Justin Trudeau wants a mobilization to combat sheet metal theft instead of saving the lives of abused women.
For Justin Trudeau, is the value of sheet metal greater than that of a victim of domestic violence? Yes, of course. The proof: A NATIONAL SUMMIT on car theft will be held in Ottawa on February 8th. Five ministers, including Quebec's public security, justice and political deputy ministers, announced they were “outraged” by the increase in thefts, which they call a scourge.
However, the increase in domestic violence and the number of femicides are also a scourge and have never been entitled to the same sensitivity, let alone mobilization, from the federal government.
Insult
Why this sudden government interest? An article in La Presse reported that elected officials had their vehicles stolen. Does an elected official have to be personally affected by the loss of a loved one due to crime to show so much interest in wanting to combat a scourge? This is extremely offensive to crime victims and families who have had a loved one's life stolen.
How should I respond to the Trudeau government and its ministers given the announcement of an impromptu national summit following the TVA report on car thefts in Quebec? When Minister Pablo Rodriguez mentions on X that Canadians pay a heavy emotional and financial price when their car is stolen? I would like to remind him that 118 women's lives were stolen in Canada in 2019, and 184 women's lives were stolen in 2022. The increase in murdered women was greater than the increase in stolen cars. Has the Minister assessed the emotional cost to the families of the victims?
No action
For eight years, the Trudeau government took no action to reduce family violence. Worse, he reduced penalties for attackers of women and killed my bill S-205, which included serious measures to better protect victims and treat violent men. But he reduced the penalties for car thieves. What irony!
The country's femicide record is not important enough for the Trudeau government to merit a national summit. But the fact that five ministers are calling for a nationwide mobilization of police forces and provinces to reduce car theft in the country, but none to reduce the number of femicides, outrages me.
I have been fighting the same ministers for years to take action to better protect victims of domestic violence at a time when femicide is at its peak. This scourge has NEVER shaken the federal Liberals.
What do we need to understand? That the wreckage of a stolen car is worth more than the body of a murdered woman? If that's not the case, prove it to me, Mr. Trudeau.
If I were a victim of domestic violence and noticed that these ministers were giving more importance to car thefts in Canada than to the murders of women, I would be angry too. These are Justin Trudeau's values when it comes to crime victims. At the top of his pyramid of values are stolen cars and at the bottom perhaps women who were murdered as part of domestic violence.
An impressive summit: a mobilization to combat car theft, not the theft of the lives of abused women. Ashamed.
ARCHIVE PHOTO, MARTIN ALARIE
The Honorable Pierre-Hugues BoisvenuSenator, father of Julie Boisvenu, murdered by a repeat offender in 2002