En tête à tête avec la directrice du DPCP

Injustice
It is with a very gutted heart that I write this letter, following the decision of the judge to find the man who beat me, not guilty. I would like you to take the time to read this letter.
I had just bought my very first house in Gatineau when I met my abuser on an online dating site. I had only lived in my home for two weeks. I was financially stable, had a great job with the Federal Government that I loved, lived with my son and was looking for someone to share my life with. I was on top of the world and a very happy woman.
Scot Leslie MacDonald lived in Val-Senneville and after several online chats and phone conversations, I was immediately captivated by his charm and decided to go meet him. The first night I spent there, he ended up on the bathroom floor, curled up in a fetal position and was screaming, “no more no more” until his nose bled. I had never seen this before and decided to leave right away. It was late at night when I left. When I got to Val-d’Or, his daughter Alyson called me and begged me to come back. She told me she loved me and I was the one for his dad and that he had many ex-girlfriends that abused him in the past. I suddenly felt sorry for him and went back. We talked and he told me he had been severely abused by ex-girlfriends in the past and he didn’t’ want me abusing him as they had, and I assured him I was not that kind of woman and it became my mission to prove this to him.
He proposed to me the following week, during my weekend visit. We began travelling back and forth on the weekends between Val-Senneville and Gatineau. In three months, I had left my job in Gatineau and was fortunate to have found another in Val-d’Or. My son and I packed a truck, said goodbye to all our friends and family and left for what was, I thought, going to be a fabulous life with my soon to be husband. I kept my home and soon found someone to rent it, however I put it up for sale anyway. Unbeknownst to me, my house would never sell.
The abuse was gradual and was physical, emotional and mental. Soon it also became financial. He wanted a very large wedding which cost me thousands and thousands of dollars. In fact, I paid for the entire wedding, reception and honeymoon. I made significant renovations in his home, including a granite kitchen counter top, fixed all the holes in the walls and repainted the entire house. I changed all the light fixtures and replaced all the old curtains with new blinds. I put expense steel backsplash in the kitchen and bathrooms. I bought him expensive tools that he wanted and several jeans he wanted at $200 a pair. I bought him all the firefighter gadgets and clothes online that he wanted. He told he he had never been to a concert, and bought him concert tickets only to hear him accidentally admit after the fact that he had in fact been to a concert.
He would often check my cellphone and see who I was talking to. He started coming to my new job, everyday to have lunch with me, however it really upset him that I only worked with men and was constantly accusing me of having an affair. I was once asked by my Manager to do an inventory upstairs in the building where I worked. This made me nervous because Scot emailed and called me a lot on my work phone. I was gone two hours from my desk and when I returned, I shook my mouse to reactive my screen and all I saw were messages from him – the entire screen was just his messages. And my phone was ringing and it was him. He was upset and yelling at me that he knew I had just had sex with someone from work – which could not be further from the truth. He told me his ex’s cheated on him and I thought this was a reaction he had resulting from this and tried my best to tell him he was the only one I loved and wanted to be with. I tried so desperately hard.
I began noticing that every two or three days, his humour would change. The next day, there would be an intense anger episode from him, which I really had no control over. He would shake me physically. I weigh 143 pounds and he weighs 200 pounds with two black belts in karate (or so he told me). Scot is very physically fit, and should be as he is a part time firefighter.
Soon, after moving in, it was clear that I had a lot of work to do to build his confidence in me. I could not go out alone, ever, including grocery shopping. My emails and social media was consistently monitored by him. In total, Scot “accidentally” broke my cellphone, my tablet and lost my second cellphone. I could not look at any man when we went out, including men in movies as this would greatly upset him. The intense of his anger was beyond reach. I attempted to leave several times in my car, but he would jump in his car and run me off the road with his car. If I tried to leave to just go for a walk to get away from him hurting me physically, he would follow me and scream at me and I would have to return home in embarrassment.
