Highway crash underscored need for women's shelter: ex-director

As Winnipeg's Osborne House marks it 35th anniversary this week, the former executive director of the women's shelter is recalling one of the most dramatic moments in her career — a moment that nearly ended her life.

Marlene Bertrand was on a Manitoba highway, a passenger in a car driven by her husband. It was 17 years ago but feels like yesterday, she said.

As they drove, they could see headlights coming straight at them, in their lane. As her husband tried swerving lanes, the oncoming car mirrored the moves, intent on making contact.

The collision was spectacular but Bertrand, who took the worst of the impact, survived.

"There was a lot of personal injury, two broken jaws, 15 missing teeth and my tongue cut," she said this week with a grimace.

The crash left her battered and blinded for months afterwards. Half of her face had been torn away and she required numerous surgeries.

Bertrand's husband and teenage daughter in the front seat escaped without major injury. That's because her husband swerved at the last moment into the ditch, avoiding a head-on crash but exposing the back end of the car, where Bertrand was sitting.

The people in the other car also survived.

Collision made another impact

But it's not so much the injuries that affected Bertrand the most. It was the significance of the moment.

"It turned out that this was a woman fleeing an abusive relationship and had decided that the best thing for her and her children in the back of her car was to end their lives," Bertrand said.

'I think there were a lot of women who passed away, who were killed in domestic violence and there was a different label put on their death.' —Marlene Bertrand

Coincidentally, the woman chose a car carrying Bertrand, who ran Osborne House at the time, as the anonymous target.

"It's a bit ironic," Bertrand says. "On that stretch of highway of all the cars on the road, this was the car that would have most understood that if she would have stopped and said, 'I really need your help,' we would have had the skills and abilities to do some emergency things and to get her into a shelter."

The woman was charged at the time with attempted manslaughter. But Bertrand didn't want to testify against her, because she knew too well what pain the woman was in.

"Who is this woman and where did she come from and what does she need? It's about providing help. It's of no use to me that they wanted to jail this woman; it's of no help to her or her family," Bertrand said.

Osborne House helps 3,000 a year

Instead, the case only strengthened her commitment to help families fleeing domestic violence. And Osborne House, hidden in the heart of Winnipeg, provides that help. "I liken shelters to that of ER wards in a hospital. Every community should have one," Bertrand said. "The ER ward saves lives, a women's shelter saves lives.

"Before women's shelters opened up, I think a lot of women died by 'falling down the stairs,'" she said, gesturing her fingers in quotation marks. "I think there were a lot of women who passed away, who were killed in domestic violence and there was a different label put on their death."

To date, Osborne House helps an average of 3,000 women and children each year, either over the phone or in-person. They provide shelter, counselling and even schooling for families in crisis.

Bertrand only has to look at the scars on her face to remember the desperation that comes with domestic violence. And she knows there's more work that needs to be done.