Official Hansard
Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague from South Shore—St. Margarets. I am grateful to rise today on behalf of my constituents in the riding of Peterborough to speak to Bill C-16, the protecting victims act, and to contextualize the legislation within Canada’s broader effort to confront and prevent gender-based violence. Gender-based violence is a persistent and measurable reality affecting women, girls and gender-diverse people across this country. In 2024, 187 women and gender-diverse people were killed violently in Canada. That represents one woman every two days. Women are far more likely than men to experience severe forms of intimate partner violence, sexual violence and criminal harassment. More than one-quarter of all victims of violent crime in 2024 were victimized by an intimate partner. These are not isolated incidents, and our justice system has struggled to effectively address these crimes, given the complex realities of gender-based violence and the patterns of behaviour that often define abuse. The rate of intimate partner violence, one of the most prevalent forms of gender-based violence experienced by women and girls, is more than three and a half times higher compared to men and boys. Indigenous women, women with disabilities and young women face even higher risks. The Government of Canada has recognized that addressing gender-based violence requires a comprehensive and coordinated response. In 2017, the federal government released a federal gender-based violence strategy and has since invested over $800 million a year to coordinate federal actions under three pillars: preventing gender-based violence, supporting survivors and their families and promoting a responsive justice system. Since 2022, the federal government has invested in a national action plan to end gender-based violence, a 10-year framework aiming to end gender-based violence in Canada by supporting victims and survivors of crime and their families and improving their experiences with the criminal justice system. Significant efforts have been undertaken in this area. For example, the federal victims strategy works to give victims a more effective voice in the criminal justice system and increase their access to justice. Through the victims fund, which is part of the federal victims strategy, resources are made available to the provinces and territories for the implementation of the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights, including for the development of public legal education and information material, and the provision of training on the legislation for criminal justice professionals. Considerable efforts have also been made to strengthen the criminal justice system’s response to gender-based violence. Canada’s Criminal Code provides a broad-based response to all forms of violence, exploitation and abuse against all persons in Canada. Over the past years, legislative amendments in former Bill C-51 and Bill C-75 clarified and strengthened sexual assault laws and the criminal justice system’s response to intimate partner violence, and former Bill C-233 imposed stricter conditions for those charged with an offence involving intimate partner violence. In addition, former Bill S-205, which came into force last April, created a new peace bond designed specifically to provide better protections for victims of intimate partner violence and their children, including by allowing conditions such as electronic monitoring to be imposed on the defendant. All of these efforts reflect an understanding that prevention, protection, accountability and survivor support must work together. Today, Bill C-16 is a critical part of that continuum. It strengthens the criminal law in ways that respond directly to what survivors, advocates and frontline professionals have long told us about how gender-based violence actually occurs. Bill C-16 creates a new offence criminalizing a pattern of coercive or controlling conduct in intimate partner relationships. This addresses the reality that abuse takes place over time. It aligns the law with the lived reality of survivors and allows for earlier intervention, before coercive or controlling conduct turns into serious physical harm or death. It also supports more accurate police and prosecutorial responses by requiring a contextualized assessment of power and exploitation. Bill C-16 also addresses the most extreme manifestation of gender-based violence: the killing of women because they are women. By explicitly naming and recognizing femicide in the Criminal Code, the bill acknowledges that women and girls are disproportionately killed in specific contexts, including intimate partner violence, sexual violence, exploitation and hate-motivated attacks. Naming femicide matters. It makes visible a reality that has too often been obscured and affirms that these killings are not random tragedies but systemic failures that demand accountability. The bill would ensure that murders occurring in these circumstances are treated as first-degree murder. It would also require judges, when sentencing for manslaughter in the same context, to consider penalties equivalent to second-degree murder, including life imprisonment and parole ineligibility for 10 to 25 years. Importantly, Bill C-16 also recognizes that gender-based violence increasingly occurs through technology. The rise of sexually explicit deepfakes, sextortion and online harassment has created new avenues for abuse, particularly targeting women and girls. These forms of violence can destroy reputations, livelihoods and mental health, and they often silence victims through shame and fear. The bill would address these gaps by clarifying that non-consensual distribution of intimate images includes realistic deepfakes, as well as criminalizing threats to distribute such material and increasing penalties for those offences. These measures would complement existing Government of Canada initiatives aimed at addressing online harms and protecting digital safety, particularly for young people. The bill would also modernize the offence of criminal harassment. Data shows that stalking and harassment are common before acts of serious violence, yet the current requirement to prove a victim’s subjective fear has made early intervention difficult. Further, Bill C-16 proposes reforms to the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights to better protect victims and expand access to testimonial aids for adult victims of intimate partner violence, sexual offences and criminal harassment, offences that disproportionately affect women and girls. These measures would improve justice system outcomes for victims by recognizing that court systems can be retraumatizing and that supporting meaningful participation is essential to justice. The bill would also build on recent reforms to peace bonds and firearms control, reflecting clear evidence that access to firearms significantly increases the risk of lethal intimate partner violence. By strengthening preventive tools and closing enforcement gaps, Bill C-16 would support the Government of Canada’s broader commitment to keeping victims and communities safe. Bill C-16 is a necessary step in Canada’s ongoing commitment to confront gender-based violence with seriousness, clarity and resolve. It reflects the hard truth that violence is rarely a single act but often a pattern, that technology has created new tools for abuse, and that too many women and girls continue to lose their lives in preventable circumstances. By criminalizing coercive control, recognizing femicide, strengthening protections against online and intimate partner violence, and reducing barriers for victims and survivors of crime within the criminal justice system, the bill would align our laws with lived reality and evidence. For these reasons, I urge all members to support Bill C-16. Addressing gender-based violence is not optional, protecting victims is non-negotiable and justice must be delivered before more lives are lost.
