OTTAWA — A witness who stormed out of a parliamentary committee meeting in tears Wednesday is demanding an apology from a Liberal MP who put a halt to a planned discussion about violence against women in favour of a debate about abortion rights.
Cait Alexander was on Parliament Hill to provide testimony at a rare summer hearing of the House of Commons status of women committee when she says Liberal MP Anita Vandenbeld re-victimized her as a survivor of domestic violence."This is exactly what it felt like these last few years, where I'm literally showing my bludgeoned, bleeding, bruised body and the people who have authority and power in this country are saying, 'Well, we care about you.' But then they silence you.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said last week that the suspect had previously been arrested but was released before the fatal attack, and criticized the Liberal government's bail policies. "We do not use victims and survivors of trauma to try and score political points in this committee," she pronounced.
After that, the meeting dissolved into a lengthy back-and-forth between MPs, as multiple points of order were brought to the chair. Conservative MP Michelle Ferreri lambasted Vandenbeld for derailing the meeting, and said the victims came to testify in order to bring about"legitimate change.""'Sorry' isn't good enough — we've heard 'sorry,'" Alexander's mother told the committee.Alexander said afterward the entire ordeal was retraumatizing and that the committee's actions are"exactly the type of behaviour that has allowed my abuser to go free.
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