{"id":517443,"date":"2026-03-06T05:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T05:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/517443\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T05:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T05:00:10","slug":"laurentians-community-unites-ahead-of-international-womens-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/517443\/","title":{"rendered":"Laurentians community unites ahead of International Women\u2019s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of International Women\u2019s Day, dozens of organizations gathered in Saint Jerome on Thursday for a day of reflection and mobilization focused on violence against women.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith you, we can turn a tragedy into a collective movement. Because Joanie is not just a statistic,\u201d said Yves Imbeault, an FTQ union representative, speaking on stage.<\/p>\n

\"\"Father Yves Imbeault on stage with the members of the FTQ committee against domestic violence. (Johanie Bouffard, CityNews)<\/p>\n

In a room packed at the venue Tapis Rouge, the event also marked the launch of a new committee led by the FTQ. One of the people behind the initiative is Yves Imbeault, who has been advocating for stronger action since his daughter Joanie was killed by her partner in June 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter had already experienced domestic violence in a previous relationship. When her new partner became violent, she asked to leave. She didn\u2019t want to go through that again. The solution he chose was to kill her \u2014 and then take his own life,\u201d said Imbeault.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt often feels like everyone is working in silos. The goal is to get everyone pulling in the same direction, with the same priorities, at the same time. That\u2019s how real change will happen in Quebec.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Joanie Imbeault, Union representative, FTQ. (Courtesy: Coop\u00e9rative fun\u00e9raire du Grand Montr\u00e9al)<\/p>\n

Caroline Limoges said, \u201cAfter the first 90 days or three months or four months, sometimes the danger is still there so women need to be housed in a place where we have security.\u201d<\/p>\n

This comes after the death of Danielle Lascelles in St-Jerome last week, allegedly killed by her partner \u2014 the seventh femicide in just two months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat makes me feel very sad because those women probably asked for help and maybe didn\u2019t know that help was there for them. Because domestic violence is a cycle and, sometimes, women are afraid to go get help because sometimes they\u2019re ashamed of what\u2019s happening to them,\u201d said Limoges.<\/p>\n

\"\"Commitee against violence against women St-Jerome FTQ. (Johanie Bouffard, CityNews)<\/p>\n

Imbeault adds, \u201cOver the past four years, calls to 9\u20111\u20111 for domestic violence have tripled. We also know that back in 2020, when prevention efforts really began, 75 per cent of women seeking help at shelters were able to get it. By 2025, that number dropped to just 26 per cent \u2014 because of a lack of funding, a lack of space, and a lack of staff. It\u2019s completely unacceptable for this to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Community members, \u00a0organizations working on issues related to violence against women \u2014 including CALAQs, shelters, the City of Saint Jerome, and political representatives \u2014 also signed a manifesto pledging to work more closely together to support victims across the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for taking action, and thank you for being part of this essential fight \u2014 for Joanie, for our daughters, for all women,\u201d added Imbeault.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of International Women\u2019s Day, dozens of organizations gathered in Saint Jerome on Thursday for a day of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-517443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}