Beliefs

Joy Williams Case

November 24, 1994, Letter to the Editor, Citizen from Rev. Brian Kopke

Background in Leonard Stern article in Citizen

As the door was being battered in, two locks broke but a chain held. I asked who was there. "RCMP," I was told. I undid the chain.

As three burly men who were simply doing their jobs rushed past me toward the bedroom where I had told Joy Williams to go so she would not have to see the violence of men rushing in, I shouted, "We have a victim of severe spousal abuse here. Please send your woman officer in first. Mrs. Williams is terrified of men." As the woman officer passed me and headed toward the room I thanked her.

Joy Williams has been issued a terrible lot in life. She has exposed us all to the terrors of her abuse, showing long machete scars on television. She has been torn from her two children. Her marriage, legal in Ontario, was declared one of convenience (thus effectively the federal government stepped in to "invalidate" a marriage -- a provincial power).

It looked bad for her because she and her "mentally ill' husband were divorced. Yet his "illness" was not diagnosed until about two years after they were married.

Over tea, awaiting the arrival of Chantal Tie, Williams's lawyer, I listened to Joy's fear. "I will never see my children again. My mother will die. This is killing her. I would rather be shot than cut with knives the way he has done to me." She shook with fear.

Williams signed a police document in Jamaica saying that her husband did not cut her. Under Jamaican law he was allowed to stand beside his bleeding wife while she was questioned. Because of the low status of women she was returned to his home.

Of course fear drove her to say that. Any sociology 101 student knows we cannot willy-nilly apply standards from one culture to another. With our broad experience with multiculturalism in Canada, we should know that.

The issues surrounding the Williams case are terribly distressing for our sense of justice. The minister of immigration was the only one who could help at that stage. Sergio Marchi cannot look to this case as a feather in his cap.

Marchi is under fire for many issues in his portfolio -- so many that he is unable to do justice on behalf of Canada. It is time for him to resign and be replaced with someone with enough experience to do the job with sensitivity to women's issues as provided under last June's changes in the law.

Rev. Brian S. Kopke, Ottawa
Editor's note: Joy Williams was deported to Jamaica Wednesday.