A protest was held at Quebec’s National Assembly Tuesday morning by a group representing 50 women’s shelters to demand action against conjugal violence, CBC News reported.

The move comes after a report earlier this year noted that intimate partner violence had tripled in Quebec over the last decade, as well as the killing of a woman in Longueuil last week in an apparent murder-suicide. Police have not connected the case to domestic violence, though it would be the province’s sixth such case this year if they do.

The report noted that according to the Sûreté du Québec, criminal cases opened in a conjugal violence context increased from 4,266 in 2015 to 12,822 in 2024.

The Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale, as the group is known, has a list of demands for the government, and is seeking recurrent funding of $57 million over three years for “equitable support” across all shelters.

Quebec tables new bill rolling back portions of doctor pay law

Quebec’s new health minister Sonia Bélanger introduced legislation rolling back more clauses in the controversial doctors pay bill her government introduced last October, known as Bill 2.

The Montreal Gazette reported that she made her presentation with former health minister Christian Dubé looking on in the legislature as an independent, since he resigned his post and from the CAQ party just before Christmas. The controversial Bill 2, which attempted to impose a new pay system on doctors, based on different performance metrics, drew the ire of physicians across the province, and eventually led to Dubé’s departure.

Bélanger’s new bill comes out of the deal that was struck between the government and the provincial family physician association, FMOQ. While the government has withdrawn its power to impose financial penalties, the bill leaves the door open for a capitation system, which is payment based on the number of patients enrolled. The Gazette noted that the proportion paid by capitation still has to be negotiated with the FMOQ.

“We were told we were too harsh (with Bill 2),” Belanger said.“After that, we were told we were too soft. I find today we are in the middle, that we are in the right place and this will make a difference for Quebecers.”

Protesters denounce end of immigration program

Protests took place in several cities across Quebec, including Montreal, Gatineau and Sherbrooke, denouncing the end of the Programme de l’expérience québécoise (PEQ), a popular pathway for immigrants to get their Quebec selection certificate, which is needed to apply for permanent residency. It was abolished by the CAQ government last November and replaced with the Programme de sélection des travailleurs qualifiés (PSTQ), which favours those who live outside Montreal and Laval, as well as specific employment fields, according to Radio-Canada. Protestors denounced the end of the program with no grandfather clause for those who are already living in the province, saying it leaves many in limbo.

Guillaume Tremblay, the president of L’Union des municipalités du Québec, said that recruiting workers from abroad to meet employment needs in certain sectors, and then “changing the rules of the game,” is “nonsense.”

The government has said it plans to admit 29,000 economic immigrants this year, primarily through the new PSTQ program.

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