A bunch of children showed up to an emergency committee meeting to discuss violence against women last month. They ignored the witnesses, squabbled among themselves, and complained bitterly about how they were being treated in committee, tone-deaf to the witnesses who had just described their experiences of actual victimization. It was like a preschool circle time that had gone off the rails.
Actually – that description is not fair to children. Even young children can demonstrate empathy. They understand concepts like “listening” and “waiting your turn.” They would not understand why, if a woman came to talk to a group about a deeply painful experience, people in the group would then choose to talk about something else.
Grown adults might struggle to understand that, too. To do so, one has to adopt a heavily diseased partisan mindset, through which you perceive a woman giving testimony of her experience with intimate partner violence as a way for Conservatives to “try and score political points in this committee.” Those were the words of Liberal MP Anita Vandenbeld following testimony from Cait Alexander, who described how, exactly three years ago to that day, her ex-partner beat her for four hours and left her for dead. Ms. Alexander said her ex split her head open in three places, tried to gouge her eyes out, and “tortured me in ways I can feel but can’t fully describe.”
“After all that, guess what your criminal injustice system gave me,” Ms. Alexander said, as she held up photos of her injuries. “A peace bond.” All eight charges – five provincial, three federal, according to Ms. Alexander – were stayed.
The Conservatives called the emergency committee meeting in response to a spate of high-profile cases of violence against women this summer. Along with Ms. Alexander, Megan Walker, a long-time advocate to end violence against women, and Nick Milinovich, the Deputy Chief of Police for Peel Regional Police, offered testimony to the committee about how our justice system fails to hold the perpetrators of intimate partner violence to account. They offered scathing indictments not just of the federal government, but also of the province, describing a system that has, for decades, through parties of various affiliations, failed women.
But Ms. Vandenbeld, who apparently forgot to put on her “listening ears” that morning, as preschool teachers like to say, didn’t hear that. She heard only a partisan attack, so she moved a motion to revive a debate on abortion that was moved back in May, 2022. With support from the NDP, the motion passed. In effect, this committee heard witnesses say that their voices don’t matter, and then literally demonstrated to them that their voices don’t matter.
The self-absorption of those on the committee really has to be seen to be appreciated. NDP MP Leah Gazan complained over and over again that the chair failed to recognize her hand was up, calling her treatment “deeply troubling” and “violent.” The committee voted on a challenge to the chair’s decision about who should speak first. Nothing of substance was discussed or accomplished. The witnesses left the room in protest.
Ms. Vandenbeld later explained, in a 2,500-word continuation of this self-absorption published by National Newswatch, that the Conservatives essentially forced her to change the topic in committee, commenting that “traps” are “being set by the far-right” (which I suppose she had no choice but to walk directly into). She pointed out that the Conservatives didn’t consult the steering committee before calling the meeting and inviting witnesses, and that the chair allowed procedural rules to be broken, such as allowing witnesses to show “props.” As a result, she wrote, she had “no choice but to do something to not allow such a meeting to go ahead.”
Putting aside Ms. Vandenbeld’s conspicuous omission of all the ways her own party has torqued committee procedure to their own political advantage, one would think a grown adult would know the difference between being technically correct on the rules, and being morally right in the moment. Sitting before her was an actual human pleading for justice and to be heard; partisan politics couldn’t have mattered less at that moment.
There needs to be a reckoning in the aftermath of what was a truly grotesque display of callousness and partisanship. The Conservatives can demonstrate some maturity by apologizing for their part in this debacle, for failing to give other members time to submit their own witnesses. But Ms. Vandenbeld, along with those who supported her motion, should be grovelling. Through their actions, they reinforced the powerlessness of victims of intimate partner violence, and then chose to make excuses or remain silent about what happened. Our country, and those elected to represent it, should not be treating victims of violence this way. It’s shameful and embarrassing, and these women deserved better.