Six months after a violent concussion, federal MP for Outremont Rachel Bendayan returned earlier this week to Parliament in Ottawa, where she was welcomed with open arms by her colleagues… as well as by her opponents.
In interview with The newspapershe recounts her accident, the long road to recovery, the discovery of her own vulnerability and her retreat from political partisanship.
Eleven steps
It was the evening of January 21. Weakened by pneumonia which had persisted since December, on antibiotics, she lost her balance while trying to go down the stairs of the house and hit her right temple on the wrought iron banister after having tumbled down eleven steps.
“My husband found me on the ground with blood. It was quite traumatic for him and for me,” said Rachel Bendayan, in an interview in her Ottawa office.
At his family doctor’s office at 8 a.m. the next day, he was diagnosed with “intense” pneumonia, which had not been diagnosed before. “It’s very difficult to see a doctor when you say your symptom is that you are coughing very hard.”
At the same time, she regretfully learns that her significant concussion requires complete disconnection – “brain rest” – for at least ten days: no screen, no book, nothing.
She tries to listen to quiet music, piano. Nothing works. “Even someone’s voice, I couldn’t tolerate it for about ten days. It sounded different. It gave me a headache.”
Two or three weeks after the accident, she met a neurologist at the general hospital, then a month later, finally took a magnetic resonance test which confirmed. “Everything seemed very long, especially when you’re not spinning,” she says.
The slow walk towards healing
The trained lawyer, accustomed to long working weeks, still wanted to work “within the limits” allowed by her condition.
His neurologist and his family doctor are helping him concoct a very gradual return to work plan starting in April, with as little screen time as possible.
“My Montreal team printed emails from constituents, then they left them in my mailbox. Then after that, I wrote by hand. Afterwards, I put it back in my mailbox. There was a whole system.”
After a certain period, the MP goes on foot to the constituency office one day a week, then two days, and so on until May 31, where she takes part in a first well-chosen public event: the announcement of federal investment for brain research at the Douglas Institute in Montreal.
A return that feels good
“Obviously, I think I didn’t realize that the layoff period would be that long. […] So, being in nothingness for a little while was difficult for me,” she says.
The plan, which she followed to the letter, bore fruit. The reunion with his Ottawa colleagues took place last Thursday, June 13, a day marked by abundant signs of affection.
Rachel Bendayan is happy to return. It has largely recovered, but is not yet fully recovered.
“Entering the West Block [où se situe la Chambre des communes]I must admit that I had the impression that there was a lot of noise!”, she says, laughing.
Beyond partisanship
These six months away from the political bubble gave him perspective on his daily work and the ultra-partisan atmosphere of Ottawa.
But the welcome given to her by her roommates is a balm for the one who received “very, very sincere messages from the Conservatives, from my colleagues from the Bloc, above all, but also from the NDP.”
“The guy who was yelling at me during question period a few months ago, he just wrote me a really nice text. It’s funny. It has an effect on me,” she says.
After these six months away from the arena, Rachel Bendayan is now ready for action: this Monday, she will answer her colleagues during question period, as she has liked to do for years.
Who is Rachel Bendayan?
44-year-old trained lawyer
Member of Parliament for Outremont since 2019 and current parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Finance
Of Jewish faith, his electoral signs were vandalized with swastikas in 2021
