Martine Ayotte, author of The Prey

Biographical Notes

Martine Ayotte describes the abuse she suffered in her childhood but concentrates mainly on the mourning that a victim must experience throughout the denunciation process. She focuses specifically on the complexity of the justice system and the strange, paradoxical and yet understandable reactions of her family.

Martine Ayotte was born in Abitibi-Témiscamingue and continues to live there with her spouse and five children. She obtained a B.A. in Recreology at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières before earning her Master’s degree in Regional Development at the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue. She was a community education worker and then a counsellor at the Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue before becoming client relations director at the UQAT.

She has carried out various projects including establishing a healthy school in the Bellecombe community, which earned her an award from the provincial association of healthy cities and towns. She developed a pan-Canadian project to address violence in television programs and toys intended for children, which garnered her the Quebec personality award and an honourable mention from the human rights commission. She has also given training on combating domestic violence. In addition, she served as municipal councillor for a number of years.  

In fall 2008, she will sit on a committee responsible for reviewing the provincial law on victims of crime in addition to serving as consultant and speaker for the Department of Justice of Quebec.

Awards, honours, distinctions, scholarships, medals

Honourable mention from the human rights commission for her “Joue-moi la paix” project and for her community involvement.

The “Joue-moi la paix” project also garnered her the “Énergie - Le lait” award from the Fédération des Caisses populaires for Quebec personality and performance.

Provincial healthy towns and villages award for the healthy school project in the municipality of Bellecombe.

The Prey

“Initially, I decided to write my life story in order to organize the information on the assaults that occurred before meeting with the investigator and filing a complaint against my assailant. Being unable to write about myself, I decided to use a symbolic narrative. The first part of the book was submitted in evidence by the Crown at trial.

“After filing the complaint, I was prey to different emotions. Because I wanted to know if what I was experiencing was normal, I consulted the literature on the accounts of people who went through the same thing but didn’t find anything. These people talked about their experience, but not about their emotions and inner struggles. This literature describes what happened and the symptoms that such an experience inevitably creates in victims. I therefore narrowed my research to accounts of what victims who denounce their assailant go through. There were two books on this: the Hilton sisters’ and Nathalie Simard’s. Neither of them deals with the inner struggles, the difficulties encountered in the justice system, the emotions experienced, the feelings of insecurity and rejection. Dissatisfied, I decided to write about what I was experiencing as I was experiencing it. Consequently, I consider this book to be unique and it may be of help to the many people who have experienced, will experience or know someone who is living with this issue. The legal aspect is entirely unique. Every person who faces the system will experience the same thing as me, no matter the cause.”