show our unwavering support towards the Ukrainian people through this donation. We are therefore inviting residents and businesses who wish to support the Ukrainian people through the Canadian Red Cross.

“The Ukrainian community in Laval, with its 2,300 members, is in itself a rich resource for our city, and we remain aware of the preoccupations that our residents no doubt have for their country of origin. Solidarity is what we owe them.”

Laval begins implementing First Responders at fire stations

From the left, top row: Laval fire chief Patrick Taillefer, president and executive-director of Urgences-santé Mathieu Campbell, Laval city councillor and executive-committee member for public security Sandra Desmeules, and Laval mayor Stéphane Boyer. Bottom row: Laval firefighters Capt. Jean-Claude Fillion, Nicolas Magnan, Alexandre Léonard and Étienne Pronovost-Riopel.

On March 1, firefighters at the Laval Fire Dept.’s firehall no. 5 in the district of Saint-François became the first firefighters in Laval to become qualified to level one (PR-1). As such, they are now equipped to answer priority emergency medical calls for cardiopulmonary arrest, anaphylactic shock and opioid overdoses.

Firehall by firehall, the city will be training all the firefighters so that First Responder service becomes available through the fire department across the island in conjunction with Urgences-santé.

Laval is the first major city (pop. 200,000 and above) in Quebec to offer level one First Responder service to its residents.

The city is implementing the service by starting at firehalls located in Laval’s most distant areas. After this, the service will be implemented in the centre of the city, since emergency medical response was already considered to be at least partly available in central Laval.

Beginning in the summer of 2022, firefighter crews can be expected to respond within three to seven minutes to calls concerning cardiorespiratory arrest, anaphylactic shock and opioid overdose. It is expected that around 1,700 such calls will be handled by First Responders annually through 9-1-1 for priority medical issues.

Major snowfall expected on Saturday

Martin C. Barry
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0
Major snowfall expected on Saturday

Environment Canada says a major weather system from Texas will reach Southern Quebec early Saturday morning and Eastern Quebec later in the day, bringing significant snowfall amounts, strong to high winds, and visibilities reduced to zero in snow and blowing snow conditions.

The weather service says there is currently still some uncertainty regarding the exact track of the low pressure system, and that forecast precipitation types and amounts will depend on this track.

However, “be prepared for changing and rapidly deteriorating driving conditions.”

The storm is expected to be centered on the Montreal Island area.

#NewsMatters: The National Assembly Report

Laval News Contributor
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#NewsMatters: The National Assembly Report

With Raquel Fletcher in Quebec City

Quebec women have borne the brunt of pandemic’s consequences

Women asking for more government support to deal with its aftereffects

Two years ago this month, Premier François Legault declared a public health emergency, leading the province to close schools and non-essential businesses, ban visits to hospitals and long-term care homes and tell people to stay at home. It was the first of multiple circuit breaker shutdowns, which took an emotional toll on almost everyone, especially on women.

Newsfirst Multimedia correspondent in Quebec City Raquel Fletcher.

As March 8 is International Women’s Day, this week’s column is dedicated to bringing attention to how Quebec women, especially mothers, have borne the brunt of the consequences of both a global health crisis and public health measures put in place to curb contagion.

Women were twice as likely as men to lose their jobs as they tend to work in the tourism, food and culture sectors that were much more affected by health measures. They were also more likely to reduce their hours or quit work altogether to ensure childcare for kids learning from home or because of shortages of daycare spaces.

“For the past two years, we’ve seen a lot of fear,” said Johanne Pelletier, who works at the Centre des femmes de la Basse-Ville, a women’s centre in Quebec City. Since the start of the first wave, she has been accompanying women she describes as being “in distress.” Women forced to balance working from home with children also at home doing online learning, women thrown into poverty no longer able to make ends meet with the rising cost of food and women cut off from their social networks have all come to the centre for help.

“These women, when they come here, they cry a lot. They feel alone. The stress is sometimes so great they have the impression things will never get better,” Pelletier explained, adding many of her clients show signs of serious depression, anxiety and other mental health issues.

Conjugal violence on the rise

And then there are women for whom stay-at-home orders and curfews have meant months of isolation with a controlling or abusive partner. Conjugal violence and other forms of violence against women is on the rise. Last year Quebec recorded the highest number of murders in a decade: 26 women were killed, most of them by current or former partners.

Calls have escalated for the government to do something to thwart this frightening trend. Last month, Public Security Minister Geneviève Guilbault announced Quebec would become the first jurisdiction in Canada to implement electronic monitoring bracelets for past offenders. Using geolocation technology, police officers are alerted if an offender comes within the bounds of an established perimeter of his victim.

Rare moment of collaboration from MNAs

The initiative is just one put forward by a transpartisan committee, which, thanks to the combined efforts of female MNAs from all four parties, made 190 recommendations to combat violence against women. Last November, the National Assembly also adopted Bill 92 to create specialized courts for victims of sexual assault.

In today’s political climate, elected officials seem to spend most of their time criticizing their rivals. However, in this case, they’ve the collaborated on the report and on implementing its recommendations. It marks one of the rare moments Quebecers have seen MNAs from all the parties seated side by side at press conferences.

Maintaining this common front is also one motivation for the province’s committing more dollars to the cause. Last year the CAQ government was taken to task for setting aside a measly $22.5 million over five years to fight domestic violence. Women’s shelters made it loud and clear that the sum was simply not enough. Weeks later, Guilbault announced the government would increase its investment ten-fold, by $223 million.

Community groups say more is needed in this year’s budget, which will be tabled on March 22.

“If we had one more social worker, if we had more financial resources, we could do more,” Pelletier said. “We always try to respond to all the needs, but sometimes we just burn out.”

The aftereffects of the pandemic are still being felt. Women are asking for more support – to take care of themselves and to continue taking care of others.

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