Maria’s dream was to visit Vancouver with her friends from Baja California. Today, she remains in the city to seek justice against her sexual abuser, who after a year, is still free in British Columbia, Canada.
Por Nayeli Martín del Campo / @NinjeliSaya
Ilustraciones creadas por Ideogram.ai
“My roommate’s boyfriend, he sexually abused me,” says Maria, the pseudonym we will use in reference to the interviewee.
Originally from Baja California, Maria decided to move with two of her friends to Vancouver, British Columbia to work undocumented for a few months; for many Mexicans, the years preceding the 2024 immigration restrictions provided the opportunity to earn quick cash.
However, Maria’s life changed completely when she was sexually abused by Alex⎯the boyfriend of one of her friends⎯whom they met in Vancouver and lived with to account for high housing costs during the housing crisis.
“We moved to a house for the three of us; it was two bedrooms. This guy was not a person who gave me a good feeling. He told that he wanted to live with her and we did not want to leave her alone with this guy, so we said yes, instead of her going with him alone, it is much better for him to come and then we can take care of our friend. That way we all take care of each other.”
On her birthday, Maria and her friends decided to drink. Maria lost consciousness from the alcohol she had ingested. Little did she know that the next day her life would change completely.
“On my birthday I got very drunk and in that state, my roommate’s boyfriend sexually abused me. The next day I woke up because I was moving. When I opened my eyes, I saw my friend’s boyfriend on top of me, touching me, doing things to me. It was a shock for me.”
Maria is one of the many victims of sexual abuse in Canada. In 2021 alone, 34,242 cases were reported in the country, according to the Family Violence in Canada this represented an 18% increase compared to 2020, one of the highest figures since 1996.
In 2021 in British Columbia, 6,065 victims were counted, according to Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General Policing and Security Branch, an increase of 14.1%.
After several hours of shock and noticing marks on her breasts and neck, Maria decided to report the incident to the authorities through 911, where police personnel went to her home to take her to the BC Woman Hospital where she would be examined and sent to the sexual abuse area.
“There, they took samples, created a file on me and checked me out. We left there at about 3 or 4 in the morning, I don’t remember. Once I made the formal statement, they took pictures of hickeys on my neck and breasts.”
The 2009 Estimation of the Economic Impact of Violent Victimization in Canada reported the economic impact for the treatment of women victims of sexual abuse and sexual offenses is more than three billion dollars. In the case of care for men, the total amount is just over one billion dollars.
After the statement, the Vancouver police took clothes and sheets from the apartment where the events occurred for testing and offered psychological support for Maria.
With the help of the Immigration and Refugee Legal Clinic, Maria obtained free advice to obtain a visa to stay legally in the country and continue with the complaint against Alex. The clinic applied for psychological help to the Crime Victims Assistance Program (CVAP).
“It took a year to be approved . They gave me 48 psychological sessions. In that same foundation they gave me 10 sessions of psychological help. It was last June (2024) that I had time to schedule my appointments. I am not going to pay anything; they are going to take care of the whole process.”
As a result of the traumatic event, Maria is afraid to see men on the street, and developed emotional and communication problems. The Department of Justice Canada shows that people can be strongly affected neurologically in the defense circuitry of the brain and memory after suffering sexual violence, highlighting the immediate impact of such acts.
A year after the events, Maria has begun to live a normal life and to give herself the opportunity to meet new friends and to be able to go out on the street without the accompaniment of her boyfriend, who has remained supportive. She says that thanks to her convictions she had the strength to denounce her aggressor to the authorities.
“I hope he pays for what he did, because he has to. That’s what I want. I knew it couldn’t stay like that, I didn’t want to be one more of the statistics of raped women who didn’t raise their voices.”
Although she has sought the means to get ahead, she says she looks forward to the day when she can feel free and be able to raise her voice publicly without fear of being recriminated by society and eliminate the impotence of keeping the secret of what she experienced.
“I know I will heal on the day I can shout it to the four winds. I want to get it off my chest, out of my head because I feel helpless. I have a lot of rage because nobody knows anything. That consumes you. There have been many horrible ideas in my mind, like death, but I hold on to it and here I am, fighting against all odds”.
With psychological support, Maria maintains faith that she will be able to eliminate the fears she lives with and develop a calm life.
