Four groups that help women who are victims of violence joined forces on Sunday to call for amendments to Bill 91, which would create a Unified Family Court within the Court of Quebec and require family mediation in the event of the separation of a couple with a child.
“In its current form, this bill raises serious concerns for women victims of domestic violence and their children,” warned Marie-Pier Riendeau, acting director general of the Fédération des associations des familles monoparentales et recomposées du Québec, at a joint news conference.
The groups fear that the situation of these women will worsen if the law is adopted without amendment.
Although the law provides an exemption for anyone claiming to be a victim, “many do not recognize themselves as victims, or fear reprisals if they ask to be exempted,” explained Manon Monatesse, executive director of the Fédération des maisons d’hébergement pour femmes.
Sabrina Lemeltier, the group’s administrator, notes that nearly half of the women sheltered in the past year by the Alliance des maisons d’hébergement de 2e étape pour femmes et enfants victims of post-separation domestic violence did not file a complaint.
To improve the situation, the organizations are calling, among other things, for systematic screening for domestic violence at the first stage of the legal process.
At present, the law does not require any investigation into the control that one member of a couple exercises over the other. However, mediators are required to undergo basic training on violence.
“When victims end up in mediation, many of them end up bargaining by giving up their rights to sole custody of the child -- for fear that the child will also be abused,” said Louise Rindeau, co-responsible for political issues at the Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale.
“There is nothing free, voluntary, informed or egalitarian about the state in which she arrives at mediation. When she sits down next to her partner, there’s an imbalance of power, and that’s what domestic violence leads to, that’s really the aim of domestic violence,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on April 6, 2025.
