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Montreal women's shelter and non-profit La Maison Grise has placed vignettes showing scenes of domestic violence in windows across Montreal. The "decorations," dubbed "fear windows," are part of a campaign to increase public awareness of intimate partner violence and raise funds for the shelter.
Each of the vignettes shows a visibly irate individual either screaming at or poised to inflict harm on another individual. They also include the organization's name and the message, "aidez-nous à arrêter l'horreur" — "help us stop the horror."
Vignette showing a domestic violence scene in the window of a Montreal home.Courtesy of La Maison Grise
Vignette showing a domestic violence scene in the window of a Montreal home. The vignette includes the message, "aidez-nous à arrêter l'horreur" — "help us stop the horror."Courtesy of La Maison Grise
In a press release, La Maison Grise cited Statistics Canada data that shows there were 127,082 victims of "police-reported family violence" in 2021. StatsCan identified 69% of those victims as women and girls.
In a 2019 StatsCan survey, only 19% of victims said they had reported their experiences to the police.
"Quite often," the shelter states in the release, "these violent acts only become public knowledge when things turn deadly, at which point it’s tragically too late to provide help."
154 homicide victims, 60% of them women and girls, in Canada in 2019 were killed by a family member, according to Statistics Canada.
"This is why we must double our efforts to meet the sorely growing needs of victims," La Maison Grise General Manager Nathalie Lamarche said. "Unfortunately, many of the femicides could have been avoided."
"By juxtaposing these scenes of domestic violence with terrifying Halloween decorations, we hope to draw public attention to the real horrors that go unmentioned."
If you or someone you know has been the victim of domestic violence, refer to these resources available across Quebec. If you need immediate assistance, please call 911 or go to your nearest hospital. Support is available.