Official Hansard
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to show strong support for Bill C-16, the protecting victims act. This legislation represents one of the most significant updates to Canada's criminal justice system in generations. It reflects a clear understanding that our laws must evolve to meet the realities that Canadians are facing today, realities that include rising intimate partner violence cases, online exploitation, coercive control and gender-based violence and growing concerns about public confidence in the justice system. At its heart, Bill C-16 is about protection. It is about protecting women, children and survivors and ensuring that victims are treated with dignity, compassion and fairness throughout the justice process. Across Canada and certainly in my province of Nova Scotia, we are witnessing a growing crisis of gender-based and intimate partner violence. Women continue to be harmed, controlled, terrorized and, too often, killed by intimate partners. In 2024, 187 women were violently killed in Canada. That is nearly one woman every two days. These are not isolated incidents. These tragedies occur in large cities, urban neighbourhoods and rural communities, like my riding of South Shore—St. Margarets. We know these realities all too well. While our communities are strong, compassionate and deeply connected, rural communities like mine also face unique barriers when it comes to escaping violence and accessing support. Survivors may live far away from shelters or counselling services. Transportation can be limited. Accessing legal support might require hours of travel. In smaller communities, anonymity can be difficult, and many victims fear not being believed or fear retaliation if they come forward. I have had conversations with frontline organizations in my riding, advocates, survivors and service providers throughout South Shore—St. Margarets. We have made one thing abundantly clear: Our systems must do more to protect victims before violence escalates. This is exactly what Bill C-16 seeks to do. One of the most important aspects of this legislation is the recognition of coercive and controlling behaviour. For years, survivors and advocates have been telling us that abuse is not always physical. It can be emotional. Abuse can be psychological. Abuse can be financial and it can be technical. It can involve intimidation, surveillance, isolation, threats, humiliation, manipulation and fear. We know that coercive control is one of the strongest predictors of lethal violence. Bill C-16 would create a new Criminal Code offence prohibiting patterns of coercive and controlling conduct towards intimate partners. This would allow intervention before violence becomes deadly. “Before” is the key piece that matters, because too often the justice system will react after someone has already been seriously harmed. Organizations throughout South Shore—St. Margarets understand these realities intimately. Be the Peace Institute in my riding has done extraordinarily exceptional work in helping young people and communities build healthier relationships and prevent cycles of violence before they begin. Second Story Women's Centre, where I was a director before becoming a parliamentarian, continues to provide advocacy, education and support for women navigating violence, inequalities and trauma. The Thriving Twogether Society has become an important community voice in Shelburne, Yarmouth, Digby and Queen's County, focused on well-being, trauma-informed care and strengthening supports for survivors and their families. Harbour House, a women's shelter in my riding, continues to provide essential shelter and outreach services for women and children fleeing violence in our communities. These organizations have long understood what this legislation now recognizes in law: Violence is only physical, and intervention must happen earlier. Bill C-16 would also modernize Canada's laws to address the very real challenges posed by technology-enabled abuse. Remember, I said “technical” earlier. Predators are increasingly using online platforms to exploit women and children. We talk about deepfakes. Before becoming a parliamentarian, I was a teacher, educator and principal, and members can think about some of the cases I had to deal with and talk to parents and survivors about. Deepfake technology is being weaponized to create non-consensual sexual images. For a young girl in the classroom or a young child, members can imagine the trauma for them, their families and these small-knit communities. Children are being targeted through sextortion, online luring and exploitation. Police reported that child sexual exploitation offences are now dramatically higher than they were just over a decade ago. Parents across Canada are deeply concerned, and rightly so. In response, Bill C-16 would strengthen protections against child exploitation, expand offences related to online luring and sextortion, criminalize sexual deepfakes and reinforce some of these mandatory penalties for serious child sexual offences. Our laws must keep pace with technological predators. Another critical pillar within this legislation is strengthening victims' rights. Too many victims continue to be retraumatized by the justice system. They feel uninformed, ignored, excluded or treated as though they are simply witnesses to their own trauma rather than people deserving dignity and respect. Bill C-16 would strengthen the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights by affirming that victims' rights would be treated with respect, courtesy, compassion and fairness. It would that ensure that victims receive information proactively, it would strengthen access to testimonial aids and it would recognize victims' interests in a timely resolution of proceedings. These changes matter, because justice delayed is often justice denied, especially for survivors of sexual violence and intimate partner violence. Many Canadians have watched serious criminal cases collapse due to court delays. How can people get help and move on when these delays in court make them relive their trauma or when perpetrators change lawyers time and time again, restarting proceedings and restarting that trauma? Victims are forced to relive trauma for years sometimes, only to see these proceedings stayed before accountability is ever reached. That undermines confidence in our justice system. Bill C-16 would take practical steps to address these delays while fully respecting charter rights and judicial independence. The proposed legislation would require courts to consider alternatives before imposing stays of proceedings. It would streamline procedures in sexual offence trials. It would also improve efficiency in many of our complex cases. It would help ensure that serious offences are heard on their merits rather than collapsing because of these procedural delays. This is about balancing fairness with accountability, which is something our government stands for. I am wondering why, at report stage, Conservatives are voting down these amendments and this bill. The justice committee heard from dozens of witnesses and reviewed more than 100 amendments. We heard from survivors, advocates—
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