Woman scared of assault after suspect is let go

Says man pulled off her clothes and hit her, but police did little

A 25-year-old homeless woman says she fears for her life after she was sexually assaulted and her assailant was set free by Montreal police. The woman, who is pregnant, says she was sleeping in an alley off Park Ave. Wednesday night when she was woken up by a man straddling her and pulling her clothes off. Though she was repeatedly struck in the face, she was able to fight him off. The following night, she reported the attack to John Tessier, an intervention worker at the Open Door homeless shelter. “She was spitting blood,” Tessier told the Montreal Gazette. “She may have internal injuries, but she’s so freaked out right now that it’s hard to get her to a hospital.” Tessier called 911 just after 7 p.m. Thursday and waited for a squad car to arrive. He said the officers were empathetic when she told them her story and that they picked up the man, handcuffed him and took him into their patrol car. “Then they just let him out around the corner,” Tessier said. “They said their hands were tied, there’s nothing they can do.” Tessier’s version of events was corroborated by the victim and another outreach worker who witnessed the interactions and stayed with her for hours Thursday night.

The victim told the Montreal Gazette her attacker returned Friday morning and threatened to stab her. Her voice trembled as she recounted the incident. The Montreal police confirmed they are investigating the assault, but as a matter of protocol, do not comment on ongoing cases. Tessier said when he followed up with an officer at Station 38, she told him an investigator would eventually be assigned to the case. “She fears for her life and you can’t even get an investigator to take her statement,” Tessier said. “She’s sleeping on the streets and there’s this predator on the loose who’s told her he’s going to attack her again.” The suspect, who is also homeless, was spotted on Park Ave. Friday night. The victim says she’ll be sleeping on the streets until she can get a plane ticket back up to her village in Nunavik. For safety reasons, most shelters don’t take in people if they’re intoxicated. Tessier, who used to be homeless, says some people are afraid of having their belongings stolen while they sleep. For years, homeless advocates have been calling on the city to open a wet shelter, where alcoholics can drink on site instead of on the streets. The Open Door often works with Makivik Corporation to secure flights to Nunavik for vulnerable Inuit women. This year, the shelter has helped send 23 people, most of whom were homeless, back to their villages. David Chapman, the Open Door’s director, says Inuit women often come south to seek work or to get away from the overcrowded housing conditions in Nunavik. But after arriving, some are

She fears for her life and you can’t even get an investigator to take her statement.

recruited into the sex trade or fall prey to drug dealers and pimps. Last year, Chapman said that the frequency of sexual assaults against Indigenous women in Montreal is alarming. Of the 10 Indigenous women who confided in Chapman about being assaulted last year, only three went to police. “Of those three cases, none have made it past the initial statement to police,” Chapman said. “There’s certainly an issue of trust at play, and we’re seeing police getting better at being more sensitive, but there are systematic problems here, too.” Last year, a 21-year-old Indigenous woman showed up at the Open Door after she was raped. It took police more than two hours to take a statement and the investigation has not produced an arrest. Months later, a 27-year-old Inuk woman was found dead just hours after telling police someone was threatening her life. After initially ruling it a suicide, detectives reopened the investigation into her death, but no arrests have been made. Tessier says that, at its location in Westmount, the shelter began working closely with police at Station 12 and their handling of Indigenous cases improved dramatically. The shelter has since moved to the Milton Park neighbourhood and Tessier says the Station 38 police and Open Door will have to start working closely on cases involving vulnerable women. The Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal provides emergency housing for vulnerable women and employs street workers to make sure homeless women stay safe at night. There are also volunteer groups like the Wolf Pack Street Patrol, which hand out food and hygiene products to people who sleep outside every night. But for those who fall between the cracks, the street can be an unforgiving place. “I’m so scared to go back out there,” the victim said. “But I don’t know where else to go.”