Good afternoon.
My name is Martine Jeanson, a former victim of spousal violence, the founder of Maison des Guerrières, and a spousal and domestic violence worker.
I'm not just going to tell you my story, but also the story of Cindy Gosselin, beaten with hammer blows to the head, or Marianne, strangled and raped by her spouse, and Josianne Boucher, beaten and suffering head trauma, Jessica, whose vagina was smashed with a baseball bat, and Louise, whose ex‑spouse failed to comply with his conditions more than 28 times. She has moved eight times, but still feels threatened.
In 1992, I was a victim of spousal violence. I was five months pregnant and refused to have an abortion. I was gang raped and left for dead. I tried to leave my spouse numerous times. I called the police frequently. However, my spouse was always able to find me, no matter where I went. In addition to me, he had seven other victims.
There are shelters for women who are victims of violence, but for how many years are we going to continue to hide women, rather than work directly on the source of the problem? I am pleased that there are shelters for women who are victims of violence, because that's where these women can get some help, but it remains a temporary solution, because women stay there for one or two months, and when they leave, the violent man is unfortunately still out there, waiting to return to his ex‑spouse with even more violence. We women have to live a life that is stalked, harassed, spied upon and pursued by these men, no matter where we go. It's more or less a form of terrorism. Every morning when we get up we wonder whether today is the day he's going to murder us.
Why are we still building shelters to hide victims of spousal violence? It would make more sense to consider building intensive internal therapy centres for violent men so that they could be surrounded by experts who could help them adjust and even solve their violence problem. On the personal side, I also help violent men who have spent time in these facilities and the success rate is very high. The man loses complete control over himself when he no longer has access to his victim. The source of the problem is the man's violence, and that's what the system needs to focus on.
Electronic bracelets are a very important tool that would protect us and give us a warning that the man, our perpetrator, was on the way, and enough time to warn the police. They would also reduce the number of femicides, which has been increasing every year. They would also provide judges with clear evidence that these violent men are not complying with their conditions.
If my former spouse had been wearing an electronic bracelet, I would have been shielded from his attempted murder and all his other victims would have been informed. In fact, they could have been informed that their former spouse was hanging around their home, which might prevent a woman's death. With a warning of the danger, they can taken steps to protect themselves.
The way things stand, it's impossible to protect ourselves properly from a violent ex‑spouse, because we have no warning of his arrival. The group of 100 women we worked with on the project consists exclusively of spousal violence victims, at least half of whom were subjected to an attempted murder. We all agree that the only thing that might protect us is an electronic bracelet, because there is nothing to protect us at the moment.
Over the past 20 years, I've worked with hundreds of women who needed help. There is no way to hide them. Men can track them down at their place of work or through their family. They can follow children to school or to their friends' homes. The man will never stop stalking them, following them, harassing them and harming them. Until an electronic bracelet is required, women and their children will never be protected. Electronic bracelets may not be perfect, but that's all we have for the time being. We have no protection. That's why we are asking you, on behalf of all women, to pass the bill.