These women also deserve to be protected.
At our clinic for migrants with precarious status, we meet many women who are victims of domestic violence and whose right to stay in Canada depends on their spouse. Going to the police to inquire about a man who is also their only path to migration stability — in a climate that is particularly hostile to migrants — simply does not seem like a viable option.
At our mobile clinic, we work with women experiencing homelessness who have been evicted from their encampments or stigmatized by police services. Can we reasonably ask them to walk into a police station?
Indigenous women, for their part, face systemic racism and violence in public institutions. They will not feel safe in yet another system unless the principle of cultural safety is applied — and until this bill is co-constructed with them, as demanded by Femmes autochtones du Québec and other groups in their joint brief.
These women are not exceptions. They are our patients.
They experience domestic violence at least as much as others — often more, because their precariousness makes them even more vulnerable.
The Gabie Renaud Law says something important about the women Quebec chooses to protect. Our fieldwork says something important about those it still overlooks.
This is not a criticism of this bill. It is an invitation to go further. Protecting all women from femicide means recognizing systemic racism, funding community services, and acknowledging that our systems were created for men and by men.
Gabie Renaud deserved better. So do all our patients.