Good morning, everyone. As Mr. Duchesneau mentioned, I will be focusing on more practical matters because, as psychosocial workers, much of what we do is done in the field.
In terms of statistics for our community, I was able to speak to the acting director of the police department, who confirmed that there are currently 20 police files dealing with complaints regarding incidents of violence, assault and domestic violence that occurred in 2009. Of that number, 15 files have now been forwarded to the Crown prosecutor. As far as the acting director knew, given the fact that all the numbers have not yet been compiled, there are at least three cases where the individual was convicted. Of all the files dealing with violence, we currently have two cases of sexual assault that have been referred to the court for prosecution.
Of course, we are aware that many victims do not dare bring a complaint because of the rigidity of the criminal system and because they are afraid of reprisals from community members. This is a subject which is still taboo in our community, and in many Aboriginal communities across Quebec.
At present, the same forms of violence we are all familiar with are present in our community of Wendake. However, over the years, psychosocial workers have tended to focus more on psychological violence, which we believe to be far more subtle, even though it has the same impact as physical violence.
When working with people in the communities and in the workplace, we have focused on negligence, manipulation and denigration. Those are all aspects of this form of violence. In our practice, we have observed that violence often occurs in emotional and important relationships. That is the case for relationships involving couples, young people or between parents and children, but also where there are emotional dependencies in the relationship or when one of the two spouses has certain personality traits. For example, we talk about “perverse narcissism” when there is a need to control and dominate the other person. That is something we observe most often in our social services practice.
In order to remedy that, we have developed our own response strategies. It's always nice to be able to talk about what works in our community. On the basis of our observations, we updated the domestic violence response protocol in 2009. This is a partnership between the Wendake police service and ourselves, as psychosocial workers. I have appended the protocol to the documents you were provided. When there are complaints to police, officers attend at the individual's premises. After responding, they will ask the victim to sign a consent form so that we can be given the information and provide follow-up and support. These are services that are currently provided at our health centre. And we are talking about all the victims here—both men and women. We do not neglect the men in this process.
Unfortunately, all victims do not agree to sign that consent form. So, we developed an information kit for victims that police have with them. The kit contains a list of addresses relating to specific resources that are part of the Quebec system and with whom we deal, including community safe houses. We also have a number of brochures and all the necessary material to ensure that the victim is not left without resources.
We have provided and continue to provide training to police officers, particularly with respect to the victim's needs. The attitude of our police officers is not always appropriate. So, we offer to provide training which deals, in particularly, with responding to the situations based on the cultural context. We present the appropriate approach for responding to incidents of domestic violence, and address both the legal process and especially the question of confidentiality. In order to keep the lines of communication open with our victims and our people, there is a need to put a lot of focus on confidentiality.
The goal is obviously to foster greater understanding among police officers of the needs of victims, and especially, the appropriate attitude to take. We also looked at the entire police trajectory when domestic violence complaints are lodged, with a view to ensuring well-coordinated interventions between ourselves and the police.
A positive result of the adoption of this new protocol in November of 2009 is that two victims came to us for help, and we were able to provide psychosocial support. That is beneficial from our standpoint and we are proud to be able to rely on this new protocol.
Every year, we also draw attention to the Week Without Violence. We develop tools year after year. As I said earlier, we focus much more on more subtle types of violence, such as psychological violence. This year, we produced a poster that I have and could provide you with later. The theme was “Let's remember that all violence, even when there are no scars, leaves a mark”. We also had pencils produced which we distributed to homes in our community, to raise people's awareness.
Psychosocial workers also sit on several different issue tables, including one entitled: “Elder abuse, negligence and violence”. These are people who live in the area served by the Jacques-Cartier CLSC. There are 10 partners, including police officers and a variety of stakeholders. They work together to organize prevention-related activities, particularly aimed at seniors, and training as well.
As I said earlier, we have signed a number of cooperation agreements, including with safe houses. In the Jacques-Cartier area in the Quebec-Nord district, there are also specific resources for men, including Autonhommie and G.A.P.I., which offer individual or group sessions to men with violent or aggressive behaviour. We don't leave them in a corner by themselves. We provide service.
However, when it comes to eliminating violence, the role of the federal government, as we see it, should be to focus more on prevention and support prevention-related activities. That is a key concern for organizations. These initiatives must be supported. There must also be recurring funding. We know that, where domestic violence is concerned, connections are very important. If staff turnover results in ongoing imbalance, we ourselves and our organization lose credibility. That is why it is important to provide recurring funding.
There is also a need to dedicate resources to promotion, including the promotion of healthy communication and healthy relationships, in order to put an end to emotional dependency. Another issue is management of certain personality traits which can be connected to violent or manipulative behaviours.
Those are the comments we wanted to make this morning. Thank you very much.