Montreal police and the Quebec prosecutor’s office are launching a pilot project to help authorities better address domestic violence-related strangulations, which they say are among the strongest indicators a victim may eventually be killed by their abuser.

Montreal police Cmdr. Anouk St-Onge said she got the idea for the project while attending a conference in the United States in 2021 on violence against women. There, she realized that what she thought she knew about strangulations — including that choking leaves visible marks or that victims can’t scream — was in fact based on “myths and prejudices,” and that other jurisdictions had better practices than Quebec.