Survivors of intimate partner violence say Quebec courts are too lenient on offenders

Nancy Boucher says sending her partner of quatern years to slammer was the hardest thing she’s ever so through with(p).

“It’s a adult male you love. It’s not a stranger, it’s your partner. He’s supposed to protect you,” she said.

In 2021, Johnathan Blanchet was convicted for an array of violent offences committed against her over the course of several months, including beating her on the face and head, threatening to kill her and suffocating her. 

Boucher braved a “stressful” eight-month-long court process and even decided to testify in person to face Blanchet instead of sending in a written statement. In the end, she says she’s happy she saw it through. 

But these days, Boucher says she finds herself back in court — preparing to testify as a witness. 

Her ex is facing a murder charge in the death of Gabie Renaud, whose body was found in her Saint-Jérôme, Que., apartment in September. “I’ll be there, I’ll see his face,” she said. “I so, so wanted to prevent this.”

In the years they were together, Boucher reported Blanchet to the police more than a dozen times. 

Court documents show that by then, he already had a lengthy criminal record. 

Blanchet’s history of violence against intimate partners spans two decades. 

Since 2004, he has repeatedly been convicted of assaulting different women — mostly receiving fines, suspended sentences and probation over the course of over 15 years. He did a few stints in jail varying between one and five and half months. 

During this time, Blanchet was found guilty of breaching court-ordered conditions 16 times. The orders included attending addiction and violence therapy, keeping the peace and doing community service. 

Blanchet was first convicted of offences against Boucher in 2017 while still on probation for earlier assaults against another partner. After further attacks on Boucher in 2020, Quebec court Judge Serge Cimon sentenced him to 23 months and three weeks in jail.

During the hearing, Cimon said Blanchet “clearly [didn’t] respect his commitments to the police and the courts, and that his experiences, along with the judicial process [were] not leading him to change his behaviour.”

But Boucher wasn’t satisfied. Although it was more time behind bars than Blanchet had ever received, she said it wasn’t long enough to teach him a lesson. She wanted him to get a sentence of at least two years, which would have landed him in a federal prison.

“Johnathan hasn’t respected the law in the last 20 years. He's also extremely strong, so going to provincial jail was like going to daycare for him. It wasn’t something that worried him,” she said. 

“Had he been punished more severely … maybe he wouldn’t be where he’s at today.”

We’re not naming her to protect her children’s identities.

Court documents show that in 2022, her ex-partner pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon, choking, assault causing bodily harm, uttering death threats and breaching a court order to abstain from consuming alcohol.

The judge issued the “equivalent of an almost eight-month sentence,” the Quebec Crown prosecutor's office said. 

Taking into account the time he spent in detention and rehab awaiting a decision, credited as four and a half months, the offender ended up with 90 days left to serve in jail on weekends. A three-year probation period was also imposed. The sentence had been proposed by a joint agreement between the defence and the Crown prosecutor. 

Quebec study finds most victims of intimate partner violence don't go to police

The court also took into account the offender’s commitment to attend professional development courses in addition to substance abuse and violence therapies as factors that could lead to his rehabilitation.

The victim expressed concern at the time, telling the prosecution that he had a history of disregarding his addiction treatment. In her address to the court, she described several other incidents where her former partner had been aggressive toward their children. She said while she was pleased he was finally admitting guilt for being violent toward her, she hoped there wasn’t “anything strategic behind it.”

Court documents show the offender began skipping his days in jail within the same month of receiving his sentence. In total, he missed 44 days — nearly half his sentence.

In January 2025, the court ordered him to make up those days, still only on weekends. His lawyer explained that his addiction had been the reason for his absences, and that he had completed a new therapy program to deal with it. He had also signed up to a new professional development program.

Over the next few months, he was found guilty of being at large three more times.

The victim says there were days she was afraid to go out. She believes the weekend sentence and the handling of his absences don’t reflect the severity of the attack, of which she says her family still feels the consequences years later.

“It's not fair. It's a shame on the system, is the way I feel,” she said. “The message the system is sending is that you can beat your wife … and it’s OK.”

The offender has since died.

Manon Monastesse, the director of Quebec's federation of women's shelters, says she has often seen cases where courts make accommodations for offenders by handing them a suspended or weekend sentence so that it won’t have an impact on their career.

“It’s a way to deny that there was violence committed against women,” she said.