I began missing work from my injuries and my Manager confronted me one day, as I was not able to hide all of my bruises all of the time. My Manager told me that Scot was no longer allowed to come to my worksite. When I told Scot, this infuriated him even more because he was upset about how his image now looked at my work.
He always promised he would not get mad or hurt me anymore. But he could not help himself. One night I had to call the police. When the police saw me he took me in a separate room and told me I could tell him if Scot hurt me physically. My arms were red and had old bruises on them. I denied it to the police because I was no longer strong enough to stand on my own ground. I had no more money, I had nowhere to go. I knew no one in Val-d’Or.
Several times, Scot would throw himself out of the car while I was driving. This concerned me very much and I asked him to contact the Employee Assistance Program at my work to get some counselling. I was convinced that all I had to do was to prove that I was a trustworthy person to him.
We were married on July 4, 2015. It was a large wedding which cost me about $20,000. That night, he beat me in the hotel room. I managed to escape to the bathroom and lock it. I spent most of the night crying on the tile floor.
We went to Cuba two days later for our honeymoon. His mood was still not the best and when we left Cuba, all I wanted to do was go home, turn the lights off, shut out the world, cry and go to bed.
The following September, Scot beat me again. The court heard my testimony, which I gave genuinely, truthfully and whole-heartedly. It was the most difficult thing I ever did in my entire life, and if I had to do it all over again, I would not.
Following that beating, he went home to tell my son that he beat me at a boat launch, two minutes from our home. My son and I fled for our lives within 15 minutes of him beating me and fled for our lives and safety to Lanark, Ottawa, where my son’s father resides. We stayed there for four days, while I began healing from all the wounds I received, and to which I am still scared to this day, as I write this letter.
I contacted Le Nid. Although they would take me, they could not take my son because of his age. And I was not going to leave my son.

Many messages were sent between Scot and I to which I provided the court as evidence. Scot was always very careful not to put too much in writing, but it is evident of what happened through those messages and not one place did he ever mention any alcohol on my part that night. We had dinner at Quizno’s and nowhere else! None of us had any alcohol that day, period. Scot committed perjury in court by saying otherwise, as did his daughter Alyson when she reported told the courts that she saw me hit her father. The only time, I purposely hit him, was at the boat launch, the day he beat me on that faithful September night, and I admitted to this in court and was really not proud of myself. I had to defend myself – I was sure he was going to drown me that night. He already admitted to me in the past that he had killed someone and he also admitted to this to his ex girlfriend.
In November, I filed for bankruptcy and lost my financial independence and my home. Scot then told me that I had to give him more money, monthly, despite that he had $7,000 in the bank, from what he told me.
Six or eight weeks before I left Scot, I began getting counselling for myself through the Employee Assistance Program at work. I was forced to tell Scot everything we talked about. I told him some, but not all. I did not tell him that I was planning on leaving him and I was getting my strength from this. My counsellor asked me to go shopping alone and to go buy a scarf, because I told her I liked scarves. I tried one day after work and found myself trembling and crying at the mall in Val-d’Or and could not enter the store. I ran to my car and drove home as fast as I could and he already knew that I had not been home yet and he lost it with me. I never did it again.
In December, in the middle of my work shift, my son called me from home. Scot was home and the way my son spoke to me, I knew something was very wrong. I called 9-1-1 and asked the police to meet me at the house. I left work immediately and pulled in the laneway just as the police arrived. Scot was in the house on the phone trying to call lawyers in front of the police. I did not know what had happened. That night, I had organized a meeting with a marriage counsellor and I was planning on telling him that night, (I did not want to do it alone and my son had seen and heard enough) that I was finally leaving him. I think he knew it was coming and wanted to play the victim card as he always did. He admitted in front of the police officer that he did in fact beat me and quickly added, “but that was a long time ago”. We were only together for a total of 17 months. It was clear to Scot that he wanted us to leave the home right away. I tried to sit with him and explain that I knew nobody that could help me but he did not care. Kevin and I immediately packed the necessary things and left. I spoke to the police outside and told them he had beaten me before, and many times. They asked me to come downtown and give a statement and press charges. I told them I would before we left town but that I had to go to my work and tell them I would never be back. We also had to do the same thing for my son – he had to go tell them he would never return to his job. I stopped at the fire station and spoke to the Chief. I asked him if I denounced Scot if he would lose his job, to which he said yes. I did not want this to happen to Scot so we just left town immediately, without pressing charges.
