'There's really no justice': Quebec mother, daughter speak out after man gets house arrest for years of abuse

A mother and daughter are speaking out after a Quebec man was sentenced to house arrest for years of domestic abuse. They were both physically assaulted by the mother's ex-partner and say the offender got off with another light sentence.

Warning: This story contains graphic details about domestic violence.

Jenny doesn't know the exact number of times her ex-partner beat her, threatened her or called her a b--ch because there were just too many to count.

For nearly a decade, he physically and verbally abused her and her young daughter in their family home in Akwesasne, a Mohawk territory that straddles Quebec, Ontario and New York state. Over those years, Jenny went to court multiple times to report domestic abuse, thinking it would change his behaviour but it didn't.

The last time her ex, Patrick, was before a judge at the Valleyfield, Que. courthouse in February, she thought he would finally get what she considered to be a tough jail sentence after being charged again in 2021. Instead, Jenny, a First Nations woman in her 40s, said she was let down once again by the justice system.

Her ex, who is in his 50s, received 12 months of house arrest and three years' probation, as well as several other conditions, after waiving his right to a trial and pleading guilty. He admitted to several charges for events that happened between 2009 and 2018, including beating and strangling his spouse, and punching her daughter when she was just five years old.

"It doesn't make up for the nine-and-a-half years he tortured us," Jenny said through tears in an interview with CTV News. "Made me feel like a hostage in our home, especially dragging those kids through that."