Monastesse argued that when it comes to offences such as speeding or impaired driving, police protocols often leave little room to account for a person's unique situation.

“The officer won’t start asking questions like, ‘did you recently go through a divorce?” she said, “so, why in the context of domestic violence or sexual assault, other factors are taken into account when they shouldn’t be?”

She says it’s extremely rare that an offender convicted in the context of domestic violence gets a sentence of at least two years, saying there’s a problem with how those situations are analyzed by the courts. 

“It’s a question of training,” she said.

Monastesse acknowledges that Quebec has made progress by gradually implementing special tribunals for sexual and domestic violence cases, which include training for those involved.

Still, she says these are large structures to put in place and it might be a matter of time before seeing improvements. She added that serious funding is also needed for them to work.

Monastesse has hope that a recent announcement from the federal government could change how courts treat cases involving domestic violence.

Last week, Justice Minister Sean Fraser tabled a new bill which would, among other measures, make “murder motivated by hate a first-degree murder offence, including femicides.”

It would also classify murders “that occur alongside controlling or coercive behaviour of an intimate partner, sexual violence or exploitation as first-degree murder, even when there was no planning and deliberation.”

Monastesse believes the move would create a domino effect on how seriously courts take other offences that can precede a murder, like death threats.

“They would be treated as offences that are much more severe than how they are treated now, where often we end up with suspended sentences or fines,” she said.

Rachel Chagnon, dean of the faculty of political science and law at UQAM, agrees the legislation could send a message to the courts, but isn’t sure it would make an impact.

“If one would give me a choice between the acknowledgment of femicide and enough resources in the system, I will take enough resources in the system any day of the week,” she said. 

“If I only have a severe crime with no resources that can help improve the situation on the field, I don't think it will change much.”

Chagnon warns that longer sentences won’t necessarily keep people from committing crimes, but she says it’s “sad” that some victims feel the courts are too lenient.

“Everyone should have a feeling that justice has been served. It's important to the integrity of the system that the people believe in the system,” she said, adding that victims would have an easier time accepting sentences if they felt the system was taking care of them, through proper health care, social and psychological support.

The most recent numbers from the Institut de la statistique du Québec suggest that only one in four women and one in five men reported incidents of intimate partner violence to the police, according to a 2021-22 survey.

Chagnon says that one of the difficulties in keeping track of offenders who don’t play by the rules is a lack of communication between the different entities involved in their progress through the system.

She says it’s the role of probation officers to check that offenders follow through on all their obligations — but in practice, enforcement isn't that simple.

“There are not enough [probation] officers in Quebec. They are swamped,” Chagnon said.

Quebec’s Public Security Ministry recently announced a new directive for probation officers allowing them to reduce check-ins with offenders to once a month, down from twice a month, at their discretion.

The ministry said the measures are meant to reduce probation officers' workload and allow them to focus on cases requiring more attention, without impacting the safety of victims.

Chagnon says this strain on the system means it fails to take into account offenders that are “high maintenance.”

“We don't have the resources to truly follow them,” she said. “It's too easy for them to go back and offer the facade of being a good player, [saying], you know, ‘I will go to my rehab next time. This was a bad phase.’” 

She says the system only works when offenders truly want to rehabilitate.

“When you have an offender who plays by the rules, everything's good. Because you have someone who is committed to become a better person,” she said. “Those people exist.” 

In a statement, Quebec’s Public Security Ministry denies a lack of resources to monitor offenders.

The ministry says there’s regular communication between correctional institutions and probation officers that work in the community, including through the use of a shared computer folder.

The provincial government says it has taken several steps to better respond to victims’ needs,  with more than $1 billion in funding to fight sexual and domestic violence since 2019, including money for organizations that help victims.

The province says it also offers victims free legal consultations, and that it removed deadlines to apply to financial compensation programs to “help them in their recovery process.” 

A spokesperson for the federal Justice Ministry said that since 2022, Ottawa has offered more than $539 million for provinces and territories to enhance services within their jurisdictions to prevent gender-based violence and support survivors. 

The federal government says it has also earmarked $223.4 million for the next five years for the Department of Women and Gender Equality to strengthen the federal government’s response to gender-based violence.

If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911. If you’re affected by family or intimate partner violence, you can look for help through crisis lines and local support services. ​​

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