Witnesses saw victim stabbed
The Journal has some grim details of the fatal stabbing of Romane Bonnier on Aylmer Street near McGill on Tuesday. “She had to die!” the attacker is reported to have said.
François Pelletier was scooped up by police, and witnesses were offered support. Pelletier was charged with murder in the first degree Wednesday.
The Journal also notes that this is the 17th conjugal killing of a woman in Quebec this year. Patrick Lagacé ponders a lost life, and how it’s impossible to know who among us is a potential killer.
Blork 09:55 on 2021-10-21 Permalink
Interesting side note: according to reports I’ve heard he was her former roommate, not a romantic partner. But because they lived under the same roof, it’s considered “conjugal.”
Kate 10:22 on 2021-10-21 Permalink
Blork, you know how relationships can get into gray areas nobody really understands, even the people in them. The man may have thought it was a relationship, and that he had some claim on her, while the woman didn’t.
Blork 12:05 on 2021-10-21 Permalink
True, but my point is that the spokesperson I heard on the radio last night specifically said that a romantic relationship is not required for such a crime to be considered “conjugal,” or at least to be labelled that way.
I’m not judging, I’m just pointing out an interesting fact about how crimes are labelled and perceived, at least here in Quebec. So even if, for example, two straight dude roomates who have never expressed the remotest sexual or romantic interest in each other got into a fight and one injured or killed the other, it would be considered “conjugal.” At least to Francophone authorities.
Blork 12:08 on 2021-10-21 Permalink
(Dictionary definitions of “conjugal” in English certainly focus on the “spousal” aspect. Is it possible the meaning is different in French? Or maybe it only applies in this specific case because, as you say, the “spouse” aspect was there on one side, if only in the person’s head.)
Kate 14:20 on 2021-10-21 Permalink
Blork, is that possible? If two guys share an apartment, platonically, and one kills the other, it’s classified as conjugal violence?!
The root of “conjugal” is Latin: from Middle French conjugal, from Latin coniugālis (“con- + iugum (‘yoke’)”). Of or relating to marriage, or the relationship of spouses; connubial. Wiktionary.
I don’t see how this can stretch to roommates. Maybe “domestic” would apply, since a killing could be done in a home setting where both people lived, even if not partners.
Blork 15:55 on 2021-10-21 Permalink
I’m re-thinking my whole thread here. I was basing it on the official on the news (I don’t know who she was; some police spokesperson) saying that a romantic involvement is not necessary in this case to consider it “conjugal.” From that I extrapolated to the points I made above. But now I’m thinking that what you said might be more in line, and the spokesperson might have been hinting at the fact that it was a one-sided “romance” (i.e., unrequited), or in a more general sense that the term could apply to a “room mates with benefits” type situation, or maybe “still living with an ex- but no longer involved” or whatnot.
BTW, I like that “yoke” is part of the root of the word. 🙂
Blork 16:01 on 2021-10-21 Permalink
BTW, the JdeM story has a lot more (gruesome) detail, and it flat-out says that they had at one point been in a romantic relationship. So I guess the takeaway is that “conjugal” applies even in the case of exes. And with that I’d like to end this part of the discussion because it is by far not the most important aspect of this terrible crime.