Friends of mine gratefully accepted us in their beautiful Gatineau home where we remained for 3 months, until I was able to get back on my feet both mentally, physically and a little bit financially.
However leaving Scot was not easy. He emailed me daily with threats. He also made significant lies on the social network and added many of my friends as his friends. He contacted anyone who would listen that he was a good person and not a wife beater.
I was able to get a transfer from my job but it was not easy. My employee information was hidden from the public for over a year after I left Val-Senneville as I was so afraid for my life and that of my son.
Scot always told me that he never beat a woman in his life. Ever. The only thing he ever told me is that the mother of his children pressed charges on him once and Scot got away with it. But when asked, he would give very vague answers.
I contacted another lady, Karine Fréchette, he had been with Scot for 5 years. I never spoke to her before. I reached out to her and explained who I was and why I wanted to talk to her on the phone. Soon, we talked on the phone and I asked her if there had been any abuse in her relationship with Scot. She said the abuse came in all forms. She recounted her experiences with Scot and it was frightingly like listening to my very own experiences. I cried. I realized I had been lied to all along. He did the same thing to her as he had done to me. And she was able to confirm to me that he had in fact beat the mother of his children and at one point, even locked up her in a closet. Many times, Karine wanted to do something and press charges against Scot. She contacted CAVAC for help on many occasions. In the end, it was easier to leave with your life. He burned some of her belongings in a fire outside his home.
The entire trial process was difficult. I had four different prosecutors come and go.
Going to court was very difficult. Scot`s lawyer showed a lot of anger towards me in court and that added to the anxiety that I felt. Just being in the same room as Scot was extremely traumatizing to the point that everything hurt and I always felt like I was going to be sick to my stomach. Recounting what happened that day was so so difficult. I was so traumatized, that when I got back to Ottawa, I had to seek counselling, see my doctor, was diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression and now have a Service Dog to help with my anxiety. Due to Scot`s lawyer`s accident on the second day of the trial, the trail was postponed. I once again, had to wait months to go back to trial.
Not guilty.
That was the judge’s verdict. Not because of doubts. Because he a good enough liar and charmer.
My question now is how do I live knowing he is going to do this again and again and again???? And he will!!!
Who will be responsible when it happens again?
What message has the judge sent me?
What message has the judge sent him!!!!!
How can you just allow a wife-beater to just walk away like this? Why was he not provided with the help he needs?
I am beyond insulted and in just complete utter disbelief at how this decision was handled. Now Scot gets all of his weapons back. And now, I don`t just look over my shoulder – I have to look all around me. Scot is a narcissistic man and he will be sure that I pay for this. He is a liar like I have never seen. Are the courts so blind to this??
You have no idea what has happened here. He needs mental help and he was let go because he perjured himself in court.
I no longer have any faith of any type in the justice system. The justice system is corrupt. It is blind. Any woman who is beaten should just shut up. That is the message I got from the court. Shut up and take it. His lies overshadowed the TRUTH and the court was much too weak or swayed (as I was) to see what has truly transpired.
There is nobody here to help the true victims. The justice system is closed. It has failed. Another victim is pending, another woman will lose her financial stability, her emotional and physical health deteriorate and I pray there are no children involved. Scot is on the prowl again and needs a woman in his life to belittle, control and destroy. And the courts will allow it for a third time.
I am utterly disgusted and truly don`t know how to live with the decision of the court.

Sincerely,
Chantal Banks