Witness fears her treatment by MPs will keep other survivors from speaking

Cait Alexander was invited to Ottawa to tell her story of violence against women to a parliamentary committee. Instead, the MPs engaged in political bickering amongst themselves.

A witness who left a House of Commons committee hearing on violence against women in tears this week after the meeting devolved into bickering says she fears the incident will make it harder for other survivors to come forward.

In a series of conversations with Global News, Cait Alexander, who testified before the status of women committee that she narrowly survived a violently abusive relationship, said her experience on Parliament Hill has left her heartbroken and furious that the message she came to Ottawa to deliver has been overshadowed.

“It takes courage to speak out,” she said. “It takes courage to face anyone when you don’t know what their reaction to your situation is going to be. And the way that this was handled was the exact fear that every single survivor and victim has.

“That’s why I call it ‘abuse’… because it’s the same gaslighting and minimizing of our experience that makes us not want to come forward.”

Wednesday’s emergency committee meeting was called by Conservatives in the middle of the summer parliamentary recess to hear from advocates for domestic violence victims and a deputy chief of the Peel Region Police in light of several recent high-profile cases and newly released crime data from Statistics Canada.

But the meeting went off the rails not long after opening statements, with Liberal and NDP members accusing Conservatives of rushing the meeting for political gain and not including witnesses from the at-risk Indigenous and LGBTQ2 communities.

Liberal MP Anita Vandenbeld said during the committee that she and all committee members care about the issue of gender-based violence, then called for a debate on a motion related to abortion rights, which the Liberals say would be at risk under a Conservative government. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has denied the accusation.

NDP MP Leah Gazan, who is Indigenous, then raised multiple points of order to speak and, after being allowed to do so, proceeded to talk at length about both abortion access and the lack of marginalized voices at Wednesday’s meeting, reading from prepared remarks.